Transcript of Rep. Janelle Bynum Discusses Impact of Trump’s Disastrous Shutdown

A new week and more, Maga Mike humiliating himself. He goes through this humiliation ritual every morning now. Donald Trump puts him up to it. He goes and does these horrific press conferences where he makes things worse for the Maga Republicans as they're on vacation during this disastrous government shutdown. So Maga Mike goes on to say that the reality is that the Republicans don't control government. It's the Democrats who control government right now. That's why this is taking place. Democrats are running government. Here, play this clip.

The Democrats are required to open the government. They keep saying Republicans are in charge of government. We aren't, not in the Senate. Sixty votes control the Senate. Not a bear majority.

Oh, so you don't run. Wow, all this time, Donald Trump ruling like a dictator. But the MAGA Republicans claiming they control everything. Now, during the shutdown, Democrats are the ones... I mean, you can't make this stuff up. Then MAGA Mike Johnson says that... He's asked by Manu Raju, so why not just bring the Republicans back to the House? Why not just bring them there so there could at least be discussions or you can at least pretend to be working in Washington, DC? These members are getting paid. How about you just show up to your job in DC? Here's what Mike and Mike says. Let's play it.

Yeah, so we're evaluating this day by day. The house did its work. I've said it over and over and over. The most The important thing is to get the government open. It's the number one priority and number one responsibility of Congress, and the Senate Democrats have chosen not to do it. We think that is paramount and of paramount importance to everything else. There is plenty of time in the remainder of the calendar year to do all the things that are the must-pass pieces of legislation and all the negotiations that I referenced earlier today, and we are anxious to get everybody back to regular legislative session. But there cannot be a regular legislative session so long as the government has closed and Americans are feeling so much pain. We won't do that. Now, in the meantime, Republicans, I don't know what the Democrats are doing other than publicistons, but I can tell you the House Republicans, they're doing some of the most meaningful work of their careers. They're in their districts working around the clock with their constituents.

They're doing the most meaningful work on their vacation. They're negotiating the crisis with their constituents. What? They're negotiating with their constituents. And by the way, they are able to show up to work in Washington, DC. At least the Republicans in the Senate, I'm not trying to give them credit for at least, at least they showed up to Washington, DC, and there have been some hearings taking place. At least I see them in Washington, DC. And then Maga Mike goes on to say, But here's the deal. Republicans, we are the party of health care. We alone are the ones who can fix it. On vacation and not coming up with the plan? Let's just play it.

What we're doing right now, what we have been doing, what we were already doing, because we knew we were coming up to the end of the year, and we know that health care is a major burden for the American people. We've been working on it since day one of this Congress. We worked on it in the years prior, and we've already demonstrated. This is not talking points for us. When we say the Republican Party is the only party that has any chance at fixing health care for the American people, we've demonstrated it. We put it into the One Big Beautiful Bill, the Working Families Tax Cut.

Everybody knows that disastrous budget bill was what delivered health care to the American people. That's why the Affordable Care Act subsidies are about to expire, and the price of health care is about to go up like $20,000 a year for Americans. I want to bring in Democratic Congresswoman, Janel Bynum, to talk about that and more. Congresswoman, you see Maga Mike doing that shtick every morning, and it's an SNL skit, if it wasn't Saturday Night Live, if it wasn't so serious, and they weren't ripping away health care from tens of millions of Americans while doing that weird Soviet-style propaganda routine. What do you make of a Congresswoman?

It reminds me of Bojan Gels. He just tapped his little heart out. I don't understand why they're attacking Democrats when they control the House, they control the Senate, and they control the White House. So garbage in, garbage out, and they know that their backs are up against the wall.

They don't have a plan other than to rip away. I'd be interested in what I mean. To me, there's different buckets. You can go universal health care, make it free for everybody, tax the rich more, figure out that. You could try to make the Affordable Care Act better, more subsidies, figure out a way to bolster it and strengthen the existing program, do what Biden did with single-payer negotiations for older people. Or you go back to pre-Obamacare, which was 20 million Americans uninsured die, and insurance companies can discriminate on the basis of pre-existent. It's not a complicated one, but they don't have anything other than they cite the budget bill as their plan. There's nothing in there about it.

We've heard Mike Johnson say with his own mouth that they don't have a strategy. We also know that Republicans have been trying to gut health care and strip health care from the American public ever since we had the Affordable Care Act. We know that as well. For me, it's about how do we get to the table and agree on the what, meaning every American should have access to health care when they need it at an affordable price and however they need it. We get to the what, and then we may disagree on the how, but you got to be at the table. The fact that he hasn't brought the house back into session to even have these table conversations, that's the problem. They're not willing to negotiate, and they're not willing to take health care for the American people seriously.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which 42 million Americans rely on, lots of people in Oregon and throughout the world, throughout the country, Street, rely on it, is about to expire on November first. So Maggie Mike was asked, what are you doing when it comes to Snap? You seem to have figured out ways to break every law to destroy the east wing of the White House or to send ICE agents to disappear human beings in concentration camps and to literally go to war with American cities. Can you figure out how to address Snap? I mean, there's an emergency fund for it. Mike was asked about it. Let me show you what he said, then I'll have you respond to it. Let's play the clip of what Mike said on Snap.

The Snap benefits is a unique situation. I got a summary of the whole legal analysis, and it certainly looks legitimate to me. The contingency funds are not legally available available to cover the benefits right now. The reason is because it's a finite source of funds. It was appropriated by Congress. If they transfer funds from these other sources, it pulls it away immediately from school meals and infant formula. It's a trade-off.

There, it's a trade-off. It's a trade-off, Congress, when we see it pulls it away. The guy's just a liar, huh?

I've often wondered how you can dig so deep into your faith and then look yourself in the mirror and say, You're okay with not feeding children. You're okay with not feeding seniors. I have a problem with that as a person of faith. I'll go toe to toe with Mike Johnson on that. I think that that's what gets me in the deepest parts of my heart. The other challenge for us is that we have to make sure that the American people are being served. If you can find money to send $40 billion to Argentina, but you can't find money for food for kids and seniors, I have a problem with that. If you can find money for an airplane, for two airplanes for Christie Noem, then you can find money to feed American children and seniors. It doesn't math.

I got to ask you, you hold the Congressional seat that was previously held by the Labor Secretary now, Laurie Chávez-Dreamer. You beat her in the election. She pretended that she was pro-union when she was there and that she supported workers Then during her confirmation hearing, she wouldn't even agree that she supported the pro-act. It was a total mask off. Now this Department of Labor, they were the first to put the weird massive propaganda poster of Donald Trump's face on the door.

Dear Leader.

Deer Leader. Then if you've looked at their social media account, they post these weird 1950s photos of white families together and white... You're Laurie Chávez Doremer.

No, she's Laurie Doremer around here. We didn't find out the Chávez until I started running against her. Just to be very clear, I beat her not once, not twice, but three times. Let's just be very clear, she's Laurie Doremer.

You look at these photos that they post, The American Dream Belongs to the American People, and they post this one. There's another one, Restoring the American Dream You knew exactly who she was when you ran against her and you beat her multiple times.

I knew her up and down, in and out. I know her better than she knows herself.

I don't think she knows herself other than whatever Donald Trump tells her to do. What do you make up what the Department of Labor is doing right now?

Yeah, it's signaling. It's signaling a return to the good old days. I would say this, everyone in America is entitled to the American dream. The The people of this country invest in it. We are enriched by the immigrant story, the immigrant grit, the immigrant contributions to this country. We are also enriched by the contributions of the African-American community. We're enriched by the contributions of a whole variety of people. To bring back this idea of going back to the '50s, when we know things were not right in this country and not try to move us further along, I think is just a dog whistle for white supremacy. I'll call it just like I see it.

Talk to us before we go about what you're seeing right now in your state, in Oregon, with the ICE, obviously targeting the state. We've seen the agents terrorize Portland, but the whole state's being affected. Where do you see in there? What's the reaction amongst your constituents?

To be clear, we didn't ask for the National Guard to come. We don't need the National Guard to come. Nobody is excited about any prospect of that. What we see is Portland and Oregon fighting back in its very own way, inspiring people around the nation to meet frivolity with frivolity, inspiring people to tell the truth. I even have a constituent, Frank Miranda, who was detained at work, US citizen, held for hours, released with no explanation. We're not accepting that as normal. That's what I've been telling my constituents. Do not accept this status quo that we have right now as normal. Continue to fight back and continue to stand up for the people of Oregon and for the people of this country.

How are your constituents handling everything right now? I mean, whether it's Snap being cut off, whether it is health care, premiums about to reach a level where people could be going medically bankrupt and losing their insurance. On top of that, a military invasion by Donald Trump, war crimes, chemical warfare. I mean, they're throwing gas canisters in people choking, sending people to camps. How do people hold up when your state and your constituents have been targeted? It's hard to say, are they targeted more than everyone's suffering in their own ways, but particularly serious stuff going on in your district?

Everybody knows there's really heavy times right now. Even one of my Republican state representatives that's in my district reached out to me and said, Hey, can we do something about Snap? I was like, Oh, okay. You all recognize that this is an American program that is intended to help people. It's not something that we give out at our own whim. It's something that we do to provide the American safety net. People are feeling anxious about that. Again, I've said, Do not normalize this chaos, and it feels very heavy, but people are very, very motivated to stand up to this President who is acting as if he's a tyrant. Oh, by the way, all of the people who are supporting him and bending at his knee. That is the issue that we're facing here. We need more people to stand up, more people to speak out, including Republicans.

Well, Congresswoman, we're glad that you're standing up, speaking out for democracy and for everything you do. We appreciate you, Congresswoman Janel Biden, Oregon's fifth Congressional district.

Thanks. Good seeing you.

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