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tv   Reps Omar Pressley Ocasio- Cortez Tlaib Hold News Conference  CSPAN  July 15, 2019 10:30pm-10:57pm EDT

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♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019]
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this this conference is 20 minutes. i want to say thank you to all of you for being here today. i want to send a message of gratitude and tanks for the solidarity we have received from every corner of our country, from our colleagues, tara neighbors, we are grateful for your solidarity, your encouragement and your support in the face of the most recent xenophobic, bigoted remarks from the occupant of our white house. i will always refer to him as the occupant, as he is only occupying space. not the body, the grace, the empathy, compassion, the integrity that the office requires an that the american people deserve.
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encourage thed, i american people and all of us in this room and beyond to not take the bait. this is a disruptive distraction from the issues of care, concern and consequence to the american people. we were sent here with a decisive mandate to work on. everything from reducing the cost of prescription drugs to addressing the affordable housing crisis. ensuring that the american people have more than health insurance, but health care. more recently, thanks to the partnership and the advocacy of held the first hearing on childhood trauma.
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hearing, in the wake of the public health crisis and epidemic of gun violence, in the wake of ptsd and in the wake of those battling substance abuse disorder, it was impossible not to think of the trauma being inflicted on children every day at our border. wethe end of the day, if improve the conditions of children in a cage, they are still in a cage. we had vigorously and fundamentally opposed to decriminalizing, the vilifying, the mass detention and rotation of migrant families who are simply doing what is their legal human right, to seek asylum. light and hope and of refuge.
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disruption anda a distraction from the callous, chaotic and corrupt culture of this administration, all the way down. we want to get back to the business of the american people and why we were sent here, reducing the cost of prescription drugs. addressing the racial wealth gap and making sure that families stay together. i would also like to underscore the fact that despite the occupant of the white house's attempts to marginalize us and silence us, please know that we are more than poor people. we ban on a mandate to advocate for those left out and left behind. our squad is big.
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our squad includes any person committed to building a just world. that is the work that we want to get back to. of the squad and this great nation, we cannot and we will not be silent. invitewill representative omar to say a few words as well. >> thank you. this country was founded on the radical idea that we are created equal and endowed by our creator with inalienable rights. yes, we have a long way before we fully live up to those values. preciselythis reason that we have to take action when a president is openly violating and the that he took
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core values that we aspire to. ,s martin luther king said always say to america is be true to what you say on paper. the eyes of history are watching us. right now, the president is carrying out mass deportation across this country. right now, the president is committing human rights abuses at the border, keeping children in cages and having human beings drinking out of toilets. this president, who has been credibly accused of committing multiple crimes, including colluding with foreign governments and interfering with our election. this is a president who has overseen the most corrupt
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administration in our history while heed an agenda transfers millions of dollars in tax cuts to corporations. president who has -- this isk athletes a president who has called presidentthis is a who has equated neo-nazis with those who protest against then and charlottesville. this is a president who has openly violated the very value our country aspires to uphold. a quality under the long religious liberty, equal protection and protection from persecution. , he isact from that
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launching a blatantly racist attack on four duly elected members of the u.s. house of representatives, all of whom are women of color. this is the agenda of white nationalists, whether it is happening in chat rooms or it is happening on national tv. now it has reached the white house garden. more thanove nothing to divide our country based on ,ace, religion, gender orientation or immigration is the onlyse this way that he knows he can prevent the solidarity of us working together across all of our differences. the only way to prevent us confronting the problem our country is facing, whether it is health care, climate change,
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student debt our -- or our in this war is. this is his plan to pit us against one another. this is how he can continue to enrich his friend and distract us from the detrimental policies that his administration is pushing for. we can either continue to enable on theesident and report pile of garbage comes out of his mouth, or we can hold him accountable to his crimes. we can continue to turn a blind eye to the multiple crimes he has been accused of. the responsibility his administration has for the death of children on our border or we can take action.
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i have not made impeachment essential, but since the day i was elected, i sent people, is not if he will be impeached, but when. it is time to stop allowing this mockery. to make a it is time to impeach him. now, we are going to have congresswoman cortez. good afternoon. things as to keep brief as i can. when i was a little girl, my father took me to the reflecting pool here.
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we were on a road trip from new york to florida to visit family. i have told this story before, but it was my first time ever visiting washington dc. he rested me on the side of the reflecting pool and had my toes dipped in the water and had me look at the washington monument, the capital, the entirety of the capital of our great country. he pointed to all of it. he said this belongs to all of us. , and itongs to you belongs to me. so the first note i want to tell children across this country is that no matter what the president says, this country belongs to you. and it belongs to everyone.
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and today, that notion, that very notion was challenged. this weekend, that very notion was challenged. so i am not surprised when the president says that four sitting members of congress should, quote, go back to their own country, when he has authorized raids without warrants on thousands of families across this country. i am not surprised that he used -- uses the rhetoric that he does when he takes thousands of -- violates international human rights and takes thousands of children away from their families. i am not surprised that he has turned our public education system, under the leadership of betsy devos, into a cash cow to enrich himself and his friends. i am not surprised when he corrupts via the secretary of transportation. i am not surprised at what he's doing. but i also know that we're
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focused on making it better because we don't leave the things that we love and when we love this country, what that means is we propose the solutions to fix it. we love all people in this country, and that's why we believe health care is a human right. we love all children in this country, and because we do, that's why we fight for education for all children through college. and so we'll stay focused on our agenda, and we won't get caught slipping because all of this is a distraction. it's a distraction from what's most important and our core values as american citizens. with that i'll hand it over to rashida talib. ms. talib: thank you to my sisters in service. thank you for being here. as we know the recent tweets and words from the president are simply a continuation of his racist, xenophobic playbook. we cannot allow these hateful actions by the president to distract us from the critical
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work to hold this administration accountable to the inhumane conditions at the border that is separating children from their loved ones, caging them up in illegal, horrific conditions. i represent the third poorest congressional district in this country. one that is made of working people who have been targeted by this administration and their actions and words are hurting them today. i was elected to fight for them, fight for the 13th congressional district. they sent me here to congress to fight back against the corporate assault and corruption in our country. this means supporting an impeachment inquiry of this president and his actions by the administration and his appointees. sadly, this is not the first, nor will it be the last time we hear disgusting bigoted language from the president. we know this is who he is, and we know that he and his administration are constantly engaged in actions that harm residents and american people in our country. many members of congress have
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called for his impeachment because of his utter disregard and disrespect of the united states constitution and despite this and other many attempts to distract us, i remain focused, we remain focused on holding him accountable to the laws of this land and accountable to the american people. i urge house leadership, many of my colleagues to take action to impeach this lawless president today, and now we'll take two or three questions. mary. reporter: thank you very much. the president said today many people agree with him and support these comments. i'm wondering if you can speak directly to those supporters of the president and explain why these comments are so harmful and hurtful. and on a personal note, have you had to up your security? are you feeling increased threats? ms. pressley: i would just the experience that he offered is in contradiction to the experience
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that i every day, including in the airport. there were many who approached me and said, i disagree with some of your policies. i am an independent. i am a republican. i think what he did was wrong. and he won't apologize. but i am going to apologize. so i have experienced nothing in the wake of those comments. again, but words denouncing these xenophobic, bigoted words, but, again, this is a distraction and we should not take the bait. we can sit here and continue to recycle his hateful rhetoric of which i cannot say i am surprised or inflated outrage because he is, if nothing else, predictable. what we are focused on are the hateful policies that are draconian and oppressive and
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life-threatening and family separating that is being rolled out by this administration every day. reporter: can you respond to some of the president's specifically, most notably, that you are a communist and you are pro-al qaeda? ms. omar: you might have noticed when he said, go back to where you came from, there was an uproar through the -- through all of our communities because every single person who's brown and black at some point in their life in this country heard that. now, when he made the comment, i know that every single muslim who has lived in this country and across the world has heard that comment.
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and so i will not dignify it with an answer because i know that every single islamophobe, every single person who is hateful, who is driven by an ideology of othering, as this president is, rejoices in us responding to that and us defending ourselves. i do not expect every time there is a white supremist who attacks or there is a white man who kills in a school or in a movie theater or in a mosque or in a synagogue, i don't expect my white community members to respond on whether they love that person or not. and so i think it is beyond time, it's beyond time to ask muslims to condemn terrorists.
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we are no longer going to allow the dignification of such ridiculous, ridiculous statement. reporter: congresswoman ocasio-cortez -- reporter: some of you have made comments that the pressure -- president took issue with that where controversial. do you think some of those comments made, if they were inflammatory or controversial, if this situation would be different, if he specifically directed some of the same comments -- >> can you repeat that? reporter: the president took with -- took issue with some of the comments some of you made on a host of issues and turned them back around. had those comments not been made, or you perceive them as being controversial, do you think that would make the situation different, he would have the firepower to turn it back around?
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ms. omar: every single statement that we make is from a place of extreme love for every single person in this country. it is part of the mandate of why we ran for office and why we got elected. every single person wants to make sure they have people in the halls of congress that is fighting to make sure they have health care, that they have an education, that is suitable in the united states, that they have access to proper roads and bridges, that they have access to clean water and clean air. every single person here in the united states knows that we are fighting every single day to create a more perfect union and to fight on their behalf. now, when people say, if you say a negative thing about the policies in this country, you hate this country, to me it sort of speaks to the hypocrisy and alex and i were talking about this. when this president and until today he talked about everything
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that was wrong in this country and how he was going to make it great. and so for him to condemn us and to say we are un-american for wanting to work hard, to make this country be the country we all deserve to live in, complete hypocrisy. ms. ocasio-cortez: i don't think it would have changed anything because first of all, he made statements that were blatantly untrue. so whether he was citing comments or not citing comments, if he didn't have what he wanted to say he would make it up. this president operates in complete bad faith. he does not operate in good faith. so that's one thing. but second to the previous question as well, weak minds and leaders challenge loyalty to our country in order to avoid challenging and debating the policy.
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this president does not know how to make the argument that americans do not deserve health care. he does not know how to defend his policies. so what he does is attack us personally. and that is what this is all about. he can't look a child in the face and he can't look all americans in the face and justify why this country is throwing them in cages. so instead, he tells us that i should go back to the great borough of the bronx and make it better. and that's what i'm here to do. >> thank you so much for being here. we appreciate it. announcer: the fool has is expected to take up a resolution
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condemning president trump's comments. that is expected on the floor tomorrow. you will find live coverage, here on and. -- c-span. ♪ for 40 years, c-span congersented unfiltered -- coverage of congress, the supreme court and public-policy events from d.c. and around the country, so you can make up your own mind. c-span is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. c-span, your unfiltered view of government. washingtonc-span's journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you.
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coming up tuesday morning, we will look at a new poll that shows monitoring the environment tops america's list of spaceties for the u.s. program, followed by national security and scientific experiment. it showed little interest among americans and exploring the solar system come going to mars or traveling to the moon. members of the committee will join us to talk about the u.s. policy and the 50th anniversary of the apollo moon landing. include oklahoma republican congressman rick lucas, florida republican michael wash democratic congresswoman katie hill, tagus -- texas democratic congresswoman bernice johnson. be sure to watch c-span's washington journal tuesday morning. join the discussion.
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here is a look at the live coverage tuesday on c-span, the house returns for general speeches with legislative business at noon. members will consider a resolution to hold attorney general william barr and wilbur ross in contempt of congress for failing to comply with subpoenas related to the 2020 census. on c-span two, the senate is back to vote on a judicial nomination for the court of appeals and begin consideration on a series of tax treaties that would amend existing agreements but spain, switzerland, japan and luxembourg. esper hascretary mark his confirmation hearing before the senate armed services committee. that is followed later in the affairs governmental hearing on preparations for the 2020 census.
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hosted ace department summit on combating anti-semitism with administration officials and legal experts. it began with remarks from attorney general william barr who discussed how the department was focused on the issue. [applause] and thank youg for joining us at this important . i am privileged to have the opportunity to set the table and introduced the attorney general, bill barr. i expect most of us are aware that attorney general william barr has had a distinguished career in private practice and government. he served as the general counsel for a major corporation. everyone knows that he served

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