During a town hall on Thursday, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) discussed recent cuts at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Next, I'm sorry, I'm a little emotional after you left.
00:02I was being very spontaneous and now I'm not.
00:06Sorry, I was tearing up a little bit.
00:08You and other Democrats have talked
00:10about how you're filing huge lawsuits
00:12against the administration,
00:14but we've seen some big law courts before
00:16and we have to assume that these lawsuits
00:18will take a long time.
00:19What happens if the courts rule against him
00:21and the Trump administration still refuses to comply
00:24and nothing changes?
00:25Please welcome Sarah Shull.
00:32Yeah, I mean, that's a good question, a real worry.
00:37You know, we all have the anxiety.
00:40Obviously, you know, these checks and balances
00:43were created with the idea in mind
00:49that we would have an executive that cared
00:54about the rule of law,
00:56that cared about the rule of office,
00:58that cared about the Constitution.
01:01I don't think our founding fathers could have imagined
01:05someone as lawless and as callous
01:07could ever become the President of the United States
01:09like Trump.
01:11I'm sure they're rolling over in their graves at the moment.
01:15My understanding is that when the rulings are ignored,
01:21when the rulings are ignored,
01:23obviously the judges have the ability to say,
01:26you know, why aren't you following through?
01:30It is the process.
01:31You know, our justice system is slow moving.
01:36Then they have tools in their toolbox, right?
01:39They can section them, they can issue a fine
01:43for the number of days that they're not abiding by that,
01:46and then they can eventually hold them in contempt
01:49and jail them and send the marshals to pick up
01:53the folks who are supposed to carry out the orders.
01:56And the judges, the particular judge whose order
02:02is not being followed can do that.
02:06But that is, again, a process.
02:08The biggest worry is that as things move through the courts,
02:12we, you know, we're 90 days away from the Supreme Court
02:17possibly hearing some of these cases.
02:19So what those rulings might actually look like,
02:22and how do we move forward after that?
02:26Again, because this is so unprecedented,
02:30it is a scary and confusing time for a lot of people.
02:35We've created litigation and response task force
02:40for the Democratic caucuses,
02:42about 40 of us that are members of that.
02:44And every day we're working through some of these scenarios
02:47to see what the possibilities are.
02:51There we go.
02:58Well, we'll take a couple more.
02:59Okay.
03:00Okay.
03:01Okay.
03:01I know, I want to stay too,
03:03but I think we are out of the building.
03:05I said please, I'm a public school teacher.
03:08Oh, no, no, no, you can take my question.
03:10Okay, so I'm a public school educator in St. Paul.
03:13When I told my kids, I showed them a picture of you on my computer this morning, that I was coming here tonight, they asked me, please bring me with them, because they thought you looked super cool.
03:30They're 8, 9, and 10 year olds. So, the children, since the election, have a lot of feelings. They're hearing a lot. They know a lot.
03:45I've been asked, is it true that the president doesn't like brown people? Is it true that he's taking away staff? My mom says he hates women. What would you say to my 7, 8, and 10 year olds to help them feel better with who they are and where they're going in life?
04:08I would say yes, yes, yes, but I love you. I'm going to be here for you. And you are lucky to be in Minneapolis, in Minnesota, where people are incredible neighbors. They are loving. We have a state where you are going to be protected and your family is going to be protected.
04:26I want to say that I'm very proud of Minnesota.
04:39Yeah, I will say we are 35 minutes over the time we're supposed to be in this room, so I want to stay and maybe get through the line that exists, if possible, so if you can get to your question as fast as you can, so we don't have people marshalling us out of the building, that would be great.
04:58Your cameras are up too, they said.
05:00Huh?
05:01Your cameras are no longer showing on the media. I don't know if that's a problem or...
05:05Oh, I don't care about that. I was actually replying to it. I don't know what you guys said or something, but go ahead.
05:13Okay, I'll be brief. I'm a very proud Minnesotan. I'm currently living in Europe, just as an aside. My husband should be standing next to me tonight. He asked me to come to his event, but at the last minute backed out because he was afraid to come here and speak.
05:30He immigrated here legally. He has a green card, but wasn't brave after what happened. I guess I missed the part in the Constitution where the First Amendment right is only granted to white citizens like myself, and it should not be.
05:52Mass deportation of illegal immigrants and immigrants living here does not put America first. I want to thank you for speaking out for USA on the Hill. I work in Sub-Saharan Africa on infectious disease, and I want to hear it to everybody in this room.
06:09Infectious disease is no more bordered, and we need USA to continue to fight against this important infectious disease in Africa.
06:16Now to my question. I was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship last year in the Biden administration. I received an email two weeks ago saying that funding for Fulbright is now cut.
06:29I am shocked because it's a bipartisan program that's been funded by Congress. Cutting it does not put America first. It hurts the best and brightest of America and American institutions.
06:44I would like to know what I can count on you for in Congress to ensure that programs that have been funded by Congress, such as Fulbright in the USA, that have been now granted, that they cannot be cost, how is Congress going to ensure that the funding is released?
07:03What an interesting turn of events in America. We've become allergic to the best and the brightest, to research, to excellence. It's quite unfortunate.
07:21My staff, Tina, can you all raise your hands? Grab a card from them and they'll look into ways that we might be able to direct them.
07:34Also, I want to shout out my staff while we're here. We have Connor McNutt, who is my chief. He is my district director. Ali, who is the deputy district director over here.
07:57Nikki, who manages our constituent work. Rudwani, who is on our proms team.
08:09It's spooky, it's icky, and who else is in the room?
08:13Okay. Yeah, I think Adrienne and Talia and Fran might have registered you all. So, full house. Go ahead.
08:23Hi. I just want to say thank you for being the most responsive representative I've ever had.
08:32So, to answer my question, what are the Democrats doing to fight back against the reduction in force and the harassment of federal workers, especially the low-paid?
08:45And for them, they're going to start finding out at the same time as we are that their care is being stripped away.
08:51This will undoubtedly increase the rates of suicide and mental health crises among that community.
08:56Is there anything you can do to help them that the care they deserve in VA may not come through?
09:05Oh, two questions at a time.
09:08Well, thank you for the fact.
09:12I'll convert to the question of whether we like it or not.
09:16President Trump tapped into some kind of emotion and fears and garnered votes from individuals who had previously voted for President Biden, President Obama, etc.
09:27You've talked a bit about the strategy and how we need to come together.
09:30How do we engage those voters? Is it that, or are you asking the same questions?
09:38Yeah, I mean, I think to that, like I said, people are working on, you know, figuring out.
09:46To me, I think it's simple. We have to show up for people.
09:49We have to give them a reason to vote for us.
09:54I think assuming a certain demographic just will vote for us is not a strategy.
10:02I don't think yelling at people and telling them that because they are a certain demographic that they should vote for us is a strategy.
10:13I think what we are seeing some Democrats do is showing up in parts where people didn't expect them to show up.
10:21I think that is the way in which we re-acclimate ourselves to the folks that we want to vote for us and have traditionally voted for us.
10:38So, obviously, we've been raising the, you know, we are in the minority.
10:45So, you know, our inquiries are not being responded to.
10:50We've been sending letters to understand, you know, folks who are fired, but the litigation is working.
10:55And many of the agencies, whether it's the VA, whether it's the Department of the Interior, whether it's USAID, like we've seen the courts say these firings are unjust and you need to bring everyone back.
11:07And I think that has happened not just because of the litigation, but because so many of us put a spotlight on who is being fired and the work that they were doing.
11:17We know that 90% of VA employees are literally providing healthcare service.
11:24In a clinic in Ohio, one of the persons that they got rid of was the only person who was answering the suicide hotline.
11:33Right? Like that is, so that's the other thing that we're doing.
11:38My State of the Union guest was a veteran who also was a federal employee who was fired, rehired, and fired again.
11:46It just shows you the chaos in which the federal government is functioning at the moment.
11:51So those are some of the things that we're doing.
11:52And I know that the federal, the VA services that are going to go away once they cut the 83,000 jobs that I talked about earlier, and once they pass their budget reconciliation and gut resources for the VA.
12:09We know that folks who live here are going to rely on Minnesota.
12:13And with them also taking away our state and county and city municipal dollars, it's going to be really hard.
12:23And so I am saddened that the people who we've asked to serve are the ones who we are first abandoning.
12:32And it feels really unfortunate, but we continue to advocate for them.