'Silence is betrayal': Warnock calls out Republicans who know Trump is speaking 'nonsense'

[0:00] Joining me now is Georgia Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock. [0:03] Senator, thank you for being here with me tonight. [0:05] Great to be with you. [0:06] Let me start by asking you, if you watched the speech, what you thought of the speech. [0:11] What's your reaction? [0:12] I saw a pretty desperate man talking tonight. [0:17] Donald Trump is a failed president, and his support is collapsing before his very eyes. [0:23] He's seeing the same polls I'm seeing. [0:27] And as you move across Georgia, you're hearing it from the people of Georgia. [0:31] He came to my state, said that he would lower people's costs on day one. [0:36] We're now nearly two years into his presidency, and people are struggling. [0:40] And he seems he's clearly much more focused on his own power than making people's lives better. [0:47] I spoke yesterday with the leader of one of our food banks, and he's saying he's seeing unprecedented numbers of people, working people, who are in line getting food for their families. [1:01] Donald Trump doubled the premiums of some 1.2 million Georgians who are trying to afford health care. [1:08] And so Georgians are getting poorer and poorer, sicker and sicker. [1:13] And because of his corruption and self-dealing, he and his family are getting richer and richer. [1:18] And we intend to hold him accountable come November. [1:20] I know one of the ways I think about your jobs is that you're holding people's hands and guiding people, both when you're preaching and also as a senator, somebody representing the constituents and the people of Georgia. [1:33] And I know Trump's address came on the eve of the anniversary of Congressman John Lewis's death, which I know you are certainly tracking. [1:40] But for people watching, the civil rights icon passed away six years ago tomorrow, which is which is hard to believe. [1:47] And you were at a roundtable today with faith leaders and political figures about who are talking about Congressman Lewis's legacy. [1:55] One of the things you pointed out, which really has stuck with me, is that the Trump administration and the speech tonight is a really good example of this, is trying to weaponize despair. [2:05] I thought that was such an apt description. [2:09] Tell me what we do about that. [2:12] Well, I mean, they're doing a lot of things, right? [2:13] But they are trying to convince us that they've already won. [2:16] They're literally flooding the zone, as we've heard them say. [2:19] They're weaponizing despair with the hope that people won't stand up. [2:23] And so I'm calling on people, this is a moral moment in America. [2:28] And our children and our grandchildren are going to ask us, what were we doing when the president of the United States was behaving as an arsonist, literally setting fire to our democracy? [2:39] Did we stand up? [2:40] Did we raise our voices? [2:42] I had the honor of being John Lewis's pastor. [2:46] I presided over his funeral. [2:48] Sometimes we look at those winds and we talk as if those civil rights winds were inevitable. [2:54] They were quite improbable. [2:56] I think often about him crossing that bridge with brute force under the color of law. [3:02] On the other side of that bridge, he kept walking. [3:05] He kept pushing. [3:07] And so that's what we've got to do in this moment in a smart and sophisticated way. [3:10] We've got to keep walking, keep showing up. [3:13] And I think, you know, Georgia saved the country in 2021. [3:17] Donald Trump can't get over it. [3:19] His feelings are deeply hurt, even though he won in 2024. [3:23] And come November, the American people are going to hold him accountable. [3:28] And his enablers in Congress are going to hold them accountable again. [3:31] To that point, I mean, it's like he sends out Trump that is an evil bat signal, I'm going to call it, where he starts to project things. [3:38] And then you hear it from people like Senator Tommy Tuberville, who told Newsmax today that we probably have four or five senators that didn't legally win. [3:49] They shouldn't be here. [3:51] It is. [3:52] How do we break the fever of that? [3:54] Do we ignore it? [3:55] Do we fact check it? [3:57] Do we what do we how do we handle something as absurd as that? [4:01] Tommy Tuberville ought to be ashamed of himself. [4:04] You know, this is really embarrassing to watch. [4:06] And this is somebody with whom I've worked when I when I could to get some things done for Georgia and Alabama. [4:12] But, you know, as equally, you know, disheartening is the silence. [4:18] We're hearing him say this kind of ridiculous thing. [4:20] But you've got a whole range of Republican senators right now who know that this is nonsense that they heard the president spewing tonight. [4:29] They know that he is setting fire on our democracy and they are silent. [4:34] Martin Luther King Jr. said silence is betrayal and they are betraying the grand experiment on the 250th anniversary of our country's founding. [4:45] At some point, you ought to be more than a Democrat. [4:49] You ought to be more than a Republican. [4:52] How about show up as an American, as a patriot and speak up as the president is sowing doubt in an election that he knows he's about to lose? [5:02] We don't have much time left. [5:04] Unfortunately, I could talk to you forever. [5:05] But what do you are you worried the president is going to go to Georgia next week where he's expected to come and sow more election doubt, do more things to scare people about participating in the process? [5:15] Well, that's what he's been doing all along. [5:16] I mean, he literally called my state and asked for eleven thousand seven hundred eighty votes. [5:20] Yeah, he's got a lot of nerve coming to Georgia next week. [5:24] You know, we've got folks who were hoping he'd do something about affordability around housing. [5:28] He wouldn't even bother to sign the bill. [5:31] He's not doing anything for health care. [5:33] He's not doing anything for people's costs. [5:35] And he's coming next week to do a rally. [5:39] How about show up and actually do something for the people who elected you? [5:43] We wish you would. [5:44] Senator Raphael Warnock, thank you for being here. [5:47] Really appreciate it. [5:47] Thank you. [5:48] Thank you.