GOP Witnesses Crumble on Witness Stand at Live Hearing
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Wow, these Trump cabinet members and top Trump officials had disastrous days on Capitol Hill during their testimony before the House of Representatives and in the Senate. I want to share with you what went down. First, in the House of Representatives, Democratic Congress member Aguilar was cross-examining Secretary of Defense former Fox host Pete Hegseth about the basis for Donald Trump federalism.

federalizing the National Guard. And Democratic Congressman Aguilar says there are three instances where it's permitted and it's required to be under the supervision and control and with the permission of the governor. And there has to be an invasion of a foreign nation, a rebellion against the government, or the president is unable with regular forces to execute the law. So Secretary of Defense Hegseth

You're saying that that was happening in Los Angeles? Watch what Hegseth admits to. Play this clip. We're proud to do it. 10 USC of the U.S. Code 12406 as a legal basis that the president used cites three examples of

and circumstances for the guard invasion by a foreign nation, a rebellion or dangerous rebellion against the authority of the government of the United States or the president is unable for with regular forces to execute the laws of the United States, which authority

is triggered here to justify the use. I don't know. You just read it yourself and people can listen themselves, but it sounds like all three to me. If you've got millions of illegals and you don't know where they're coming from, they're waving flags from foreign countries and assaulting police officers and law enforcement officers, that's a problem.

No, the governor of California is unable to execute the laws of the United States. The governor of the California has failed to protect his people along with the mayor of Los Angeles. And so President Trump has said he will protect our agents and our guard and Marines are proud to do it. The law also says, Mr. Secretary, that the orders for these purposes shall be issued through governors of the states.

You and I both know that President Trump has all the authorities necessary, and thankfully he's willing to do it on behalf of the citizens of Los Angeles, on behalf of our ICE agents, and behalf of our country. We've also pulled a billion dollars. A fairly stunning admission of how utterly...

This is patently unlawful.

And I like that the Democrats in this hearing, like Congresswoman DeLauro, was not letting Hegseth filibuster. And she said, if you're showing up to a budget hearing, you may want to bring the numbers, Hegseth. Watch this incredible moment. Play this clip. In shipbuilding, the challenges our department under the previous administration squandered a lot of that. Please, I know I want to I want your plan. Yeah.

I've had difficulties with the prior administration, and I don't mind calling them out. What is your plan for the future? Can we get that in writing and on paper so that we know where you're going? Because we don't have anything today. We have ZIPP.

Nada. And knowing where you're going, you could talk percentages, you could talk about whatever you want. But unless this committee sees dollars and cents and where you're going and what your plan is, then we may reconsider what you need to do to go forward. Give us the details. Congresswoman, we have the details and we will provide them. Let's have them before we. And my hope is that we could get to it before we go to a markup within a few hours here today.

I yield back my time, Mr. Chairman.

we call it an invasion of L.A., federalizing of the National Guard, will be $134 million of what they're doing in Los Angeles. Just think about what they're costing the taxpayers based on what Trump's doing in Los Angeles. And I think that's going to exceed a billion dollars. Here, play this clip. What is the estimated cost of the deployment for the Guard and the Marines to L.A.? And where's this funding coming from? Will it be coming from quality of life programs?

that affect our service members or our families. If you want to wait till I finish. Before I hand it to Bryn, such as updates, housing and barracks. Before I hand it to Bryn, the insinuation that we're pulling money from housing and barracks in order to fund this is disingenuous and incorrect. Bryn can give you the numbers. Absolutely. So the current estimated cost is $134 million, which is largely just TDY costs, travel, housing, food, etc.

Pete Hegseth continues to filibuster as Democratic Congresswoman McCollum has some good questions for him. And she's just like, look, if you're not going to bring the data, then what's the point of this? If you don't know any numbers, what the hell are you even here at a budget committee for? Play this clip. That folks like Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass have implemented. The police chief said she was overwhelmed. So we asked the budgetary questions.

I will yield back my time if the secretary refuses to answer the budgetary questions I put before him. They're important. What training missions aren't happening? Where are you pulling the money from? And how are you planning this moving forward? These are budget questions that affect this committee and the decisions we're going to be making in a couple of hours. If you're not going to answer them, please let the chairman know, and I will take back my time, and I will yield it back to the chairman. Mr. Secretary, I want to just let us know what's going on.

What accounts are you pulling the money to fund? Thankfully, unlike the previous administration, we've got a 13% increase in our defense budget, and we will have the capability to cover down on contingencies, which is something the National Guard and the Marine plan for. So we have the funding to cover down on contingencies, especially ones as important as maintaining law and order in a major American city. As far as training, all of the units on the ground have been fully trained in their capabilities of what they're executing on the ground. If he needs to get back to the committee,

With the numbers, I'd appreciate it both current and present. Happy to submit them for the record. Now, going to the Senate for a moment, you had Trump's head of NIH, Baciraya. He testified. And I want you to watch Democratic Senator, let's start off with Democratic Senator Baldwin's questioning of NIH Director Baciraya. Play this clip. You don't deny that it reduces the amount that will be spent on

on biomedical research next year by an even deeper amount than the $18 billion 40% cut already. Right. So the way the forward funding works, right now we have multi-year projects that we fund. Yes. And forward funding says we will allocate the money for those multi-year projects this year rather than in the out years. And so if it's a four-year project, three of the years will sit in an escrow account and not be spent next year.

Again, further diminishing the amount that will be spent on biomedical research. I think the thing is that in the long run, what it does is allow you to spend more money and have more flexibility for new research projects. That's because what it says- That's funny math. I mean, it's just the math. I'm an economist also. What it does is it says, look, let's allocate the money this year so that next year the money isn't tied up on previous year's projects.

That's in the long run. I mean, I think, as I said, I'm happy to work with Congress and looking forward to working with Congress on this. This is a budget proposal, not a final thing. I think if I had to start and redesign the system again from the start, allowing more flexibility as new scientific opportunities come up, the forward funding model allows that to happen, actually, more than the current model, where large fractions of the NIH budget are tied up with old projects.

So I think that as the transition ends, it really matters how we do it. And so I'm absolutely really glad to work with Congress on that to make sure that there's no disruptions.

Thank you. Then you have Democratic Senator Murray grilling Baccaria about cuts to medical research, including ending HIV vaccine trials. Play this clip. Research effort to develop an HIV vaccine. Justice scientists, including at the Fred Hunt Center in Seattle, are on the cusp of a functional cure for HIV. Terminating those HIV vaccine trials now cuts off access to treatment for six patients.

thousand patients in the network. You canceled a clinical trial evaluating new evidence-based interventions for type 2 diabetes in rural communities in Appalachia. You terminated a clinical trial studying immunotherapy in combination with monoclonal antibodies to treat women with recurrent

ovarian cancer. That is what has already happened. So now you are coming to us today proposing to cut NIH funding by 40% next year. Tell us how many fewer clinical trials would you fund

in the next fiscal year with a budget cut of $18 billion. Senator, can I just address HIV? Because I am absolutely committed to the... In 2019, President Trump issued a challenge for us to eliminate the threat of HIV in this country. And we've had a 22% reduction in HIV transmission since then.

We now have the technological tools to do that. I've been working on developing a program to actually implement this vision so we can use new advances. But you did terminate the HIV research at Fred Hutch that, again, was on the cusp of a treatment for 6,000 patients nationwide. You did do that.

I don't, I don't, I'd have to get back to you. You did do that. Okay. Senator, I mean, I think we actually have now the chance with the existing technologies, Len Capovir and other technologies to actually address. I'm delighted to hear that, but I'm just telling you what clinical trials have been terminated. And I'm asking you this because we have to write an appropriations bill. How many fewer clinical trials will you fund in the next fiscal year with an $18 billion cut? Well,

Senator, the budget request is a work of negotiation between Congress and the administration. President Trump has issued a letter to Secretary Kratzius committing the United States to be the leading nation. Yeah, okay, well, you're not answering the question. We need to know how many fewer clinical trials. Can you get that number back to me, please? You're asking for a budget. We're trying to figure out what that will fund. That's our job. The number depends on what the

requests we get for proposals from all across the country. The budget itself will be dependent on what you all do as well as... Well, I know, but we are trying to write a budget with the knowledge that you have, with the requests that you have. I'm asking the question, how many fewer clinical trials? We need an answer back to that. Well, Senator, it's hard to give an answer to that because I don't know what the proposals are going to be that are coming in, right? Well, yeah.

I mean, you're asking a hypothetical question about what the scientific... You came here today to ask for a budget that reduces NIH significantly. I would expect as director you would know what the impacts had. More from Democratic Senator Murray saying, I want to know the numbers of employees who left the clinical center and the entire agency as a result of your personal actions. Give me the numbers. Play this clip. Answers from you for months.

You told me 25 staff have been fired from the NIH Clinical Center out of the 1,445 who've been fired across the entire agency. But that does not include staff leaving after being offered buyouts or threatened with future layoffs. I want to know what is the total number of employees who left the Clinical Center and the entire agency as a result of the Trump administration's personnel actions in total.

So the numbers I have in front of me are for the reduction in force. That's the 25 I mentioned in our conversation. We'll get those numbers for the retirements to you. Well, I asked – I told you I was going to ask for this administration over the phone. I've requested this multiple times. How come you do not have that for us today? I thought –

It's my misunderstanding. I thought you were asking for the reduction in force numbers, which we provided. I was being very clear. So I want to know, by the end of the day, can I have a detailed list of the reductions in staff by institute, by center, by job function? Not just the RIFs. Not just the RIFs. We'll get you those. The total staff reductions. Can I have that by the end of the day? Okay. Those are really basic questions, and I want to see that by the end of the day.

Then Democratic Senator Dick Durbin had his term to Batchiraya. Play this clip. $18 billion increase in medical research at the NIH. I couldn't have been prouder of all of our bipartisan efforts to do that. This year, your budget wipes it out completely. Wipes out $18 billion that we fought for over 10 years. And I can't understand that. I disagree with this administration on so many things. But this is the one that really gets to me personally.

to think that this nation would walk away from medical research. For God's sake, we lead the world in medical research. Why would we give up on it? I look at the specifics here. Cancer.

2025, 2 million new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in the United States. 600,000 people will die from that disease. Yet your budget requests a 38% cut. 38% to the National Cancer Institute. 7 million people nationwide are living with Alzheimer's.

This disease, of course, is devastating to families. It robs them of their loved ones. Yet your budget requests a 39% cut to the National Institute of Aging. When you look at specific schools, of course, I'm concerned about Illinois. We have great research there. Northwestern University has not received a penny for NIH grants in 11 weeks.

1,359 NIH awards to Northwestern have been frozen or terminated, holding $81 million in research to date. I could go through some of the specifics of this research, but it includes $9 million in clinical trials for brain cancer.

colon cancer, breast cancer, childhood cancer. How are you able to reconcile these budget decisions with the reality of research and what it means to alleviate suffering and more importantly, to give people hope? If research is underway, you at least have the hope that maybe there'll be a cure, maybe in the lifetime of someone I love. How can you walk away from that?

Senator, my intention is not to walk away from that. I mean, I think that... But the budget speaks for itself. You cut $18 billion in research. Senator, the budget is a collaboration between Congress and the administration. So, you know, I look forward to talking about the advances that NIH researchers have made. I mean, I think the transition has been a very bumpy time. And I don't mean to, like...

downplay that, but there have been opportunities for reform for how the biomedical research enterprise works. I think the decisions about Northwestern happened before I got into office, but let me just say that... Buck stops in your office now. I know it does, so let me just say that... Don't blame another person. I'm not blaming anyone. We're asking you and your insurance. Senator, I agree with that.

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Nobody knows what the hell Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth are talking about with the Golden Dome. No one knows what the Golden Dome is like. Even MAGA Republican Congress member Ken Calvert is saying to Pete Hegseth, what's this? What does the Golden Dome mean? We've seen you do like an AI photo, but like what is this thing that you're asking money for? You haven't described it. And like Hegseth, no one knows what it means because it exists in Donald Trump's maniac brain. Play this clip.

Especially with a new technology like Golden Dome, which we still, as the ranking member pointed out, we still haven't seen a clear definition of what it is and what it's a strategic theater system.

system, lower 48, Hawaii, Alaska, the rest of it. Hegseth also admits that he will be cutting funding to Ukraine. Let's play this clip. Production in this budget, as you know, this administration takes a very different view of that conflict. We believe it negotiated peaceful settlement is in the best interest of both parties and our nation's interests, especially with all the competing interests around the globe. I don't think the word victory has been

well-defined or the path to it. And as a result, a path to peace that stops the killing and the carnage is something that President Trump is very invested in.

Democratic Senator Sheehan had some great questions for NIH Director Batchari. Let's watch this. How do you reassure researchers? How do you reassure academic institutions and patients, most importantly, that addiction research is not going to suffer when your budget proposes cutting funding and dismantling the very institute that has led to this critical work?

The health needs for folks with overdoses are great. Almost 100,000 deaths a year since 2020. I understand that. I've been working on it for over 10 years. So don't tell me what the problem is. Tell me what the solution is and how you're going to address it when you're cutting your budget in areas that make a difference.

the solution involves research right so as you said narcan uh that's the result of nih funded right work um and i don't think it only involves research the the the sharp increase in i'm sorry in research in in biomedicine particularly but also in behavioral research to understand the the the sort of settings that lead to overdoses

And I think the NIH is gonna play a really important role in that. The key thing is not the reorganization of the NIH. That's not as important to me as the activities that we're talking about. The activities to do research that meet those needs,

That's what I'm going to make sure happens at the NIH so that if I come back four years from now, we can look back and say that we've reached the high watermark of deaths from overdoses, which spiked during the pandemic, and that we've addressed those needs with excellent research. Well, it's hard for me to understand how we're going to address those needs with excellent research when you're cutting research grants, you're cutting personnel, and the

We're seeing some of our best scientists talking about going to Europe and to other parts of the world because they don't feel like they can get a fair shake in the United States. Thank you, Madam Chair. And just seeing these MAGA Republicans on Capitol Hill in their press appearances like this just happened today. Like, just think about these three statements today. You have MAGA Republican Congress member Harriet Hageman saying that she.

absolutely loves that Donald Trump pardoned the January 6th insurrectionists. Play this clip. - ...out on January 6th. - On January 6th, what was your feeling about pardoning those who had been convicted of crimes related to January 6th? - I think it was absolutely appropriate because under the Equal Protection Clause,

of both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment, it's clear that they were being treated differently than other people. And again, I'm going to go back to the so-called Summer of Love of 2020, the people who were burning buildings, who were over $2 billion in damages. There's really no comparison as to what happened in 2020 and what happened on January 6th.

Yet the people on January 6th were treated very, very differently. One of the absolute linchpins of our republic, of our constitutional foundation is equal protection, which means that people who are similarly situated must be treated similarly. And that is not the circumstance of what happened with the people with January 6th. We are one data point. Second data point you have.

MAGA Republican Senator Kevin Cramer on raising the minimum wage. And he says, "I don't think we should have a minimum wage. It could be, why are we even setting a floor?" Again, MAGA Republican Senator Kevin Cramer, play this clip. - The federal minimum wage right now is $7.25. What do you think about raising the federal minimum wage?

Well, I don't even know why we have a quote federal minimum wage, to be honest, because I don't know anybody where I come from in North Dakota. People are, you know, businesses are fortunate if they can get somebody for less than $15. And I think the market works really well, Stuart. And I think that when you raise a minimum wage of $15, you reduce the number of people who can

Get a beginner's job, work at a fast food restaurant, work whatever the case might be in the service sector or otherwise. So I don't I just think manipulating markets with mandatory wages doesn't make any sense. Mr. Seltzer, thank you very much for being with us this morning. Then also today you have MAGA Republican Congress member and speaker of the House, MAGA Mike Johnson, saying that he believes Gavin Newsom should be, quote, tar and feathered.

1700s medieval torture? Play this clip. Speaker Johnson, the president said, possibly in jest, that if you were Tom Homan, you would arrest Gavin Newsom. Do you believe that Newsom should face consequences in a legal way? Look, that's not my lane. I'm not going to give you legal analysis on whether Gavin Newsom should be arrested, but he ought to be tarred and feathered. I'll say that. I mean, look, he's standing in the way of...

the administration and the carrying out of federal law, right? He is applauding the bad guys and standing in the way of the good guys. He is trying to, he's a participant, an accomplice

and our federal law enforcement agents being not just disrespected, but assaulted. This is a serious problem. And the governor is now filing a lawsuit against the president. What a joke. Do your job, man. That's what I tell Gavin Newsom. Do your job. Stop working on your rebranding and be a governor.

Stand up for the rule of law. He's not doing that. So I don't know what the ultimate measure will be there, but I know that in the interim time, the president of the United States is showing real leadership and we're not gonna allow LA to burn. - This is who the MAGA Republicans are. This is who the Trump cabinet members are. I just showed you in their own words, what they said today and you judge for yourself.

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