TRANSCRIPT: Leader Schumer Joins “Morning Joe” To Discuss The Urgent Need To Extend ACA Subsidies And Avoid The Looming Health Care Crisis
Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today joined MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” to answer questions about the health care crisis that could hit Americans on January 1st if Senate Republicans refuse to vote with Democrats today to extend ACA subsidies. Leader Schumer also discussed the broader affordability crisis facing American families, and the urgent need for transparency and accountability from the Trump administration regarding military operations in the Caribbean. Below is a transcript of the full interview:
Joe Scarborough: Let’s bring in Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. And I think it's very interesting, Senator, that the Republicans who are out front on this in both the Senate and the House are those Republicans who have tough fights in the ballot box next year.
Leader Schumer: That's exactly right, Joe. Look, there's a crisis, a huge crisis that will hit us January 1st. Millions and millions will just lose their health care coverage altogether. Tens of millions more will have much worse coverage and have to switch their plans, switch doctors, pay higher deductibles, higher copayments, not even be able to get the cures and the drugs they need. So, the Republicans are feeling the heat because they've been on the wrong side of this issue for a very, very long time. Our bill is simple. It is a simple three-year extension to extend the credits and avoid the crisis on January 1st. Today is D-Day for Republican senators, Decision Day. Will they side with the American people and avert the crisis? Or will they continue their intransigence against moving forward on the ACA tax credits?
Scarborough: Yeah, let's circle back here, Senator, because you caught a lot of grief because you weren't able to stop a handful of Democrats that decided to reopen the government. But you said at the time, politically, we have won this battle. I didn't want the government to reopen, but we have won this battle politically, and a lot of people mocked you. But you look at what's happened. Look at the fact that, again, Democrats win big in Virginia, win big in New Jersey, win big in California, then the government reopened. Then you start looking at the numbers. Republicans doing worse in generic ballot tests than any time since 2018. The first Democratic mayor elected in Miami in a generation. I can go on and on, but there is no doubt the government shutdown focused Americans on health care, and every time that happens, Democrats win, Republicans lose. What do you have to say about that?
Schumer: Well, I say, Joe, no one likes a shutdown. It hurts people so much. And the shutdown was actually caused by Trump and the Republicans refusing to negotiate with us. But you're exactly right. People now see who's on their side, and what they're seeing is a crisis, and they're seeing Republicans standing in the way. They don't understand. Why don't my Republican senators, why don't my Republican House members vote to extend the credit so I won't lose my health care? So, my daughter will not be, her cancer cure will not be suspended. So yes, the people across America are saying very loudly with their feet, with their votes, with their voices, with their protests, extend these credits, don't plunge us into a health care crisis, which will occur January 1st unless the Republicans act. Our bill today is the last train out of the station for Republicans.
Willie Geist: Leader Schumer, good morning. Health care and the skyrocketing prices that could come next year if something isn't done is one piece of the larger story about affordability in this country. You can add in grocery prices and rents, housing, go all the way down the line. I'm curious, there was an attempt this week by the White House, by President Trump, to finally come around to acknowledge that there is an affordability crisis, that it's not a partisan question, that his own voters are struggling to make ends meet, and yet he went up on a stage in the Poconos and called the affordability issue a hoax that you all, the Democrats, have created to hurt him in some way. What's your response to that?
Schumer: Yeah, yeah, well, his first step on this, first stop on his tour was a train wreck because he basically called affordability a hoax. Every American family who struggles every two weeks with paying the bills, not only for health care, but for electricity, for groceries, for fixing the car that may have broken down, knows that there's a real crisis. Donald Trump and his friends are in this billionaire bubble. They don't have to go to the grocery store and pay for groceries. They don't have to pay the electric bill every month, and when he calls it a hoax, he loses all credibility, even with many of his own supporters.
Listen to this one: 55% of Trump's supporters want us to extend the ACA tax credits, and large numbers of Republicans say Trump is not doing enough to deal with the number one crisis affecting their lives, and that is affordability. Simply put, what is affordability? You don't have enough money to pay the bills of the things you desperately need. People are crying out for help. Trump is giving them no help. We Democrats are not only going to focus on health care, which is the tip of the spear right now in the cost crisis, the affordability crisis, but on electric bills, on grocery prices, on housing. These are issues that you're gonna hear lots of stuff from Democrats on how to actually solve this in addition to showing that Trump is in his own bubble and doesn't even get it.
Jonathan Lemire: Leader Schumer, good morning. I want to switch topics now to Venezuela and the strikes that have been ordered by the President and the Secretary of Defense. You were part of a classified briefing a couple of days ago that Secretary Hegseth delivered. You deemed it afterwards unsatisfying. Tell us a little bit more about what you wanted to hear but didn't, and has there been any movement on seeing that second video, the video of the second strike on September 2nd? Are your Republican colleagues gonna join you in pressing for it?
Schumer: Yeah, well, this is, I looked Hegseth directly in the eye and I said, not only the Senate, all the senators, but the American people deserve to see all the videos of what happened on September 2nd. I said, they deserve it. You've already – he released the part of the video that made him look good, but not the part that everyone wants to see. And he said, I need more time to study it. Give me a effing break. I didn't say that in the room, but that's what I'm saying to you and the American people. Give me an effing break. You need more time to study it. Bull, what are you hiding? What are you afraid of? Everyone thinks it's a coverup. And in addition, in that meeting where Rubio and Hegseth were there, I confronted them about what's going on in the Caribbean and Venezuela. I said, what's your plan? Trump says one thing one day, one thing another day. What is your plan? How far are you gonna go? And I said to them, the American people don't want another endless war. And we go into endless wars when presidents bumble along and don't know what they're doing. And that's what we're afraid is happening on that issue as well.
Scarborough: You know, Senator, what's so fascinating is that we're actually, we're looking at the potential war crime. And it's certainly from Democrats and some Republicans who are in there who talked about it afterwards. Certainly sounds like it would meet the most basic definition of war crimes. We'll see where Roger Wicker and Jack Reed are, see if they'll be standing shoulder to shoulder on that. But let's just back up a second here and look at the fact that you look at people like Andy McCarthy from Fox News and the National Review. Andy McCarthy said, okay, well, maybe this is a war crime, but if it's a war crime, that's the best case scenario for the people who did this because this entire operation is illegal. And if it's not a war crime, it may well be a murder. And not only is he saying that, you have Jack Goldsmith, a very conservative legal scholar, brilliant guy, worked for the Bush administration, saying the same thing. I'm wondering, are we going to have Republicans and Democrats standing shoulder to shoulder saying what they know? Which is, this entire operation is phony. It's not a war, it is a police, it's what our Coast Guard and police should be doing.
Schumer: And that's why this administration has an obligation, given how serious this is and all the people you quoted, to let the American people know what their plan is if they have any plan. No one even seems to see a coherency out of this, these horrible actions that could drag us into a war. You know, Tim Kaine and Senator Schiff, Senator Rand Paul and myself have a War Powers Act, which would require them to get congressional approval for any of this. We hope we get enough Republican senators to join us in passing that War Powers Act soon.
Mika Brzezinski: All right, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, thank you very much for coming on the show this morning. We really appreciate it, take care.
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