TRANSCRIPT: Leader Schumer Joins MS Now’s Morning Joe To Discuss Donald Trump’s State Of Delusion And The High Costs Plaguing The American People
Washington, D.C. – Today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) joined MS Now’s Morning Joe to discuss Trump’s State of Delusion in which he failed to address Americans’ concerns over the Republican affordability crisis and the need for commonsense legislation to rein in ICE. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks:
Mika Brzezinski: Minority Leader Schumer joins us now. Thank you for being on this morning. Can we hear more from you on your reaction to—
Leader Schumer: Thank you, Mika. Yeah, this was not America's State of the Union. It was Donald Trump's State of Delusion. He sat up there, you know, he has a huge ego. He loves saying, patting himself on the back. But the average American was sitting there saying, “I'm paying 6% more for electricity, I'm paying 10% more for meat, my health care bills are going up,” and Donald Trump isn't even talking about it. In fact, he had so little good to say about what he's doing that he had to spend so much of the time talking about really true American heroes that he had nothing to do with. He had nothing to do with the hockey team, for instance, winning, and they're great.
This speech was an utter failure for Donald Trump. It was a lot of hype. It was a lot of fluff. But when you're having a rough time paying the bills and you hear your president mocking you because of that, you get angry. This speech was a disaster for Donald Trump because he's in such a bubble he is not talking about what the American people care about. Contrast his speech to Spanberger’s—she was right on the money, focusing on what Americans care about. And that's, you know, anywhere you go, you can hear this. And that's why Donald Trump has the lowest popularity numbers he's had in a long time. He's in this bubble. He scratches his own ego, but he doesn't do anything to help the American people. The amount of the speech that was on the economy, that was on things that really make people's lives better, was minimal. And when he talked about it, it was a bunch of lies. For instance, he says manufacturing jobs have gone way up—they're down 100,000 since he took office. He says the job creation is up—job creation is the lowest it's been in a non-recessionary year since 2003. He's in a bubble. But it don't work. It don't work, Donald Trump, because the bottom line is the American people want a way out of their crisis of affordability, and you've provided no path, just a lot of ego and back patting.
Willie Geist: Leader Schumer, good morning. As he has at many rallies, Donald Trump mocked the idea of affordability, saying the Democrats discovered this word and invented it. His White House has tried to get him to go out on this affordability tour, and he mocks it at these events as an idea, suggesting that the economy is at an all-time high. We've done an exhaustive fact check this morning, refuting a lot of what he said last night. How focused are you as Democrats and will you be going into these midterm elections on that issue of affordability?
Schumer: It's the most important issue. Some call it affordability, some call it the high cost of living, but everyone knows what it is. Last night, even during the State of the Union, I'm sure there were tens of millions of American families sitting around the table saying, “How am I going to pay these damn bills? I can't afford it. Do I not pay my electricity bill? Do I not buy – my car’s broken down, do I not get my car fixed up?” That's what Americans care about. Spanberger hit the bullseye. She talked exactly about what people care about and asked the American people, “Are things better for you today than they were when he took office?” And the answer is a resounding no in every corner of America, whether it's red, purple or blue.
Scarborough: Senator, let me ask you about, we're so far from Congress working with the president. We're so far from compromise solutions. We're so far from legislating the way our founders meant legislation to move forward. I'm curious, could you recommend for the president one or two areas where if he decided that he didn't have to work without Congress, if he decided to follow the constitution of the Madisonian checks and balances, what would be an issue that you and the president could work on? One or two issues.
Schumer: Well, the bottom line is, first thing you ought to do on health care is extend the tax credits which are raising health care costs for the average American by $500 to $1,000 a month. He could do that himself. You know, we Democrats are campaigning on the issues of cost, high cost, chaos – like we see in the streets of our cities because of ICE – and corruption, which we've just talked about, him, his cabinet members, his cronies making billions of dollars. Donald Trump has supposedly told people he wants to be the richest man in America, and he's taking taxpayer dollars and government processes to do that, and that's corruption of the highest order. So he could join us on any of these. On ICE, very simple—do what every police department is doing right now. No masks. Warrants before you bust into somebody's house – and he's doing that to American citizens. The two people who died were American citizens who were shot on the streets in Minneapolis. He could do those in a minute. He doesn’t. He’s in his own bubble. He just doesn't get it—and that's the mark of a declining president who loses elections. And loses. He's going to lose in 2026 because of it.
Scarborough: That's evident even for the Republicans you work with. They talk about the bubble that he's living in. I'm curious what would an immigration deal could look like? And I'm sorry to keep hammering on this, but at some point the president is going to have to figure out he can't do these things by himself. You know, whether it's the courts that are cutting him off from doing things that violate the constitution or basic laws, at some point, you know, he has to come and if he wants to get anything done and figure out how to pass legislation—what would an immigration deal look like between Republicans and Democrats in the Senate?
Schumer: Well, we had a good model in 2013—as you may remember, bipartisan. John McCain and I headed the Gang of Eight. We had four Democrats, four Republicans, including Marco Rubio, who's now gone to the other side on this. But we could come up with a bill like that. It toughens up the border. It gives a path to citizenship, a long, tough path to citizenship for 11 million people who are here. It allows high-tech people who are needed in our industries to come in. It was a bill that got 70 votes in the Senate, or 68 or 69. It got Democrats and Republicans. That's the way to go, and the business community wants it. You talk to businesses, they're short of workers right now, and that's hurting the economy, too.
Johnathan Lemire: So, Leader Schumer, a few hours before the State of the Union, you were part of a Gang of Eight briefing on Iran. Secretary of State Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe presented what the administration views the situation in Tehran. I know you can't get into details of what they talked about, but afterwards, you said the administration needs to make its case to the American people. But President Trump last night decidedly did not. He only mentioned Iran for about two or three minutes. It was right near the end of the speech. He vowed that they shouldn't have nuclear weapons, but otherwise said very little. What are your thoughts, concerns right now about the situation with a massive American armada, the biggest since the second Gulf War, currently near Iran?
Schumer: Yeah, look, the bottom line is I can't say very much about it. It was a classified briefing, but it was very serious what they talked about, and they ought to lay out their plan and goals to the American people, plain and simple. And he didn't even talk about it. It was so typical of the speech. Any of the serious things facing the American people, he didn't talk about. It was all hype. It was all fluff. And it doesn't work. It doesn't work. Maybe if the economy is doing great, maybe if all these other things are happening and the American people are happy that they can afford to pay their bills, it might have been just a nothing burger. But the fact that there is such trouble in so many places and he doesn't even talk about them is just appalling but not just appalling to Democrats in the House and Senate, it's appalling to the American people and the people are saying it.
Scarborough: All right, Senator Chuck Schumer, thank you so much. Let's hope we can get you back. And I think most Americans, Republicans, Democrats would love to get you back and get other, get Republicans back and start talking about an immigration deal, start talking about a health care deal, start talking about the things we've been discussing this morning. Thank you so much.
Schumer: Joe, you heard Donald Trump last night. He doesn't sound like he wants to talk to Democrats except scream at them with a lot of stupid words. He doesn't seem to want to do that. And American people want it, and we're happy to do it. We want to do it.
Scarborough: I think the American people do want you to talk and I think it can happen so I wish you the best of luck on that. And let me just say at the beginning of spring training, I wish you absolutely the worst luck this season with the New York Yankees. Thank you so much for being here.
Schumer: Well, let me tell you we have not had a great New York year but I will say Yankees are going to come back and do much better than last year, I hope, God willing.
###