During his record-breaking filibuster, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) discussed the Protect Veterans Jobs Act with Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL).
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NewsTranscript
00:00one nation under God. That's the challenge. And there's enough things that we agree on
00:03in America, and especially when we stop and talk about things like the child tax credit.
00:07Most Americans are for that.
00:11Oh, gosh, I've been waiting for you for crying out loud.
00:15You want to roll?
00:19Come on, Senator.
00:21Will you yield for a question?
00:22I yield for a question while retaining the floor.
00:25I don't know what kind of food you eat on that vegan diet of yours.
00:29But I need to figure out more of that vegan diet.
00:34One place where we can and do care that unites us as a nation is the role of our nation's
00:40veterans, the heroes who have sacrificed for us. Although with this president, I guess he
00:47doesn't hold veterans in the same esteem. As someone who has bled for this nation,
00:53I guess I join the ranks of the suckers and losers who have bled and died
00:58for this nation in the president's estimation. But I just wanted to start off by saying thank
01:03you again, Senator Booker, for all that you're doing as you hold the floor today,
01:07but also every other day to underline the pain and damage Donald Trump and Elon Musk
01:13are doing not just to our country, but to middle class Americans throughout our country.
01:18And tragically, that harm even extends to our nation's veterans who have sacrificed
01:23so much to protect this country and keep Americans safe, who should be shielded from
01:27this needless chaos and uncertainty. Senator Booker, I know you are well aware that this
01:32administration is firing more veterans than any other administration in modern history.
01:38It's been reported that this administration in these first few months in office has fired
01:42approximately 6,000 veterans from federal service across this country.
01:49This list of firing, especially at the VA, has resulted in operations for our veterans being
01:57canceled. We've seen reports of the caregivers hotline, a hotline that was set up to support
02:04the caregivers who provide medical caregiving to their loved ones who served and sacrificed
02:09and are now disabled. There are delays in that hotline being answered because Donald Trump
02:16fired all of these veterans. There are people that who support the crisis hotline were also
02:22fired. I know this because some of them are my constituents and asked for help. I had one
02:26individual who'd served in the military for over two decades, did such a good job on the crisis
02:32hotline as a frontline person answering the phone, trying to prevent their brothers and sisters
02:39from the idea of suicide. They did such a good job that they were promoted to be a trainer.
02:45They were promoted to be a supervisor, which then made them probationary, and they were fired.
02:52We were able to get some of these people their jobs back. Some of them are still out there
02:56without their jobs. This is what Donald Trump and Elon Musk has already done. This does not help
03:03our nation's veterans. This does not help our nation's heroes. If anything, it is a betrayal
03:08to them. It is a betrayal, a cruel betrayal to the men and women who bravely answered the call
03:14to serve our country in uniform, a call that this president dodged five different times when he had
03:20the opportunity to serve. Now, men and women in uniform came home from serving, and many of them
03:27chose to continue their service to our country as federal employees. How are Elon and Trump thanking
03:33these brave, selfless Americans? They're doing it by showing them the door and leaving them wondering
03:39how they'll be able to afford next week's groceries or next month's rent, forcing them to
03:44look for a new job. The senator from New Jersey and I are both working together to help our heroes get
03:49their jobs back, which is why I've introduced a Protect Veterans Jobs Act to reinstate all veterans
03:56who were wrongly fired from their federal jobs by Trump and Musk. It is a critical bill to help
04:01those who've already been fired, but according to recent reports, Trump and Musk are just getting
04:07started. From everything that we've seen, they are planning on firing another 80,000 VA employees,
04:16almost a third of whom are veterans themselves. So that's going to be another 25 veterans on a
04:24chopping block on top of the 6,000 who've already been fired. It is a complete betrayal from Trump
04:32and from Musk. Firing these VA employees will even harm veterans that Trump is not firing because
04:39it's going to force them to wait longer to see their health care providers. It's going to make
04:44them wait longer to have their disability claims adjudicated. It is going to make them wait longer
04:50to have someone pick up their calls at the veterans crisis line. It is going to make them wait even
04:55longer and their loved ones wait even longer to have their burial and funeral expense reimbursements
05:01request processed. And so much more. All while the VA's backlog of unprocessed claims continues
05:08growing. I have another question for you, but first for the senator from New Jersey. I was
05:13wondering if you could tell us if you have heard from your veterans who have been fired, if you
05:18have heard from your veterans who've seen their services delayed in New Jersey and around the country.
05:23Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. This is my veterans book. This is what I was reading from
05:30earlier and everything you're saying is right and it's such an insult. I read stories from our
05:36veterans. It's such an insult to the highest calling of our country to stand and serve as you did.
05:46As you did. Injured veterans. Disabled veterans. I read an article about
05:57thousands of disabled veterans that want to serve their country, love this nation so much,
06:02that they want to serve in humble jobs doing noble things. And how do we treat them?
06:09They say 83,000 people being laid off, a quarter of them are veterans from the VA itself,
06:16but this doesn't include VA, excuse me, veterans that do things for the park service and our
06:21national parks, veterans that do things for us in the defense department, veterans that do things
06:27for us across this country. I find in my state some of the greatest leaders I have met in my
06:32state are veterans who are still serving veterans. And then veteran entrepreneurs, you know the data,
06:41they're incredibly successful. They create to our economy. The VA is cutting not just
06:47veteran jobs, they're cutting contracts with veteran-owned businesses.
06:52I don't understand how you can say out of one side of your mouth, you honor and respect our
06:57veterans, which is not what our president has always said. Dear God, what he said about John
07:01McCain. I still remember John McCain is in a town hall with Barack Obama fighting fiercely to be the
07:14president of the United States and somebody gets up and says that Barack Obama, as if it's an
07:20insult, it's not, is a Muslim or something, and he grabs the bike back and corrects her. One of
07:26his voters, he corrects her on national TV, this is wrong. He's a guy who loves his wife,
07:32Christian, loves his family. I mean, that is character and honor.
07:37Can you ever see that from our president now? He, I, and this is how wrong I was, and I want to
07:43admit, I've made mistakes, I've been wrong. I remember where I was when he said in his campaign
07:49that he's no hero, that people who are captured are not heroes. I said to the people that were
07:57with me up, there goes his 15 minutes of fame. I thought that was the end of Trump. But somehow
08:02you could become president of the United States when you insult the veterans who are serving
08:05the United States when you insult the veterans who serve. I want to read you, and I know you
08:08have another question, but can I read you, we've been, I don't know, John Lewis and John McCain,
08:12the two Johans are coming up a lot in my, so far in my 20 hours, but I want to read you this.
08:16I want to read this when you were here because I read this, and it's just, it's,
08:26let me all tell you, this is John McCain writing, let me all tell you what I think about the Pledge
08:31of Allegiance, our flag and our country. I want to tell you a story about when I was a prisoner
08:37of war. I spent five years in the Hanoi Hilton. In the early years of our imprisonment, the North
08:43Vietnamese kept us in solitary confinement or two or three to a cell. In 1971, the North Vietnamese
08:53moved us from these conditions of isolation into large rooms with as many as 30 to 40 men to a
08:59room. This was, as you can imagine, a wonderful change and was a direct result of the efforts of
09:05millions of Americans led by people like Nancy and Ronald Reagan on behalf of a few hundred POWs,
09:1110,000 miles from home. One of the men moved into my cell was Mike Christian. Mike came from a small
09:18town near Selma, Alabama. He didn't wear a pair of shoes until he was 13 years old. At 17, he
09:26enlisted in the U.S. Navy. He later earned a commission. He became a naval flying officer
09:32and was shot down and captured in 1967. Mike had a keen and deep appreciation for the opportunities
09:39this country and our military provide for people who want to work and want to succeed.
09:46The uniforms we wore in prison consisted of a blue short-sleeved shirt, trousers that looked
09:51like pajama trousers, and rubber sandals that were made out of automobile tires.
09:58I recommend them highly. My pair lasted my entire stay. As a part of the change in treatment, the
10:06Vietnamese allowed some prisoners to receive packages from home, and some of these packages
10:11were handkerchiefs, scarves, and other items of clothing. Mike got himself a piece of white cloth
10:17and a piece of red cloth and fashioned himself a bamboo needle. Over a period of a couple months,
10:24he sewed the American flag on the inside of his shirt. Every afternoon before we had a bowl of
10:31soup, we would hang Mike's shirt on the wall of our cell and say the Pledge of Allegiance.
10:40I know that saying the Pledge of Allegiance may not seem the most important and meaningful part
10:44of our day now, our day in the Senate, but I can assure you that for those men in that stark prison
10:54cell, it was indeed the most important and meaningful event of our day. One day, the Vietnamese
11:04searched our cell and discovered Mike's shirt with the flag sewn inside and removed it.
11:09That evening, they returned, opened the door of the cell, called for Mike Christian to come out,
11:14closed the door of the cell, and for the benefit of us all, beat Mike Christian severely for the
11:21next couple of hours. Then they opened the door of the cell and threw him back inside.
11:30He was not in good shape. We tried to comfort and take care of him as well as we could. The cell in
11:37which we lived had a concrete slab in the middle of which we slept, four naked light bulbs in each
11:43corner of the room. After things quieted down, I went to lie down and go to sleep. As I did, I happened
11:50to look into the corner of the room. Sitting there beneath that dim light bulb with a piece of white
11:57cloth, a piece of red cloth, another shirt, and his bamboo needle was my friend, Mike Christian,
12:08sitting there with his eyes almost shut from his beating, making another American flag.
12:18He was not making the flag because it made Mike Christian feel better. He was making that flag
12:23because he knew how important it was for us to be able to pledge our allegiance to our flag
12:29and our country. Duty, honor, country. We must never forget those thousands of Americans who,
12:38with their courage, with their sacrifice, with their lives, made those words live for all of us.
12:46That is our veterans. That is you. That is you, my friend. And Trump is coming after them. DOJ is
12:55coming after them. They're firing them right now. And are we silent, America? Are we silent when the
13:01bravest amongst us, the most honorable amongst us, the most noble amongst us are losing their jobs?
13:07Did you speak up when they came for American veterans, when they fired them for no good reason?
13:13What did you do? What did you say? I say no.
13:24I yield for a question while retaining the floor.
13:28Thank you for what you've said. John McCain was a true hero. He said the same thing to me when I
13:39first met him. I do have a question for you, which will come later, but I thought I would tell you
13:47the story of how I met John McCain. I was recently wounded. Within weeks of being able to finally sit
13:54up for the first time, I was in physical therapy and Senator McCain came and visited us. And the
14:00nurses and occupational therapists and physical therapists came running in and said, Senator
14:04McCain, this is Captain Duckworth. She's a hero just like you and said to me, you're a hero like
14:10Senator McCain. You were both shot down. Senator McCain looked at me and said in that voice of his,
14:19didn't take no hero to fly into a missile. The good pilots don't get shot down. And I knew then
14:26and there that I really liked him because he was right. The real heroes were the buddies who carried
14:31me out of that field in Iraq. The real heroes are the sergeant in the rescue bird that carried me
14:39out and has to live with the post-traumatic stress. The real heroes are all the men and women who
14:46survived and came home and need the care that they have rightfully earned. The care that we're
14:54providing with them with the PACT Act, a bill that you supported, a bill that you spoke up for, even
15:00while members, our colleagues across the aisle, many of them said it was too expensive.
15:07And at a time when we should be expanding the PACT Act, when we should be recognizing more of
15:11the illnesses and injuries that came out of service around burn pits and toxic substances,
15:18you have a president who is cutting the VA, who wants to cut those jobs, who want to go after
15:25our veterans benefits, whom just like Elon Musk has said, sees veterans as a people with their
15:32hands out. We don't have our hands out. We're simply asking for what this country promised us.
15:40Where were you, Mr. President? Where were you, Elon, when this country asked for someone to serve?
15:48When this country asked, who amongst you will leave your family, leave your friends,
15:54leave your neighbors, and put on her colors and defend her?
16:01Not for your mom, not for your dad, not for your family members, but for strangers who will never
16:06know your name, who will never know your sacrifice. Who among you will do that?
16:11Thank God that from Lexington and Concord, from Iwo Jima, from Ea Drang Valley, from Kandahar,
16:23from Fallujah, there were Americans who stood up and said, I will. I will defend this great nation.
16:31I will wear her colors with pride. And all we have to do as a nation is live up to that promise.
16:41Live up to one tiny little percentage of that sacrifice that they made. Let them have the benefits
16:48that they've earned. And yet Donald Trump and Elon Musk are cutting those benefits. The biggest
16:54predictor, the biggest predictor of veterans homelessness is not post-traumatic stress
16:59disorder. It is not a health condition. The biggest predictor of veterans homelessness
17:05is lack of employment, not having a job. That begins the spiral downwards for veterans that
17:14ends up with them becoming homeless. And I will tell everyone in these chambers and in this nation,
17:20we are all dishonored when a veteran must lay their head down on the very same streets that
17:27he or she defended to sleep that night. We are all dishonored. The VA has done tremendous work,
17:34tremendous work to fight veterans homelessness. And that has been a bipartisan effort.
17:39And these cuts, these cuts that are costing veterans their jobs are going to start some of
17:45those veterans, unfortunately, on that path to homelessness. These cuts are going to mean
17:51those veterans homelessness programs that will prevent our veterans from becoming unhoused,
17:57those programs will not be able to take care of all the veterans of the demand.
18:02I'm already seeing it. I spent this past weekend in Missouri at the Cochran VA Medical Center,
18:10hearing about the challenges that they're facing. They need to expand. They don't need to shrink.
18:17They said there's another 25,000 veterans moving into the area. They actually have to expand their
18:22services. And yet Elon Musk, enabled by Donald Trump, is cutting veterans' jobs, veterans'
18:29benefits, because according to them, veterans aren't heroes. We are suckers and losers.
18:35Well, I beg to differ. I beg to differ. I am sure that my colleague from New Jersey knows that firing
18:4180,000 employees from the Veterans Affairs, Department of Veterans Affairs, wouldn't just
18:46cause longer delays for veterans. It will doom our VA's ability to process claims that the influx of
18:52claims under the PACT Act, a law that is helping ensure veterans who were exposed to toxins while
18:58serving, can get the care that they have earned, with more than 1 million claims already approved
19:03in a short time since it's become law. I can't think of a single good reason to hurt so many
19:07veterans. And I'll just ask the Senator from New Jersey, can you think of any reasons?
19:13I'm very moved by your comments. I want to say that from John McCormick to Jack Reed,
19:21the Senate has a good number of people who serve this nation who answered the call.
19:25They should all get our honor and respect. Senator Blumenthal served, and he has a son,
19:32Navy SEAL. We should have a reverence for those people, because a lot of them didn't make it back.
19:40A lot of people didn't make it back, and a lot of people who came home, came home
19:45with horrible wounds, visible and invisible. We should all be ashamed of veterans who are
19:51committing suicide. We should all be ashamed of veteran homelessness. We have the capacity.
19:56We are a great enough nation to help them. But the ones that didn't come back, they watch over us.
20:03They look down upon this nation. I want to read you one more thing, because I was raised by
20:10parents who could not think they could. They really worried, raising me in an affluent town
20:16in a beautiful home, that I would not recognize how extraordinarily privileged I was. My dad used
20:23to say to me, boy, don't walk around this house like you hit a triple. You were born on third
20:26base. My dad would say things to me like, boy, don't sit at this table and not realize that you
20:32drink deeply from wells of freedom and liberty that you did not dig. You eat from banquet tables
20:37of blessings prepared for you by your ancestors. You must metabolize those blessings,
20:44not so that you could pay your ancestors back, but that you could pay it forward.
20:48My dad, when I got degrees from Stanford, Oxford, and Yale, said, boy, you got more degrees in the
20:53month of July, but you ain't hot. Life ain't about the degrees you get. It's about the service you
20:59give. And so McCormick and Reed and Tammy, I'm here because of people that died for this country,
21:11that stormed beaches in Normandy in this country. They were at Iwo Jima for this country. They
21:17liberated Nazi concentration camps for this country. They are buried. I've seen their burials.
21:23In Thailand, fields full of American soldiers who never made it home. Every time I see one of those,
21:30I get overcome with emotion. I can't think about when I look at their ages, 19, 20, 21.
21:36And so let me read this, and I'm going to compose myself because you got me all emotional,
21:40Tammy. I thought you were my friend. This is a poem written by Billy Rose. You know it probably.
21:48It's called The Unknown Soldier. And just listen to the words and let them echo and see if we are
21:54living up to them, if our president lives up to them, the most powerful person in the world or
22:01lives up to them, the most powerful person in the world or the richest man in the world.
22:08Are they respecting? There's a graveyard near the White House where the Unknown Soldier lies,
22:15and the flowers there are splendid with the tears from a mother's eyes.
22:21I stood there not long ago with roses for the brave, and I suddenly heard the voice speak out.
22:30Of the grave, I am the Unknown Soldier, the spirit voice began, and I think I have the right
22:38to ask some questions man to man. Are my buddies taken care of? Was their victory so sweet?
22:46Is that big reward you offered selling pencils on the street? Did they really win the freedom
22:54they battled to achieve? Do you still respect that croix de guerre above that empty sleeve?
23:03Does a gold star in the window now mean anything at all? I wonder how my old girl feels
23:11when she hears the bugle call. And that baby who sang, hello Central, give me no man's land.
23:19Can they replace her daddy with a military band? I wonder if the profiteers have satisfied their
23:27greed. I wonder if a soldier's mother ever is in need. I wonder if the kings who planned it all
23:38are really satisfied. They played their game of checkers, and an 11 million died.
23:47I am the Unknown Soldier, and maybe I died in vain, but if I were alive and my country called,
23:59I'd do it all over again.
24:09Thank you, Senator. Every time I see you, I have such reverence and gratitude that I get to serve
24:15alongside of you. I didn't serve in the military alongside of you like those courageous soldiers,
24:20like those people who carry you at risk to themselves, people who saved your life,
24:25people who helped you in rehab, the people that empowered you to get back on your feet and run
24:30for one of the highest offices in the land, and then you serve here with distinction,
24:35because you don't forget who helped you get here.
24:38You take care of my buddies.
24:40Exactly. And my dad, who's in heaven with a lot of the other good folks from American history.
24:48I don't know what he'd think of his son, but I know he'd be proud of you.
24:52All right, let's talk about the economy.
25:00Ah, Christopher Coons.
25:04Will the senator yield for a second?