At a town hall event on Sunday, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) spoke about why he turned in his Tesla.
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00:00Thank you, Robert. Hello, Tucson.
00:11Robert's right. I did trade in that Tesla.
00:15There are some things I actually liked about that car.
00:21It was fast like a rocket ship.
00:24But after Elon called me a traitor, I couldn't drive that thing anymore.
00:30But let me also say, I also had to trade in my rocket ship for this job.
00:39And I've got to say, I really love this job. I love representing all of you.
00:44It's great to be here with so many Tucsonans.
00:49Especially this Tucsonan, Dabby Gibbons.
00:55This is Dabby's district.
00:57Dabby was born in the hospital not half a mile from here.
01:03But it's great all of you guys are here.
01:05And to have the mayor here with us.
01:08To have Congressman Stanton.
01:10Our great district attorney, Laura Conover.
01:14Our new Democratic Party chair, Robert Branskin.
01:16And then my great friend and colleague, Cory Booker, who came a long way to be here with all of you.
01:28It's great to welcome him back to Tucson.
01:31And I'm eager to hear from everybody in this audience today about what is really on your mind.
01:36And I know there's a lot.
01:37And I also know this has been a very hard, how many days are we into this administration?
01:43It's like 80 or 90.
01:45It's not even 100.
01:48It's like 90 days of Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
01:53And it's one thing after the next.
01:55Now, we just got back from two weeks in Washington while our Republican colleagues worked on their budget resolution.
02:08And a lot of you, how many people in here are represented by one sister of mine?
02:13About half.
02:15Well, let me tell you a little bit about their House budget proposal.
02:18This proposal would take health care coverage and food assistance away from millions of working parents, kids, seniors, people with disabilities.
02:30And it would target two of our most critical federally funded programs, Medicaid and SNAP.
02:40Now, SNAP is food assistance.
02:43When people lose SNAP, kids do not eat.
02:46These, 105,000 Medicaid beneficiaries are at risk of losing their health insurance in Arizona 6 alone.
02:58This district, 100,000 people could lose their health care coverage.
03:02And for what?
03:04It is so Donald Trump could give a big, giant tax cut to the wealthiest Americans.
03:10It is not there.
03:11Now, let me tell you who's going to lose health care coverage.
03:13That's 36% of all children here in this district.
03:18It's 46% of moms who just gave birth and their newborn babies.
03:2646%.
03:27It's 40% of working age adults with disabilities.
03:3253% of people living in nursing homes.
03:3617% of Medicare beneficiaries.
03:39How many people are here on Medicare?
03:42And 17% of adults between the age of 19 and 64 would lose their health care coverage in this district if Juan Sistamani and the president passed this legislation.
03:55So, obviously, Senator Booker, Congressman Stanton, and I are really, really concerned about this.
04:05This would be a giant slap in the face to the state of Arizona.
04:10And it hurts real people.
04:12There was a mom in Phoenix last week whose kids are on Medicaid.
04:18She adopted kids out of foster care.
04:22And when you adopt kids out of foster care, they are on Medicaid for their health insurance.
04:27And she told myself and Senator Ruben Gallego that it is like the Republicans are burning down my house and the kids are still inside.
04:38That's how she felt.
04:40So, what can we do about it?
04:42Well, we can fight.
04:44We can fight back.
04:45And we can all collectively understand that elections matter.
04:48So, I want to first thank you for being here.
04:51It is really important that you meet directly with us and tell all of us how you feel about these things.
04:59Now, just know that Congressman Stanton and Senator Booker and I have been fighting every bit of the way through this.
05:08It has not been easy.
05:10And, by the way, Donald Trump's bad plans extend beyond just Medicaid and SNAP and possibly Social Security.
05:21It extends to our position in the world as a leader of the free world, supporting our allies like Ukraine against our adversaries like Russia.
05:31I met with Zelensky just before that awful meeting in the Oval Office where Donald Trump seemingly switched sides on us, switched sides in a conflict.
05:44I got to tell you, if we do not stand with Ukraine and our other European allies, we will be less safe.
05:51I was on the phone with Cindy McCain just yesterday.
06:01So, Cindy McCain, John McCain's wife.
06:04Cindy heads the World Food Program.
06:06She was initially the ambassador.
06:09Now, she is the head of the World Food Program.
06:12And this administration cut their budget significantly.
06:17And I said to Cindy just the other day, I said, Cindy, are there going to be kids starving to death because of these cuts?
06:24She said, Mark, it is going to be thousands of children will starve to death, if not tens of thousands of children in places like Sudan and Yemen and Afghanistan are going to starve to death.
06:41Because this administration is trying to save some money, a little bit of money, so their tax cut for billionaires doesn't look as bad.
06:50That's what this is all about.
06:52Now, Gabby extended, she fought really, really hard during the Obama administration for the Affordable Care Act.
07:01And the Affordable Care Act brought down the cost of health care for so many folks living in our state significantly so they finally could afford health care.
07:19Remember what happened in the first Trump administration?
07:22Remember what Donald Trump tried to do?
07:24He tried to end the Affordable Care Act.
07:26And you know who stopped that from happening?
07:28The guy whose Senate seat I now sit in, John McCain's Senate seat.
07:39And the reason I bring that up, the reason I bring that up is Republicans can stand up to Donald Trump.
07:46They can.
07:48And they have to.
07:50And that's why I need all of you to call on our congressmen here in this district.
07:55Now, Gabby and I were represented, we live on the other side of the line, and we're in Raul Grijalva's district, who was such a great public servant.
08:09And he will be missed.
08:15But we can stop this.
08:16And we'll see you next time.