US NEWS LIVE: Vance Interrupts Karoline's Briefing, Heated Exchange Erupts — World News

[0:00] members today saying they're still going to accept their paychecks because they have [0:04] three kids at home and they have mouths to feed well so do these federal workers who those same [0:09] democrats just voted to shut down the government and turn off their pay and we believe that's very [0:13] unfair and it's why the administration wants to see the government reopened gdp growth fell by [0:19] about half a percentage point during the last government shutdown during the president's first [0:24] term are you expecting a similar type of impact on gdp growth related to this potential protracted [0:31] government shutdown well look i think it's dependent upon how long this shutdown continues so it's [0:36] it's up dependent on how long it takes democrats to muster up the coverage five of them to vote [0:42] in the best interest of our country our citizens and our economy uh emin thank you caroline yesterday [0:49] your administration took a five percent stake in lithium america's uh and a stake in the mine [0:54] that they're working on and you've taken stakes in other companies and revenue streams from other [0:58] companies can you articulate the broader principle here when does the administration see it as [1:02] appropriate to demand equity stakes or revenue streams from american companies and what other [1:08] companies are you going to be demanding those from well look this is a creative solution by the [1:13] president of the united states to tackle our nation's crippling debt crisis as i said earlier we are 37 [1:19] trillion dollars trillion with the crats in congress have officially shut down the united states [1:25] government house republicans passed a non-partisan clean piece of legislation to extend current [1:32] government funding until november 21st but nearly every single democrat senator voted against this [1:39] bill to be clear this was the exact same bill that democrats approved six short months ago in march [1:45] just adjusted for inflation this is the same kind of clean funding bill that democrats passed 13 separate [1:52] times when they held the majority during joe biden's administration so the american people woke up this [1:59] morning and asked the obvious question why is the government shut down right now the answer is pure [2:05] partisan politics being played by the democrat party the democrats shut down the government because [2:11] president trump and the republicans will not force american taxpayers to pay for free health care for [2:17] illegal aliens america is 37 trillion dollars in debt we cannot afford to provide taxpayer-funded free [2:24] health care to illegals who broke the law to enter our country to put this all into perspective the [2:30] democrats refused to keep the government open over health care to illegal aliens and now now have [2:36] jeopardized critical health care programs for american citizens instead the women infants and children [2:42] program community health center funding medicare treatment options and other health programs are now [2:48] all at risk because of the democrats rejecting the clean cr the most vulnerable in our country are being [2:55] punished because the democrats want to prioritize illegals over american citizens and if democrats actually cared [3:02] about health care they would applaud the actions taken by president trump just yesterday in the oval [3:08] office he took a bold and massively popular action to improve our health care system he announced the [3:14] first agreement with a major pharmaceutical company pfizer to lower drug costs for americans this is a [3:21] historical achievement long sought by past democrat presidents that only president trump was able to get done [3:29] also yesterday while the democrats were whining about health care for illegal aliens president trump [3:34] signed a powerful executive order to supercharge american ai innovation and unlock cures for pediatric [3:42] cancer patients in the united states while president trump took action to lower drug prices and improve the [3:48] lives and the care of american children with cancer again democrats are fighting to give health care benefits [3:55] to illegal aliens the trump administration is fully committed to lowering health care costs and [4:00] advancing policies that will save american lives but right now we need to keep the government open and [4:06] funded and individuals and organizations across the political spectrum across the country agree with [4:12] the trump administration and republicans the labor union leader the teamsters sean o'brien sent a very blunt [4:19] message to democrats over their destructive antics he said american workers are not bargaining chips [4:25] senators need to stop screwing around and pass the house passed clean short-term funding bill the [4:31] u.s chamber of commerce the world's largest business organization called to immediately pass the [4:36] republican clean cr saying quote shutdowns are harmful to the economy the american people and our national [4:43] security and even democrat senators cortez masto and fetterman acknowledged that their party is betraying [4:50] the american people with this costly and chaotic democrat shutdown enough is enough democrats need [4:56] to stop sabotaging our country and holding the american people hostage in the country democrats need to do [5:02] their jobs the american people want the government reopened and this is proven in a new new york times [5:08] poll showing that two and three americans say the government should not be shut down by the democrats even [5:13] if their absurd demands are not met the president and republicans are working very hard to reopen the [5:20] federal government the vice president here has been crucial in this effort we encourage all americans [5:24] across the country call your democrat senators and encourage them to reopen the government that's what [5:30] president trump and the vice president want to do and with that i will turn it over to our great vice [5:34] president jadey vance great well thank you carolina and good afternoon to everybody and good afternoon to [5:40] everybody who's watching at home uh it's a tough act to follow but let me just say a few things then i'll [5:44] take a few questions number one democrats say that they care a lot about lowering health care costs [5:50] and yet when the president took historic action to work with the drug companies to lower prescription [5:55] drug prices the democrats did nothing to help us in fact we would have loved to have the democrats [6:00] helping us but they didn't they talk about doing something they don't actually do the hard work of [6:04] making it happen what they have done instead is to shut down the government because we won't give [6:09] billions of dollars to health care funding for illegal aliens that is what has actually happened [6:13] to the american people who are watching the reason your government is shut down at this very minute [6:18] is because despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of congressional republicans and even a few [6:23] moderate democrats supported opening the government the chuck schumer aoc wing of the democratic party [6:29] shut down the government because they said to us we will open the government but only if you give [6:34] billions of dollars of funding for health care for illegal aliens that's a ridiculous proposition [6:39] let me say two two other quick things and then again i'll take some questions number one we all [6:45] understand that democrats and republicans have policy disagreements the democrats want to do things look [6:49] when chuck schumer and hakeem jeffries were in here a couple of days ago they made some suggestions that [6:54] the president was more than happy to say yes let's sit down and talk about how we can solve the health care [7:00] crisis that we inherited from the biden administration but it's one thing to say that we should solve the [7:04] health care crisis for americans it's another thing to say that we're going to shut down the [7:09] government unless we give the democrats every single thing that they want which as caroline says [7:14] includes giving billions of dollars of taxpayer funding for health care for illegal migrants [7:19] that's ridiculous you don't have policy disagreements that serve as the basis for a government shutdown [7:25] let's have the conversation about how to fix american health care about how to make health care more [7:29] accessible as the president showed he's more than willing to act on behalf of the american [7:34] people for this for this very reason what you don't do is say unless you do exactly what we want [7:41] to do as congressional democrats we're taken hostage and the hostage it turns out is critical essential [7:46] services that the american people need caroline talked about some of it let me talk about some more [7:51] our troops are not getting paid starting today because of the chuck schumer wing of the democratic party [7:57] we have people who require food assistance low-income americans who require food assistance [8:04] who will not get it unless we reopen the government thanks to chuck schumer and his his wing of the [8:09] democratic party we have flood insurance as we start hurricane season in the southeastern part of [8:14] our country that flood insurance is going to disappear because of chuck schumer and the in the and [8:19] the far left of the democratic party we need to reopen the government let's fix america's problems [8:24] let's work together to solve them but let's reopen the government before we have our our negotiation about [8:30] healthcare policy that's what the american people demand and that's certainly what the president [8:34] of the united states wants let me make one final point i think a lot of americans are asking [8:39] themselves why did this happen why did the democrats shut down the government despite as caroline said [8:43] voting on the exact same piece of legislation six months ago and there are a lot of different spins that [8:48] we can put on it a lot of different answers that we could give all of them true one answer i already [8:52] gave is that they want to give health care benefits to illegal aliens that is true they gave us [8:57] legislative text that would have undone us cutting off health care benefits for illegal aliens that's [9:03] one of the things that they asked for but the reality here and let's be honest about the politics [9:08] is that chuck schumer is terrified she's going to get a primary challenge from alexandria ocassia [9:14] cortez the reason why the american people's government is shut down is because chuck schumer is listening [9:20] to the far left radicals in his own party because he's terrified of a primary challenge so i'd invite chuck [9:26] schumer to join the moderate democrats and 52 senate republicans do the right thing open up the [9:32] people's government and then let's fix health care policy for the american people questions mr vice [9:37] president that's a lot matt boyle okay mr vice president uh there's two key democrat lies i would [9:43] like uh to get you on and see if you can address the first is is that you're seeing a number of top [9:48] democrat leaders from kamala harris and chuck schumer to hakeem jeffries claim that it is a republican [9:53] shutdown caused by trump uh the second is is that they're out there now claiming that they don't [9:58] want to to give health care to illegal aliens uh can you address both of those lies from the democrat [10:04] part yeah so on the point that it's a republican shutdown look it's obviously a democratic shutdown [10:09] just look at the vote totals in the house look at the vote totals in the senate and look at the [10:12] president united states own action and conduct throughout this crisis nearly every single house [10:18] republican voted to open the government matt nearly every single senate republican voted to open the [10:24] government last night and even to their credit a few moderate democrats voted to open the government [10:29] that's not a republican shutdown when nearly every single senate democrat votes to shut it down [10:34] and every republican voted to open it up it's just obviously not true now you can disagree [10:39] about a number of things but you can't disagree about the obvious fact that republicans voted to [10:44] open the government the president stands ready to sign that opening of the government we just need a few [10:49] more democrats to join us in that effort to open the government your final question about illegal alien [10:54] benefits look the text is very clear and i've i even saw i think it was george stephanophilus in an [10:59] interview with mike johnson did a fact check that was totally rooted in baseless claims it was basically [11:05] democrat propaganda if you look at the legislative text that they gave us they tried to turn on two [11:11] separate provisions that would give health care benefits to illegal aliens number one if you're an [11:16] american citizens you've been to a hospital in the last few years you probably noticed that wait times [11:20] are especially large and very often somebody who's there in the emergency room waiting is an illegal [11:26] alien very often a person who can't even speak english why do those people get health care benefits [11:31] at hospitals paid for by american citizens the answer is a decision made by the biden administration [11:37] that the trump administration working with congressional republicans undid we turned off [11:42] that money spigot to health care funding for illegal aliens the democrats in their legislative [11:47] texts want to turn it back on that's one thing the second thing matt is we all know that there are [11:52] various ways in which the the the biden administration waved away illegal immigration status they gave [11:59] parolees they gave asylum claims to people who weren't really claiming asylum and when they waved the magic wand of [12:05] amnesty giving millions of people legal status even though they were in the country illegally they [12:12] also gave those people access to health care benefits so what the democrats are engaging in is [12:16] a sleight of hand they're saying no no those weren't illegal aliens who were getting health care benefits [12:21] even though everybody excuse me knows they were in the country illegally it's a lie told by the democrats [12:28] that they're not trying to give health care benefits to illegal aliens it's a lie that is obviously [12:33] untrue if you just look at the text that they gave us and all you have to do is understand that this is [12:38] about who benefits we think the american people's government ought to benefit american citizens the [12:44] democrats are willing to shut it down to benefit illegal aliens the contrast couldn't be more clear [12:49] peter thank you vice president vance the big hold up is of course that you guys say illegal illegal [12:57] immigrants are getting taxpayer funded health care democrats say you're lying that makes it feel like it [13:02] could be a really long shutdown is this going to be a long shutdown you know i don't know i can't [13:08] predict what congressional democrats are going to do peter but i actually don't think it's going to be [13:12] that long of a shutdown this is a pure guess from the vice president united states because i think you [13:17] already saw some evidence that moderate democrats are cracking a little bit they they understand the [13:22] fundamental illogic of this look for years every single one of us we can we can remember barack obama [13:28] on the white house lawn we can remember chuck schumer we can remember you know nancy pelosi for [13:33] years in chuck schumer's case for literally decades we've heard them say you don't shut the government [13:39] down over policy disagreement okay republicans think this thing about health care that thing about [13:43] health care democrats think this thing about immigration republicans disagree whatever those [13:47] disagreements are you don't shut down the government over it for the first time since the democrats [13:53] have been in politics they're now saying that unless we get every policy item that we demand [13:59] we're going to shut down the people's government they're trying to take a hostage and we're not [14:02] going to let them and the administration announced today that 18 billion dollars bound for new york [14:06] transportation projects is going to be frozen so it can't go to dei programs there but the timing of [14:12] this does announcing that today mean that you guys are going to squeeze chuck schumer's home state [14:18] until he blinks look i haven't talked to russ about this this morning but look i'm sure that russ [14:24] is heartbroken about the fact that he is unable to give certain things to certain constituencies [14:30] we want to do everything that we can to help the american people but when the democrats shut down the [14:35] government we have to actually do a little triage to make sure the most critical and most essential [14:41] services are provided the government does a lot of things of course republicans think that the federal [14:45] government probably does too much but there are a lot of critical things the federal government does [14:49] that absolutely all of us would agree need to do our troops need to get paid our air traffic [14:54] controllers need to make sure that people are flying safely and on time we need low-income people to be [15:00] able to access the food services that are provided by the federal government there are critical things [15:05] that need to be saved we're going to do everything that we can over the coming weeks if the shutdown lasts [15:10] that long to ensure that people get the essential services that they need despite the fact that [15:15] chuck schumer has shut down the federal government it's not going to be perfect because we are in [15:20] a government shutdown we are going to have to lay some people off if the shutdown continues we don't [15:25] like that we don't necessarily want to do it but we're going to do what we have to to keep the american [15:29] people's essential services continuing to run yeah thank you mr vice president thank you for being here [15:36] yesterday president trump said as a result of the shutdown we'll be laying off a lot of people that are going [15:41] to be very effective and the democrats they are going to be democrats has the administration [15:47] asked agencies to target federal workers who they believe to be democrats in these reductions of [15:53] forces we're we're not targeting federal agencies based on politics we're targeting the people's [15:59] government so that as much as possible of the essential services can continue to function that is [16:04] the question the president has asked the entire government is fundamentally okay we're going to shut down [16:09] that causes some problems the troops aren't getting paid there's nothing that we can do about that while [16:13] the government is shut down but there are essential services that we want to make sure as as much as [16:18] possible they still continue to function that is the principle that's driving us forward during the [16:23] shutdown it's going to be continue to be the principle that drives us forward but let's be honest [16:27] if this thing drags on for another few days or god forbid another few weeks we are going to have to lay [16:32] people off we're going to have to save money in some places so the essential services don't get turned off in [16:37] other places that is the reality of the government shutdown that chuck schumer and democrats have [16:42] foisted upon the administration so what did you mean by they're going to be democrats he said [16:46] they're going to be democrats you've laid out a lot of the pain and problems that would come [16:51] with a democratic shutdown and yet in the oval office yesterday the president said that a lot of good [16:56] could come from a shutdown so square that circle is which is a democratic caused crisis or a republican [17:04] opportunity for reform well i think all the president is saying phil is that he wants [17:07] to make sure the american people's government functions as well as it can despite the fact [17:11] that we're in a shutdown we're going to have to make things work and that means that we're going [17:15] to have to triage some certain things that means certain people are going to have to get laid off [17:19] and we're going to try to make sure that the american people suffer as little as possible from [17:23] this shutdown that's what the president is saying is that yes this is a bad thing obviously the [17:28] president is trying to reopen the government but we're going to make things work as well as we [17:31] possibly can given the constraints that we have and then all those policy differences for the [17:36] discussion and the negotiations to come later during the biden administration democrats twice voted to [17:41] expand these affordable care act tax credits but those were supposed to be temporary and they were [17:48] slated to expire at the end of the year as you sort of crack the door open to negotiation at a later [17:54] date would the party that ran on defunding obamacare really negotiate about potentially expanding obamacare [18:02] well phil what we've said to the democrats is that we're willing to have a conversation about [18:07] how to ensure that americans continue to have access to health care and frankly they should [18:11] have access to better health care at a lower cost we inherited a mess of a health care system from [18:16] the biden administration it's why the president has worked so hard on the mace most favored nation [18:21] status for prescription drugs it's why we care so much about lowering the cost of prescriptions [18:25] and why we're doing everything else we're willing to have that conversation but i think it's important to [18:30] bracket the health care policy conversation because it's separate from the government shutdown we think [18:36] that we can open the government and then have the conversation about what best health care policy [18:41] to fit the needs of the american people that's all we're trying to do that's all we're trying to [18:45] accomplish we've got to reopen the government first now caroline i don't know how you do this how [18:49] you actually choose people because i don't know 90 of the names in here is it just who's the best dressed [18:54] okay i really like your shirt go ahead thank you mr vice president you are president of the senate can [19:02] you talk about what you're doing what the administration is doing to try to get [19:05] other senate democrats to vote to open the government yeah we're talking to a number of our colleagues [19:10] democratic and republican in the senate i talked to a number of them last night the president of course [19:14] is talking to them as well i think there there really are two categories of demands that i've seen [19:19] privately from congressional democrats i think on the one hand those who are negotiating in good faith are [19:24] saying look we just want to make sure that we're able to have a conversation with the administration [19:28] about some of the the critical needs that we see that need to get fixed over the next few months [19:33] we recognize it's kind of absurd and a lot of them will admit in private that it's kind of absurd [19:38] to shut down the people's government over these disagreements but just agree to negotiate with us in [19:43] good faith on these issues and of course we're having that conversation with them then there's another [19:48] category people who say give us everything we want or we're going to keep the government shut down we just [19:53] write those people off because they're not negotiating in good faith and frankly we don't need it we've [19:58] already got three more democrats last night than i thought we would get and i think it's because they [20:03] recognize the illogic of the position of taking the entire american economy hostage because they don't [20:08] get their policy priorities so three moderate democrats joined 52 republicans last night we need five [20:14] more in order to reopen the government and that's really where we're going to focus is how to get those [20:18] five additional democrats thanks mr vice president uh first two questions are there plans uh to meet [20:26] democratic leaders again in the coming days or are you planning on plucking off sanders one by one [20:32] so that that's the whole question no i got i got a second okay go ahead and ask the second question [20:36] so the president's been posting some images of leader jeffries and uh senator schumer i saw [20:41] recently um you've said that you're interested in good faith negotiations with these leaders but [20:47] you know what message does that send is it helpful to post pictures of leader jeffries in a sombrero [20:51] if you're trying to have good faith talks with him oh i think it's funny the president's joking and [20:56] we're having a good time you can negotiate in good faith while also poking a little bit of fun [21:01] at some of the absurdities of the democrats positions and even you know poking some some fun at the [21:05] absurdity of the democrats themselves i mean i'll tell hakeem jeffries right now i make this solemn promise [21:10] to you that if you help us reopen the government the sombrero memes will stop and i've talked to the [21:15] president of the united states about that now to your first question are we negotiating one-on-one [21:20] are we negotiating in groups look i will go to the u.s capitol right now and meet with chuck schumer or [21:25] any senate democrat if it helps us reopen the government most of the conversations my experience [21:31] at least have been one off we're also of course relying on some of our senate republican colleagues [21:35] who have good relationships across the aisle we're going to do whatever we have to do is the answer [21:39] and i think it's tough to predict what shape this negotiation is going to take over the next few months [21:43] but i feel good about the fact that democrats already realized privately the fundamental [21:49] irrationality of their position i hope that they're going to publicly acknowledge it and reopen the [21:53] government the guy in the back yeah thank you mr vice president uh you responded to a post on x and [22:00] chuck schumer on the house floor back in 1996 railing against illegal immigrants receiving taxpayer funded [22:05] benefits you said chuck schumer once recognized that it was disastrous to give illegal aliens rewards for [22:11] breaking the law now he wants to shut down the government unless we reward illegal aliens for [22:15] breaking the law why has chuck schumer changed his stance you know that's a good question that's a [22:21] actually it's a very tough question asking me to get in the head of chuck schumer is not a place i [22:25] particularly want to be but my basic read on it is that the entire democratic party the political [22:32] leadership not not every democrat nationwide but the political leadership of their party has got it into [22:37] their heads that the only way to be compassionate is to be compassionate to illegal aliens rather than [22:42] american citizens if you go back to what bill clinton was saying even barack obama in some cases what he [22:47] was saying about illegal immigration 10 15 20 years ago you would put them on the maga right based purely [22:53] on their rhetoric around illegal immigration so i don't know why they've gone so far to the left i think [22:58] it's bad for the country i think it's bad for them politically but our principle all i can do is speak for [23:03] the president that i serve in the country the administration that i serve right now we believe [23:08] that the american people's government exists for the american people that means the people who have [23:13] the legal right to be here and that's why we're fighting to reopen the government and unfortunately [23:18] the democrats are fighting to shut it down for the benefit of illegal aliens and i'll take a couple more [23:22] and then i'll let caroline um i'll go back to my day job so caroline go back to hers all right yes [23:28] thank you mr vice president um just going back to the sombrero um you said that the president's [23:33] joking but um hakeem jeffrey says that these you know these means were racist what's your response [23:37] to that and just if i may briefly go off topic um secretary hegseth yesterday uh made an edict about [23:43] no more beardos in the military just one of what uh sorry what did what did he say beardos [23:51] sorry that's my accent just wanted your responses to that i didn't see that particular comment i thought [23:56] pete gave a hell of a speech and a speech that really is just oriented around returning the [24:00] american military to the very high standards that is it has had for virtually its entire history [24:06] until joe biden came along and decided to lower standards i think it was bad for our military [24:10] and it was bad for our troops when i was a young united states marine i did not have a beard i am now [24:16] the vice president so i get to do what i want to do but um i i think i think pete's trying to [24:20] reimplement high standards and that's a very good thing on the sombrero thing i mean hakeem jeffrey said it [24:24] was racist and i know that he said that and i honestly don't even know what that means like [24:30] is is is he a mexican american that is offended by having a sombrero meme i mean i saw one of the [24:37] major tv stations put um the the meme up and then say this is ai generated and he had like the curly [24:43] animated mustache too it's like do the american people do you really not realize the american people [24:48] recognize that he did not actually come to the white house wearing a sombrero and a black curly [24:53] animation mustache like give the country a little bit of credit we're all trying to do a very [24:58] important job for the american people the president united states likes to have a little bit of fun [25:02] when he's doing it and i think that's okay i'll take one more question in every previous shutdown [25:08] workers have been furloughed not laid off so why does the president want to fire some workers and not [25:13] just furlough them why is this shutdown any different well first of all we haven't made any final [25:17] decisions about what we're going to do with certain workers what we're saying is that we might have to [25:20] take extraordinary steps especially the longer this goes on we're going to have to take extraordinary [25:25] measures to ensure the people's government operates again not perfectly because it's not going to [25:29] operate perfectly in the midst of a shutdown but operate as well as it possibly can and i think that [25:34] the democrats if they're so worried about the effect this is having on the american people and they [25:39] should be what they should do is reopen the government not complain about how we respond to the fact that [25:45] chuck schumer and the democrats have shut down the government in the first place thank you [25:48] all right guys well let's let the fun continue the vice president's a very busy man and i'm happy to [25:58] take some more questions i know there's more news today aside from the shutdown we can focus on the [26:03] shutdown if you want but let's go ahead kate why don't you start the president talked about doing [26:07] things that he said were irreversible during the shutdown you know cutting vast numbers of people [26:11] he said and cutting programs can you specify what exactly he was referring to what's on the table [26:15] what's going to be cut look i think the vice president just referred to this in some of the [26:20] answers that he gave gave regarding the layoffs there are unfortunate consequences to a government [26:25] shutdown and the federal government is not receiving any cash at the moment and so the office of management [26:30] and budget has been tasked with looking over the receipts and looking over the budget of the entire [26:36] federal bureaucracy and as the vice president said determining what needs to continue to go out the [26:41] door and what can we continue to keep running and what unfortunately is going to have to come to an [26:46] end so those decisions are being made and unfortunately layoffs are very likely as the vice president [26:50] just said going to be a part of that and has the windows had any direct response from hamas from the [26:55] the peace proposal that was laid out you know the president said he would give three or four days but [26:59] is there a hard deadline now or what are the next steps here i will reiterate what the president of the [27:03] united states said three or four days and i can tell you that there are some very sensitive [27:09] discussions that are taking place but i certainly don't want to get ahead of any announcement at [27:13] this podium i'm going to let special envoy whitkoff and the president of united states handle that [27:21] thank you caroline two questions first of all following up on that the president said yesterday [27:24] i believe within three or four days he wanted to hear an answer from hamas that he's still sticking [27:28] by that timeline yes as i just confirmed and then a second question is a comment that's gotten a lot of [27:33] mobile attention uh senator uh dick durbin he was uh sent to receive a lifetime achievement award from [27:40] the catholic church he's since declined accepting it because there has been some controversy pope leo [27:46] commented on this and he said someone who says i'm against abortion but i'm in agreement with the [27:52] inhumane treatment of immigrants in the united states i don't know if that's pro-life you've been very [27:58] open about your catholic faith how do you respond i would reject there is inhumane treatment of [28:03] illegal immigrants in the united states under this administration there was however significant [28:08] inhumane treatment of illegal immigrants in the previous administration as they were being trafficked [28:13] and raped and beaten and in many cases killed over our united states southern border you also look [28:19] at the inhumane treatment at the hands of some of these illegal immigrants that took place [28:23] uh under the previous administration as well uh lake and riley comes to mind a beautiful american [28:29] citizen who was killed at the hands of an illegal immigrant so this administration is trying to [28:34] enforce our nation's laws uh in the most humane way possible uh and we're upholding the law and [28:40] we're doing that on the behalf on behalf of the people of our country who live here thanks a lot [28:47] caroline what is the level of concern that the administration has regarding a protracted [28:52] government shutdown in terms of its impact on the u.s economy and also its impact on small businesses [28:59] as well well look this government shutdown is no doubt going to impact everyday americans and it is the [29:06] fault of the democrats that we are in this position and i know i relayed some uh programs that will be [29:11] impacted the vice president did as well but i just want to make sure the american public understand what [29:17] the democrats have done to our government in our country 1.3 million active duty troops will [29:22] work now without pay critical food assistance for low-income women infants and children will now [29:28] lapse no new mothers or children are allowed to join this critical program because of the democrats [29:35] decision to shut down the government telehealth services for seniors and in-home treatment options [29:40] for medicare patients will now come to an end nearly 50 000 members of the united states coast guard are [29:46] going to have to work unpaid over 13 000 air traffic controllers will work without pay as well as [29:53] tsa agents will which will very likely create flight disruptions and pay will now stop for over 150 [29:59] 000 federal law enforcement officers these are not just numbers and statistics these are real americans [30:05] who have families at home and i saw some democrat uh members today saying they're still going to accept [30:11] their paychecks because they have three kids at home and they have mouths to feed well so do these federal [30:16] workers who those same democrats just voted to shut down the government and turn off their pay and we believe [30:21] that's very unfair and it's why the administration wants to see the government reopened gdp growth [30:27] fell by about half a percentage point during the last government shutdown during the president's [30:32] first term are you expecting a similar type of impact on gdp growth related to this potential [30:38] protracted government shutdown well look i think it's dependent upon how long this shutdown continues so [30:43] it's as it's up dependent on how long it takes democrats to muster up the coverage five of them [30:49] to vote uh in the best interest of our country our citizens and our economy uh eman [30:56] thank you caroline yesterday your administration took a five percent stake in lithium americas [31:02] and a stake in the mine that they're working on and you've taken stakes in other companies and revenue [31:06] streams from other companies can you articulate the broader principle here when does the administration see it as [31:11] appropriate to demand equity stakes or revenue streams from american companies uh and what other [31:17] companies are you going to be demanding those from well look this is a creative solution by the [31:22] president of the united states to tackle our nation's crippling debt crisis as i said earlier we are 37 [31:28] trillion dollars trillion with the crats in congress have officially shut down the united states government [31:35] house republicans passed a non-partisan clean piece of legislation to extend current government [31:41] funding until november 21st but nearly every single democrat senator voted against this bill to be [31:48] clear this was the exact same bill that democrats approved six short months ago in march just adjusted [31:55] for inflation this is the same kind of clean funding bill that democrats passed 13 separate times when they [32:02] held the majority during joe biden's administration so the american people woke up this morning and asked the [32:08] obvious question why is the government shut down right now the answer is pure partisan politics being [32:15] played by the democrat party the democrats shut down the government because president trump and the [32:20] republicans will not force american taxpayers to pay for free health care for illegal aliens america is 37 [32:28] trillion dollars in debt we cannot afford to provide taxpayer-funded free health care to illegals who broke the law to [32:35] enter our country to put this all into perspective the democrats refused to keep the government open over [32:42] health care to illegal aliens and now now have jeopardized critical health care programs for american [32:48] citizens instead the women infants and children program community health center funding medicare treatment [32:54] options and other health programs are now all at risk because of the democrats rejecting the clean cr the most [33:02] vulnerable in our country are being punished because the democrats want to prioritize illegals over american [33:08] citizens and if democrats actually cared about health care they would applaud the actions taken by [33:14] president trump just yesterday in the oval office he took a bold and massively popular action to improve our [33:21] health care system he announced the first agreement with a major pharmaceutical company pfizer to lower drug costs for [33:28] americans this is a historical achievement long sought by past democrat presidents that only president trump [33:35] was able to get done also yesterday while the democrats were whining about health care for illegal aliens [33:42] president trump signed a powerful executive order to supercharge american ai innovation and unlock cures for [33:49] pediatric cancer patients in the united states while president trump took action to lower drug prices and [33:56] improve the lives and the care of american children with cancer again democrats are fighting to give [34:02] health care benefits to illegal aliens the trump administration is fully committed to lowering health [34:08] care costs and advancing policies that will save american lives but right now we need to keep the [34:13] government open and funded and individuals and organizations across the political spectrum across the country agree [34:21] with the trump administration and republicans the labor union leader the teamsters [34:26] sean o'brien sent a very blunt message to democrats over their destructive antics he said american [34:31] workers are not bargaining chips senators need to stop screwing around and pass the house passed clean [34:38] short-term funding bill the u.s chamber of commerce the world's largest business organization called to [34:44] immediately pass the republican clean cr saying quote shutdowns are harmful to the economy the american people [34:51] and our national security and even democrat senators cortez masto and fetterman acknowledge that their party [34:57] is betraying the american people with this costly and chaotic democrat shutdown enough is enough democrats [35:04] need to stop sabotaging our country and holding the american people hostage in the country democrats need to do [35:10] their jobs the american people want the government reopened and this is proven in a new new york times [35:16] polls showing that two and three americans say the government should not be shut down by the democrats [35:22] even if their absurd demands are not met the president and republicans are working very hard to reopen [35:28] the federal government the vice president here has been crucial in this effort we encourage all americans [35:33] across the country call your democrat senators and encourage them to reopen the government that's what [35:38] president trump and the vice president want to do and with that i will turn it over to our great vice [35:43] president jadey vance great well thank you carolina and good afternoon to everybody and good afternoon [35:49] to everybody who's watching at home uh it's a tough act to follow but let me just say a few things [35:53] then i'll take a few questions number one democrats say that they care a lot about lowering health care [35:58] costs and yet when the president took historic action to work with the drug companies to lower [36:03] prescription drug prices the democrats did nothing to help us in fact we would have loved to have the [36:08] democrats helping us but they didn't they talk about doing something they don't actually do the hard work of [36:13] making it happen what they have done instead is to shut down the government because we won't give [36:17] billions of dollars to health care funding for illegal aliens that is what has actually happened [36:22] to the american people who are watching the reason your government is shut down at this very minute [36:26] is because despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of congressional republicans and even a few [36:32] moderate democrats supported opening the government the chuck schumer aoc wing of the democratic party [36:37] shut down the government because they said to us we will open the government but only if you give [36:43] billions of dollars of funding for health care for illegal aliens that's a ridiculous proposition [36:48] let me say two two other quick things then and then again i'll take some questions number one [36:52] we all understand that democrats and republicans have policy disagreements the democrats want to do [36:57] things look when chuck schumer and hakeem jeffries were in here a couple of days ago they made some [37:02] suggestions that the president was more than happy to say yes let's sit down and talk about how we can solve [37:08] the health care crisis that we inherited from the biden administration but it's one thing to say that we should [37:13] solve the health care crisis for americans it's another thing to say that we're going to shut down [37:17] the government unless we give the democrats every single thing that they want which as caroline says [37:23] includes giving billions of dollars of taxpayer funding for health care for illegal migrants [37:28] that's ridiculous you don't have policy disagreements that serve as the basis for a government shutdown [37:34] let's have the conversation about how to fix american health care about how to make health care more [37:38] accessible as the president showed he's more than willing to act on behalf of the american people [37:43] for this for this very reason what you don't do is say unless you do exactly what we want to do as [37:50] congressional democrats we're taken hostage and the hostage it turns out is critical essential services [37:55] that the american people need caroline talked about some of it let me talk about some more our troops [38:00] are not getting paid starting today because of the chuck schumer wing of the democratic party [38:05] uh we have people who require who require food assistance low-income americans who require food [38:12] assistance who will not get it unless we reopen the government thanks to chuck schumer and his his wing [38:17] of the democratic party we have flood insurance as we start hurricane season in the southeastern part of [38:23] our country that flood insurance is going to disappear because of chuck schumer and the and the and the far [38:28] left of the democratic party we need to reopen the government let's fix america's problems let's work [38:33] together to solve them but let's reopen the government before we have our our negotiation about [38:39] health care policy that's what the american people demand and that's certainly what the president of [38:43] the united states wants let me make one final point i think a lot of americans are asking themselves why [38:48] did this happen why did the democrats shut down the government despite as caroline said voting on the [38:52] exact same piece of legislation six months ago and there are a lot of different spins that we can put on [38:57] it a lot of different answers that we could give all of them true one answer i already gave [39:01] is that they want to give health care benefits to illegal aliens that is true they gave us [39:06] legislative text that would have undone us cutting off health care benefits for illegal aliens that's [39:12] one of the things that they asked for but the reality here and let's be honest about the politics [39:17] is that chuck schumer is terrified she's going to get a primary challenge from alexandria ocasio cortez [39:23] the reason why the american people's government is shut down is because chuck schumer is listening to the [39:29] far left radicals in his own party because he's terrified of a primary challenge so i'd invite [39:34] chuck schumer to join the moderate democrats and 52 senate republicans do the right thing open up the [39:40] people's government and then let's fix health care policy for the american people questions [39:45] mr vice president that's a lot matt boyle okay mr vice president uh there's two key democrat lies i would [39:51] like uh to get you on and see if you can address the first is is that you're seeing a number of top [39:57] democrat leaders from kamala harris and chuck schumer to hakeem jeffries claim that it is a republican [40:02] shutdown caused by trump uh the second is is that they're out there now claiming that they don't want [40:07] to to give health care to illegal aliens uh can you address both of those lies from the democrat part [40:13] yeah so on the point that it's a republican shutdown look it's obviously a democratic shutdown just look at [40:18] the vote totals in the house look at the vote totals in the senate and look at the president united [40:21] states own action and conduct throughout this crisis nearly every single house republican voted to open [40:28] the government matt nearly every single senate republican voted to open the government last [40:33] night and even to their credit a few moderate democrats voted to open the government that's [40:38] not a republican shutdown when nearly every single senate democrat votes to shut it down and every [40:43] republican voted to open it up it's just obviously not true now you can disagree about a number of things [40:49] but you can't disagree about the obvious fact that republicans voted to open the government [40:53] the president stands ready to sign that opening of the government we just need a few more democrats [40:58] to join us in that effort to open the government your final question about illegal alien benefits look [41:03] the text is very clear and i even saw i think it was george stephanophilus in an interview with mike [41:08] johnson did a fact check that was totally rooted in baseless claims it was basically democrat propaganda [41:15] if you look at the legislative text that they gave us they tried to turn on two separate provisions [41:21] that would give healthcare benefits to illegal aliens number one if you're an american citizens [41:26] you've been to a hospital in the last few years you probably noticed that wait times are especially [41:30] large and very often somebody who's there in the emergency room waiting is an illegal alien very often [41:35] a person who can't even speak english why do those people get healthcare benefits at hospitals [41:41] paid for by american citizens the answer is a decision made by the biden administration that [41:46] the trump administration working with congressional republicans undid we turned off that money spigot [41:51] to healthcare funding for illegal aliens the democrats in their legislative text want to turn it back on [41:57] that's one thing the second thing matt is we all know that there are various ways in which the the the [42:03] biden administration waved away illegal immigration status they gave parolees they gave asylum claims to [42:09] people who weren't really claiming asylum and when they waved the magic wand of amnesty giving millions [42:15] of people legal status even though they were in the country illegally they also gave those people access [42:22] to healthcare benefits so what the democrats are engaging in is a sleight of hand they're saying no no [42:27] those weren't illegal aliens who were getting healthcare benefits even though everybody excuse me knows [42:33] they were in the country illegally it's a lie told by the democrats that they're not trying to give [42:37] healthcare benefits to illegal aliens it's a lie that is obviously untrue if you just look at the [42:43] text that they gave us and all you have to do is understand that this is about who benefits [42:49] we think the american people's government ought to benefit american citizens the democrats are willing [42:53] to shut it down to benefit illegal aliens the contrast couldn't be more clear peter thank you vice [42:59] president vance the big holdup is of course that you guys say illegal illegal immigrants are getting [43:07] taxpayer-funded healthcare if democrats say you're lying that makes it feel like it could be a really [43:12] long shutdown is this going to be a long shutdown you know i don't know i can't predict what congressional [43:18] democrats are going to do peter but i actually don't think it's going to be that long of a shutdown [43:21] this is a pure guess from the vice president united states because i think you already saw some [43:26] evidence that moderate democrats are cracking a little bit they they understand the fundamental illogic of [43:32] this look for years every single one of us we can we can remember barack obama on the white house lawn [43:38] we can remember chuck schumer we can remember you know nancy pelosi for years in chuck schumer's case [43:43] for literally decades we've heard them say you don't shut the government down over policy disagreement [43:49] okay republicans think this thing about health care that thing about health care democrats think [43:53] this thing about immigration republicans disagree whatever those disagreements are you don't shut [43:58] down the government over it for the first time since the democrats have been in politics they're now [44:03] saying that unless we get every policy item that we demand we're going to shut down the people's [44:09] government they're trying to take a hostage and we're not going to let them and the administration [44:12] announced today that 18 billion dollars bound for new york transportation projects is going to be [44:17] frozen so it can't go to dei programs there but the timing of this does announcing that today mean that you [44:24] guys are going to squeeze chuck schumer's home state until he blinks look i haven't talked to russ about [44:30] this this morning but look i'm sure that russ is heartbroken about the fact that he's unable to give [44:36] certain things to certain constituencies we want to do everything that we can to help the american [44:42] people but when the democrats shut down the government we have to actually do a little triage to make sure [44:48] the most critical and most essential services are provided the government does a lot of things of course [44:53] republicans think that the federal government probably does too much but there are a lot of [44:56] critical things the federal government does that absolutely all of us would agree need to do [45:00] our troops need to get paid our air traffic controllers need to make sure that people are [45:04] flying safely and on time we need low-income people to be able to access the food services [45:10] that are provided by the federal government there are critical things that need to be saved we're [45:15] going to do everything that we can over the coming weeks if the shutdown lasts that long to ensure that [45:20] people get the essential services that they need despite the fact that chuck schumer has shut down [45:25] the federal government it's not going to be perfect because we are in a government shutdown [45:30] we are going to have to lay some people off if the shutdown continues we don't like that we don't [45:34] necessarily want to do it but we're going to do what we have to to keep the american people's [45:38] essential services continuing to run yeah thank you mr vice president thank you for being here [45:44] yesterday president trump said as a result of the shutdown we'll be laying off a lot of people that are going to be [45:50] very effective and the democrats they are going to be democrats has the administration asked agencies [45:57] to target federal workers who they believe to be democrats in these reductions of forces we're not [46:03] targeting federal agencies based on politics we're targeting the people's government so that it [46:08] is much of possible of the essential services can continue to function that is the question the [46:13] president has asked the entire government is fundamentally okay we're in a shutdown that causes some [46:19] problems the troops aren't getting paid there's nothing that we can do about that while the [46:22] government is shut down but there are essential services that we want to make sure as as much as [46:26] possible they still continue to function that is the principle that's driving us forward during the [46:32] shutdown it's going to be continue to be the principle that drives us forward but let's be honest [46:36] if this thing drags on for another few days or god forbid another few weeks we are going to have to lay [46:41] people off we're going to have to save money in some places so the essential services don't get turned off [46:46] in other places that is the reality of the government shutdown that chuck schumer and democrats have [46:50] foisted upon the administration so what did you mean by they're going to be democrats he said they're [46:55] going to be democrats you've laid out a lot of the pain and problems that would come with a democratic [47:00] shutdown and yet in the oval office yesterday the president said that a lot of good could come from a [47:05] shutdown so square that circle is is which is a democratic caused crisis or a republican opportunity for [47:13] reform well i think all the president is saying phil is that he wants to make sure the american [47:17] people's government functions as well as it can despite the fact that we're in a shutdown we're [47:21] going to have to make things work and that means that we're going to have to triage some certain [47:25] things that means certain people are going to have to get laid off and we're going to try to make [47:29] sure that the american people suffer as little as possible from the shutdown that's what the [47:33] president is saying is that yes this is a bad thing obviously the president is trying to reopen the [47:38] government but we're going to make things work as well as we possibly can given the constraints that we have [47:42] and then all those policy differences for the discussion and the negotiations to come later [47:47] during the biden administration democrats twice voted to expand these affordable care act tax credits [47:53] but those were supposed to be temporary and they were slated to expire at the end of the year [47:59] as you sort of crack the door open to negotiation at a later date would the party that ran on defunding [48:05] obamacare really negotiate about potentially expanding obamacare well phil what we've [48:12] said to the democrats is that we're willing to have a conversation about how to ensure that [48:16] americans continue to have access to health care and frankly they should have access to better [48:21] health care at a lower cost we inherited a mess of a health care system from the biden administration [48:26] it's why the president has worked so hard on the mace most favored nation status for prescription [48:31] drugs it's why we care so much about lowering the cost of prescriptions and why we're doing everything [48:35] else we're willing to have that conversation but i think it's important to bracket the health care policy [48:41] conversation because it's separate from the government shutdown we think that we can open the [48:45] government and then have the conversation about what best health care policy to fit the needs of the [48:50] american people that's all we're trying to do that's all we're trying to accomplish we've got to reopen [48:55] the government first now caroline i don't know how you do this how you actually choose people because [48:59] i don't know 90 of the names in here is it just who's the best dressed okay i really like your shirt go ahead [49:05] thank you mr vice president you are president of the senate can you talk about what you're doing [49:12] what the administration is doing to try to get other senate democrats to vote to open the government [49:17] yeah we're talking to a number of our colleagues democratic and republican in the senate i talked [49:21] to a number of them last night the president of course is talking to them as well i think there [49:24] are there really are two categories of demands that i've seen privately from congressional democrats [49:29] i think on the one hand those who are negotiating in good faith are saying look [49:33] we just want to make sure that we're able to have a conversation with the administration about some of [49:37] the the critical needs that we see that need to get fixed over the next few months we recognize it's [49:43] kind of absurd and a lot of them will admit in private that it's kind of absurd to shut down the [49:47] people's government over these disagreements but just agree to negotiate with us in good faith on these [49:53] issues and of course we're having that conversation with them then there's another category people who say [49:58] give us everything we want or we're going to keep the government shut down we just write those people off [50:03] because they're not negotiating in good faith and frankly we don't need them we've already got [50:07] three more democrats last night than i thought we would get and i think it's because they recognize [50:12] the illogic of the position of taking the entire american economy hostage because they don't get their [50:17] policy priorities so three moderate democrats joined 52 republicans last night we need five more in [50:23] order to reopen the government and that's really where we're going to focus is how to get those five [50:27] additional democrats uh thanks mr vice president uh first two questions are there plans uh to meet [50:35] democratic leaders again in the coming days or are you planning on uh plucking off senators one by one [50:41] so that's the whole question no i got a second okay go ahead and ask the second question so the [50:45] the president's been posting some images of leader jeffries and uh senator schumer i saw recently um [50:51] you've said that you're interested in good faith negotiations with these leaders but [50:55] you know what message does that send is it helpful to post pictures of leader jeffries in a sombrero [51:00] if you're trying to have good faith talks with him oh i think it's funny the president's joking and [51:05] we're having a good time you can negotiate in good faith while also poking a little bit of fun [51:09] at some of the absurdities of the democrats positions and even you know poking some some fun at the [51:14] absurdity of the democrats themselves i mean i'll tell hakeem jeffries right now i make this solemn promise [51:19] to you that if you help us reopen the government the sombrero memes will stop and i've talked to the [51:24] president of the united states about that now to your first question are we negotiating one-on-one [51:29] are we negotiating in groups look i will go to the u.s capitol right now and meet with chuck schumer or [51:33] any senate democrat if it helps us reopen the government most of the conversations my experience [51:39] at least have been one off we're also of course relying on some of our senate republican colleagues [51:43] who have good relationships across the aisle we're going to do whatever we have to do is the answer [51:48] and i think it's tough to predict what shape this negotiation is going to take over the next few months [51:52] but i feel good about the fact that democrats already realized privately the fundamental [51:58] irrationality of their position i hope that they're going to publicly acknowledge it and reopen the [52:02] government the guy in the back yeah thank you mr vice president uh you responded to a post on x [52:08] chuck schumer on the house floor back in 1996 railing against illegal immigrants receiving taxpayer funded [52:14] benefits you said chuck schumer once recognized that it was disastrous to give illegal aliens rewards [52:19] for breaking the law now he wants to shut down the government unless we reward illegal aliens for [52:24] breaking the law why has chuck schumer changed his stance you know that's a good question that's a [52:29] actually it's a very tough question asking me to get in the head of chuck schumer is not a place i [52:33] particularly want to be but my basic read on it is that the entire democratic party the political [52:40] leadership not not every democrat nationwide but the political leadership of their party [52:45] has got it into their heads that the only way to be compassionate is to be compassionate [52:49] to illegal aliens rather than american citizens if you go back to what bill clinton was saying even [52:54] barack obama in some cases what he was saying about illegal immigration 10 15 20 years ago you would [53:00] put them on the maga right based purely on their rhetoric around illegal immigration so i don't know why [53:05] they've gone so far to the left i think it's bad for the country i think it's bad for them politically [53:09] but our principle all i can do is speak for the president that i serve in the country the administration [53:14] that i serve right now we believe that the american people's government exists for the american [53:20] people that means the people who have the legal right to be here and that's why we're fighting to [53:24] reopen the government and unfortunately the democrats are fighting to shut it down for the benefit of [53:29] illegal aliens and i'll take a couple more and then i'll let caroline um i'll go back to my day job [53:34] so caroline go back to hers all right yes thank you mr vice president um just going back to the sombrero um [53:41] you said that the president is joking but um hakeem jeffrey says that these you know these means [53:44] were racist what's your response to that and just if i may briefly go off topic um secretary hegseth [53:50] yesterday uh made an edict about no more beardos in the military just one of what uh sorry what did [53:55] what did he say beardos beard beard beard sorry that's my accent just wondering your responses to that [54:02] i didn't see that particular comment i thought pete gave a hell of a speech and a speech that really is [54:07] just oriented around returning the american military to the very high standards that is it has had [54:12] for virtually its entire history until joe biden came along and decided to lower standards i think [54:17] it was bad for our military and it was bad for our troops when i was a young united states marine i did [54:23] not have a beard i am now the vice president so i get to do what i want to do but um i i think i think [54:28] pete's trying to reimplement high standards and that's a very good thing on the sombrero thing i mean [54:32] hakeem jeffrey said it was racist and i know that he said that and i honestly don't even know [54:37] what that means like is is is he a mexican american that is offended by having a sombrero meme and i [54:44] saw one of the major tv stations put um the the meme up and then say this is ai generated and he had [54:51] like the curly animated mustache too it's like do the american people do you really not realize the [54:56] american people recognize that he did not actually come to the white house wearing a sombrero and a [55:01] black curly animation mustache like give the country a little bit of credit we're all trying to do a very [55:07] important job for the american people the president united states likes to have a little bit of fun when [55:10] he's doing it and i think that's okay i'll take one more question in every previous shutdown workers [55:17] have been furloughed not laid off so why does the president want to fire some workers and not just [55:21] furlough them why is this shutdown any different well first of all we haven't made any final decisions [55:26] about what we're going to do with certain workers what we're saying is that we might have to take [55:29] extraordinary steps especially the longer this goes on we're going to have to take extraordinary [55:34] measures to ensure the people's government operates again not perfectly because it's not [55:38] going to operate perfectly in the midst of a shutdown but operate as well as it possibly can and i [55:43] think that the democrats if they're so worried about the effect this is having on the american [55:47] people and they should be what they should do is reopen the government not complain about how we [55:52] respond to the fact that chuck schumer and the democrats have shut down the government in the first [55:56] please thank you carolina thank you see you guys all right guys well let's let the fun continue [56:05] vice president's a very busy man and i'm happy to take some more questions i know there's more news [56:09] today aside from the shutdown we can focus on the shutdown if you want but let's go ahead kate why [56:14] don't you start the president talked about doing things that he said were irreversible during the [56:18] shutdown you know cutting vast numbers of people he said and cutting programs can you specify what exactly [56:22] he was referring to what's on the table and what's going to be cut look i think the vice president [56:26] just referred to this in some of the answers that he gave gave regarding the layoffs there are [56:32] unfortunate consequences to a government shutdown and the federal government is not receiving any [56:37] cash at the moment and so the office of management and budget has been tasked with looking over the [56:42] receipts and looking over the budget of the entire federal bureaucracy and as the vice president said [56:47] determining what needs to continue to go out the door and what can we continue to keep running [56:52] and what unfortunately is going to have to come to an end so those decisions are being made [56:56] and unfortunately layoffs are very likely as the vice president just said going to be a part of that [57:00] and has the windows had any direct response from hamas from the the peace proposal that was laid out [57:06] the president said he would give three or four days but is there a hard deadline now what are the next [57:10] steps here i will reiterate what the president of the united states said three or four days and i can [57:16] tell you that there are some very sensitive discussions that are taking place but i certainly don't want to get [57:20] ahead of any announcement at this podium i'm going to let special envoy whitkoff and the president of [57:26] united states handle that thank you caroline two questions first of all following up on that the [57:32] president said yesterday i believe within three or four days he wanted to hear an answer from hamas [57:36] is he still sticking by the timeline yes as i just confirmed and then a second question is a comment [57:40] that's gotten a lot of global attention uh senator uh dick durbin he was uh sent to receive a lifetime [57:48] achievement award from the catholic church and since decline accepting it because there has been [57:52] some controversy pope leo uh commented on this and he said that someone who says i'm against abortion [58:00] but i'm in agreement with the inhumane treatment of immigrants in the united states i don't know if [58:05] that's pro-life you've been very open about your catholic faith how do you respond to that i would reject [58:10] there is inhumane treatment of illegal immigrants in the united states under this administration there was [58:15] however significant inhumane treatment of illegal immigrants in the previous administration as they [58:20] were being trafficked and raped and beaten and in many cases killed over our united states southern [58:27] border you also look at the inhumane treatment at the hands of some of these illegal immigrants that [58:31] took place uh under the previous administration as well uh lake and riley comes to mind a beautiful [58:37] american citizen who was killed at the hands of an illegal immigrant so this administration is trying to [58:43] enforce our nation's laws uh in the most humane way possible uh and we're upholding the law and [58:49] we're doing that on the behalf on behalf of the people of our country who live here thanks a lot [58:55] caroline what is the level of concern that the administration has regarding a protracted government [59:01] shutdown in terms of its impact on the u.s economy and also its impact on small businesses as well [59:08] well look this government shutdown is no doubt going to impact everyday americans and it is the [59:14] fault of the democrats that we are in this position and i know i relayed some uh programs that will be [59:20] impacted the vice president did as well but i just want to make sure the american public understand [59:25] what the democrats have done to our government in our country 1.3 million active duty troops will work [59:31] now without pay critical food assistance for low-income women infants and children will now lapse [59:37] no new mothers or children are allowed to join this critical program because of the democrats decision [59:44] to shut down the government telehealth services for seniors and in-home treatment options for medicare [59:49] patients will now come to an end nearly 50 000 members of the united states coast guard are going to have [59:55] to work unpaid over 13 000 air traffic controllers will work without pay as well as tsa agents will which [1:00:03] will very likely create flight disruptions and pay will now stop for over 150 000 federal law enforcement [1:00:10] officers these are not just numbers and statistics these are real americans who have families at home [1:00:15] and i saw some democrat uh members today saying they're still going to accept their paychecks because [1:00:20] they have three kids at home and they have mouths to feed well so do these federal workers who those same [1:00:26] democrats just voted to shut down the government and turn off their pay and we believe that's very unfair [1:00:31] and it's why the administration wants to see the government reopened gdp growth fell by about half [1:00:37] a percentage point during the last government shutdown during the president's first term are you [1:00:42] expecting a similar type of impact on gdp growth related to this potential protracted government shutdown [1:00:49] well look i think it's dependent upon how long this shutdown continues so it's it's up dependent on [1:00:54] how long it takes democrats to muster up the coverage five of them to vote [1:00:58] uh in the best interest of our country our citizens and our economy uh emin thank you caroline [1:01:06] yesterday your administration took a five percent stake in lithium americas uh and a stake in the [1:01:11] mine that they're working on and you've taken stakes in other companies and revenue streams from other [1:01:15] companies can you articulate the broader principle here when does the administration see it as [1:01:19] appropriate to demand equity stakes or revenue streams from american companies uh and what other companies [1:01:26] are you going to be demanding those from well look this is a creative solution by the president of [1:01:31] the united states to tackle our nation's crippling debt crisis as i said earlier we are 37 trillion [1:01:37] dollars trillion with the crats in congress have officially shut down the united states government [1:01:43] house republicans passed a non-partisan clean piece of legislation to extend current government funding [1:01:49] until november 21st but nearly every single democrat senator voted against this bill to be clear this [1:01:57] was the exact same bill that democrats approved six short months ago in march just adjusted for [1:02:03] inflation this is the same kind of clean funding bill that democrats passed 13 separate times when they [1:02:10] held the majority during joe biden's administration so the american people woke up this morning and asked the [1:02:17] obvious question why is the government shut down right now the answer is pure partisan politics being [1:02:24] played by the democrat party the democrats shut down the government because president trump and [1:02:29] the republicans will not force american taxpayers to pay for free health care for illegal aliens america [1:02:36] is 37 trillion dollars in debt we cannot afford to provide taxpayer-funded free health care to illegals who [1:02:43] broke the law to enter our country to put this all into perspective the democrats refused to keep the [1:02:49] government open over health care to illegal aliens and now now have jeopardized critical health care [1:02:55] programs for american citizens instead the women infants and children program community health center [1:03:01] funding medicare treatment options and other health programs are now all at risk because of the democrats [1:03:08] rejecting the clean cr the most vulnerable in our country are being punished because the democrats want [1:03:14] to prioritize illegals over american citizens and if democrats actually cared about health care they would [1:03:20] applaud the actions taken by president trump just yesterday in the oval office he took a bold and [1:03:27] massively popular action to improve our health care system he announced the first agreement with a major [1:03:33] pharmaceutical company pfizer to lower drug costs for americans this is a historical achievement long sought [1:03:40] by past democrat presidents that only president trump was able to get done also yesterday while the democrats [1:03:48] were whining about health care for illegal aliens president trump signed a powerful executive order to [1:03:53] supercharge american ai innovation and unlock cures for pediatric cancer patients in the united states [1:04:01] while president trump took action to lower drug prices and improve the lives and the care of american [1:04:07] children with cancer again democrats are fighting to give health care benefits to illegal aliens the trump [1:04:14] administration is fully committed to lowering health care costs and advancing policies that will save [1:04:19] american lives but right now we need to keep the government open and funded and individuals and [1:04:25] organizations across the political spectrum across the country agree with the trump administration and [1:04:31] republicans the labor union leader the teamsters sean o'brien sent a very blunt message to democrats [1:04:37] over their destructive antics he said american workers are not bargaining chips senators need to stop [1:04:43] screwing around and pass the house passed clean short-term funding bill the u.s chamber of commerce the [1:04:49] world's largest business organization called to immediately pass the republican clean cr saying quote shutdowns are [1:04:56] harmful to the economy the american people and our national security and even democrat senators cortez [1:05:03] masto and fetterman acknowledge that their party is betraying the american people with this costly and [1:05:09] chaotic democrat shutdown enough is enough democrats need to stop sabotaging our country and holding the [1:05:15] american people hostage in the country democrats need to do their jobs the american people want the [1:05:21] government reopened and this is proven in a new new york times poll showing that two and three [1:05:26] americans say the government should not be shut down by the democrats even if their absurd demands [1:05:32] are not met the president and republicans are working very hard to reopen the federal government the [1:05:37] vice president here has been crucial in this effort we encourage all americans across the country [1:05:43] call your democrat senators and encourage them to reopen the government that's what president trump [1:05:48] and the vice president want to do and with that i will turn it over to our great vice president jadey vance [1:05:52] great well thank you carolina and good afternoon to everybody and good afternoon to everybody who's [1:05:58] watching at home uh it's a tough act to follow but let me just say a few things then i'll take a few [1:06:02] questions number one democrats say that they care a lot about lowering health care costs and yet when [1:06:08] the president took historic action to work with the drug companies to lower prescription drug prices the [1:06:13] democrats did nothing to help us in fact we would have loved to have the democrats helping us but they [1:06:18] didn't they talk about doing something they don't actually do the hard work of making it happen [1:06:22] what they have done instead is to shut down the government because we won't give [1:06:26] billions of dollars to health care funding for illegal aliens that is what has actually happened [1:06:30] to the american people who are watching the reason your government is shut down at this very minute [1:06:35] is because despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of congressional republicans and even a few [1:06:40] moderate democrats supported opening the government the chuck schumer aoc wing of the democratic party [1:06:46] shut down the government because they said to us we will open the government but only if you give [1:06:51] billions of dollars of funding for health care for illegal aliens that's a ridiculous proposition [1:06:56] let me say two two other quick things and then again i'll take some questions number one we all [1:07:02] understand that democrats and republicans have policy disagreements the democrats want to do things look [1:07:07] when chuck schumer and hakeem jeffries were in here a couple of days ago they made some suggestions that [1:07:11] the president was more than happy to say yes let's sit down and talk about how we can solve the health care [1:07:17] crisis that we inherited from the biden administration but it's one thing to say that we should solve the [1:07:22] health care crisis for americans it's another thing to say that we're going to shut down the government [1:07:27] unless we give the democrats every single thing that they want which as caroline says includes giving [1:07:32] billions of dollars of taxpayer funding for health care for illegal migrants that's ridiculous you don't [1:07:38] have policy disagreements that serve as the basis for a government shutdown let's have the conversation [1:07:43] about how to fix american health care about how to make health care more accessible as the president [1:07:48] showed he's more than willing to act on behalf of the american people for this for this very reason [1:07:53] what you don't do is say unless you do exactly what we want to do as congressional democrats we're [1:08:00] taking hostage and the hostage it turns out is critical essential services that the american people need [1:08:05] caroline talked about some of it let me talk about some more our troops are not getting paid [1:08:10] starting today because of the chuck schumer wing of the democratic party uh we have people who [1:08:16] require who require food assistance low-income americans who require food assistance who will not [1:08:21] get it unless we reopen the government thanks to chuck schumer and his his wing of the democratic party [1:08:27] we have flood insurance as we start hurricane season in the southeastern part of our country [1:08:32] that flood insurance is going to disappear because of chuck schumer and the in the and the far left of [1:08:37] the democratic party we need to reopen the government let's fix america's problems let's work together to [1:08:42] solve them but let's reopen the government before we have our our negotiation about health care policy [1:08:49] that's what the american people demand and that's certainly what the president of the united states [1:08:52] wants let me make one final point i think a lot of americans are asking themselves why did this happen [1:08:57] why did the democrats shut down the government despite as caroline said voting on the exact same [1:09:02] piece of legislation six months ago and there are a lot of different spins that we can put on it a lot [1:09:06] of different answers that we could give all of them true one answer i already gave is that they want to give [1:09:11] health care benefits to illegal aliens that is true they gave us legislative text that would have [1:09:17] undone us cutting off health care benefits for illegal aliens that's one of the things that they [1:09:22] asked for but the reality here and let's be honest about the politics is that chuck schumer is terrified [1:09:27] she's going to get a primary challenge from alexandria ocasio cortez the reason why the american people's [1:09:34] government is shut down is because chuck schumer is listening to the far left radicals in his own party [1:09:40] because he's terrified of a primary challenge so i'd invite chuck schumer to join the moderate democrats [1:09:45] and 52 senate republicans do the right thing open up the people's government and then let's fix [1:09:50] health care policy for the american people questions mr vice president that's a lot matt boyle mr vice [1:09:57] president uh there's two key democrat lives i would like uh to get your think on and see if you can [1:10:03] address the first is is that you're seeing a number of top democrat leaders from kamala harris and chuck [1:10:07] schumer to hakeem jeffries claim that it is a republican shutdown caused by trump uh the second [1:10:13] is is that they're out there now claiming that they don't want to to give health care to illegal [1:10:18] aliens uh can you address both of those lies from the democrat part yeah so on the point that it's a [1:10:23] republican shutdown look it's obviously a democratic shutdown just look at the vote totals in the house [1:10:28] look at the vote totals in the senate and look at the president united states own action and conduct [1:10:32] throughout this crisis nearly every single house republican voted to open the government matt [1:10:38] nearly every single senate republican voted to open the government last night and even to their [1:10:43] credit a few moderate democrats voted to open the government that's not a republican shutdown when [1:10:48] nearly every single senate democrat votes to shut it down and every republican voted to open it up [1:10:53] it's just obviously not true now you can disagree about a number of things but you can't disagree about [1:10:59] the obvious fact that republicans voted to open the government the president stands ready to sign that [1:11:04] opening of the government we just need a few more democrats to join us in that effort to open the [1:11:08] government your final question about illegal alien benefits look the text is very clear and i've i even [1:11:14] saw i think it was george stephanophilus in an interview with mike johnson did a fact check that was [1:11:19] totally rooted in baseless claims it was basically democrat propaganda if you look at the legislative text [1:11:25] that they gave us they tried to turn on two separate provisions that would give health care benefits to [1:11:31] illegal aliens number one if you're an american citizens you've been to a hospital in the last few [1:11:36] years you probably noticed that wait times are especially large and very often somebody who's there [1:11:41] in the emergency room waiting is an illegal alien very often a person who can't even speak english [1:11:46] why do those people get health care benefits at hospitals paid for by american citizens the answer [1:11:52] is a decision made by the biden administration that the trump administration working with congressional [1:11:57] republicans undid we turned off that money spigot to health care funding for illegal aliens the democrats [1:12:03] in their legislative text want to turn it back on that's one thing the second thing matt is we all [1:12:08] know that there are various ways in which the the the biden administration waived away illegal immigration [1:12:15] status they gave parolees they gave asylum claims to people who weren't really claiming asylum [1:12:20] and when they waved the magic wand of amnesty giving millions of people legal status even though [1:12:27] they were in the country illegally they also gave those people access to health care benefits so what [1:12:32] the democrats are engaging in is a sleight of hand they're saying no no no those weren't illegal aliens [1:12:37] who were getting health care benefits even though everybody excuse me knows they were in the country [1:12:42] illegally it's a lie told by the democrats that they're not trying to give health care benefits to [1:12:47] illegal aliens it's a lie that is obviously untrue if you just look at the text that they gave us [1:12:52] and all you have to do is understand that this is about who benefits we think the american people's [1:12:59] government ought to benefit american citizens the democrats are willing to shut it down to benefit [1:13:03] illegal aliens the contrast couldn't be more clear peter thank you vice president vance the big holdup is [1:13:10] of course that you guys say illegal illegal immigrants are getting taxpayer funded health care democrats [1:13:17] say you're lying that makes it feel like it could be a really long shutdown is this going to be a long [1:13:23] shutdown you know i don't know i can't predict what congressional democrats are going to do peter but i [1:13:28] actually don't think it's going to be that long of a shutdown this is a pure guess from the vice [1:13:32] president united states because i think you already saw some evidence that moderate democrats are cracking [1:13:37] a little bit they they understand the fundamental illogic of this look for years every single one of us we [1:13:43] can we can remember barack obama on the white house lawn we can remember chuck schumer we can remember [1:13:49] you know nancy pelosi for years in chuck schumer's case for literally decades we've heard them say [1:13:55] you don't shut the government down over policy disagreement okay republicans think this thing [1:13:59] about health care that thing about health care democrats think this thing about immigration [1:14:02] republicans disagree whatever those disagreements are you don't shut down the government over it for [1:14:08] the first time since the democrats have been in politics they are now saying that unless we get [1:14:13] every policy item that we demand we're going to shut down the people's government they're trying to [1:14:18] take a hostage and we're not going to let them and the administration announced today that 18 billion [1:14:22] dollars bound for new york transportation projects is going to be frozen so it can't go to dei programs [1:14:28] there but the timing of this does announcing that today mean that you guys are going to squeeze chuck [1:14:34] schumer's home state until he blinks look i haven't talked to russ about this this morning but look [1:14:40] i'm sure that russ is heartbroken about the fact that he is unable to give certain things to certain [1:14:46] constituencies we want to do everything that we can to help the american people but when the democrats [1:14:52] shut down the government we have to actually do a little triage to make sure the most critical and [1:14:57] most essential services are provided the government does a lot of things of course republicans think that [1:15:02] the federal government probably does too much but there are a lot of critical things the federal [1:15:06] government does that absolutely all of us would agree need to do our troops need to get paid our [1:15:11] air traffic controllers need to make sure that people are flying safely and on time we need low [1:15:16] income people to be able to access the food services that are provided by the federal government [1:15:20] there are critical things that need to be saved we're going to do everything that we can [1:15:25] over the coming weeks if the shutdown lasts that long to ensure that people get the essential [1:15:30] services that they need despite the fact that chuck schumer has shut down the federal government [1:15:35] it's not going to be perfect because we are in a government shutdown we are going to have to lay [1:15:39] some people off if the shutdown continues we don't like that we don't necessarily want to do it but we're [1:15:45] going to do what we have to to keep the american people's essential services continuing to run [1:15:50] thank you mr vice president thank you for being here yesterday president trump said as a result of the [1:15:56] shutdown we'll be laying off a lot of people that are going to be very affected and the democrats they [1:16:01] are going to be democrats has the administration asked agencies to target federal workers who they [1:16:08] believe to be democrats in these reductions of forces we're not targeting federal agencies based on [1:16:14] politics we're targeting the people's government so that as much as possible of the essential services [1:16:20] can continue to function that is the question the president has asked the entire government [1:16:24] is fundamentally okay we're in a shutdown that causes some problems the troops aren't getting [1:16:28] paid there's nothing that we can do about that while the government is shut down but there are [1:16:32] essential services that we want to make sure as as much as possible they still continue to function [1:16:37] that is the principle that's driving us forward during the shutdown it's going to be continue to be [1:16:42] the principle that drives us forward but let's be honest if this thing drags on for another few days or [1:16:47] god forbid another few weeks we are going to have to lay people off we're going to have to save money [1:16:51] in some places so the essential services don't get turned off in other places that is the reality of [1:16:56] the government shutdown that chuck schumer and democrats have foisted upon the administration [1:17:00] so what does he mean by they're going to be democrats he said they're going to be democrats [1:17:04] you've laid out a lot of the pain and problems that would come with a democratic shutdown and yet in [1:17:10] the oval office yesterday the president said that a lot of good could come from a shutdown so square that [1:17:16] circle is which is a democratic caused crisis or a republican opportunity for reform well i think all [1:17:22] the president is saying phil is that he wants to make sure the american people's government functions [1:17:26] as well as it can despite the fact that we're in a shutdown we're going to have to make things work [1:17:31] and that means that we're going to have to triage some certain things that means certain people are [1:17:35] going to have to get laid off and we're going to try to make sure that the american people suffer as [1:17:39] little as possible from the shutdown that's what the president is saying is that yes this is a bad thing [1:17:44] obviously the president is trying to reopen the government but we're going to make things work as [1:17:48] well as we possibly can given the constraints that we have and then on those policy differences [1:17:53] for the discussion and the negotiations to come later during the biden administration democrats [1:17:57] twice voted to expand these affordable care act tax credits but those were supposed to be temporary [1:18:04] and they were slated to expire at the end of the year as you sort of crack the door open to [1:18:09] negotiation at a later date would the party that ran on defunding obamacare really negotiate about [1:18:17] potentially expanding obamacare well phil what we've said to the democrats is that we're willing [1:18:23] to have a conversation about how to ensure that americans continue to have access to health care and [1:18:27] frankly they should have access to better health care at a lower cost we inherited a mess of a health [1:18:32] care system from the biden administration it's why the president has worked so hard on the most [1:18:37] favored nation status for prescription drugs it's why we care so much about lowering the cost of [1:18:42] prescriptions and why we're doing everything else we're willing to have that conversation but i think [1:18:46] it's important to bracket the healthcare policy conversation because it's separate from the [1:18:51] government shutdown we think that we can open the government and then have the conversation about [1:18:56] what best healthcare policy to fit the needs of the american people that's all we're trying to do [1:19:01] that's all we're trying to accomplish we've got to reopen the government first now caroline i don't know how [1:19:05] you do this how you actually choose people because i don't know 90 of the names in here is it just [1:19:10] who's the best dressed okay i really like your shirt go ahead thank you mr vice president you are [1:19:17] president of the senate can you talk about what you're doing what the administration is doing to [1:19:22] try to get other senate democrats to vote to open the government yeah we're talking to a number of our [1:19:27] colleagues democratic and republican in the senate i talked to a number of them last night the president of [1:19:31] course is talking to them as well i think there there really are two categories of demands that i've [1:19:35] seen privately from congressional democrats i think on the one hand those who are negotiating in good [1:19:40] faith are saying look we just want to make sure that we're able to have a conversation with the [1:19:44] administration about some of the the critical needs that we see that need to get fixed over the next [1:19:50] few months we recognize it's kind of absurd and a lot of them will admit in private that it's kind of [1:19:54] absurd to shut down the people's government over these disagreements but just agree to negotiate with us in [1:20:00] good faith on these issues and of course we're having that conversation with them then there's another [1:20:05] category people who say give us everything we want or we're going to keep the government shut down [1:20:09] we we just write those people off because they're not negotiating in good faith and frankly we don't [1:20:14] need them we've already got three more democrats last night than i thought we would get and i think [1:20:19] it's because they recognize the illogic of the position of taking the entire american economy [1:20:24] hostage because they don't get their policy priorities so three moderate democrats joined 52 republicans last [1:20:30] night we need five more in order to reopen the government and that's really where we're going to focus is [1:20:35] how to get those five additional democrats thanks mr vice president uh first two questions are there [1:20:41] plans uh to meet uh democratic leaders again in the coming days or are you planning on plucking off [1:20:47] sanders one by one so that's the whole question no i got a second okay go ahead and ask the second [1:20:53] question so the president's been posting some images of leader jeffries and uh senator schumer [1:20:58] i saw recently um you've said that you're interested in good faith negotiations with these leaders but [1:21:04] you know what message does that send is it helpful to post pictures of leader jeffries in a sombrero [1:21:08] if you're trying to have good faith talks with him oh i think it's funny the president's joking and [1:21:13] we're having a good time you can negotiate in good faith while also poking a little bit of fun [1:21:18] at some of the absurdities of the democrats positions and even you know poking some some fun at the [1:21:22] absurdity of the democrats themselves i mean i'll tell hakeem jeffries right now i make this solemn promise [1:21:27] to you that if you help us reopen the government the sombrero memes will stop and i've talked to the [1:21:32] president of the united states about that now to your first question are we negotiating one-on-one [1:21:37] are we negotiating in groups look i will go to the u.s capitol right now and meet with chuck schumer [1:21:41] or any senate democrat if it helps us reopen the government most of the conversations my experience [1:21:48] at least have been one off we're also of course relying on some of our senate republican colleagues [1:21:52] who have good relationships across the aisle we're going to do whatever we have to do is the answer [1:21:56] and i think it's tough to predict what shape this negotiation is going to take over the next few [1:22:00] months but i feel good about the fact that democrats already realized privately the fundamental [1:22:06] irrationality of their position i hope that they're going to publicly acknowledge it and reopen the [1:22:10] government right in the back yeah thank you mr vice president uh you responded to a post on x [1:22:17] chuck schumer on the house floor back in 1996 railing against illegal immigrants receiving taxpayer funded [1:22:22] benefits right you said chuck schumer once recognized that it was disastrous to give illegal aliens [1:22:27] rewards for breaking the law now he wants to shut down the government unless we reward illegal aliens [1:22:32] for breaking the law why has chuck schumer changed his stance you know that's a good question that's a [1:22:38] actually it's a very tough question asking me to get in the head of chuck schumer is not a place i [1:22:42] particularly want to be but my basic read on it is that the entire democratic party the political [1:22:49] leadership not not every democrat nationwide but the political leadership of their party has got it into [1:22:54] their heads that the only way to be compassionate is to be compassionate to illegal aliens rather than [1:22:59] american citizens if you go back to what bill clinton was saying even barack obama in some cases what he [1:23:04] was saying about illegal immigration 10 15 20 years ago you would put them on the maga right based purely [1:23:10] on their rhetoric around illegal immigration so i don't know why they've gone so far to the left i think [1:23:15] it's bad for the country i think it's bad for them politically but our principle all i can do is speak for [1:23:20] the president that i serve in the country the administration that i serve right now we believe [1:23:25] that the american people's government exists for the american people that means the people who have [1:23:30] the legal right to be here and that's why we're fighting to reopen the government and unfortunately [1:23:35] the democrats are fighting to shut it down for the benefit of illegal aliens and i'll take a couple more [1:23:39] and then i'll let caroline um i'll go back to my day job so caroline go back to hers all right yes [1:23:45] thank you mr vice president um just going back to the the sombrero um you said that the president's [1:23:50] joking but um hakeem jeffrey says that these you know these means were racist what's your response [1:23:54] to that and just if i may briefly go off topic um secretary hegseth yesterday uh made an edict [1:24:00] about no more beardos in the military just one of what uh sorry what did what did he say beardos [1:24:08] sorry that's my accent just wondering your responses to that i didn't see that particular [1:24:12] comment i thought pete gave a hell of a speech and a speech that really is just oriented around [1:24:17] returning the american military to the very high standards that is it has had for virtually its [1:24:21] entire history until joe biden came along and decided to lower standards i think it was bad for [1:24:26] our military and it was bad for our troops uh when i was a young united states marine i did not have a [1:24:32] beard i am now the vice president so i get to do what i want to do but um i i think i think pete's [1:24:37] trying to reimplement high standards and that's a very good thing on the sombrero thing i mean [1:24:41] hakeem jeffrey said it was racist and i know that he said that and i honestly don't even know [1:24:45] what that means like is is is he a mexican american that is offended by having a sombrero meme i mean i [1:24:53] saw one of the major tv stations put um the the meme up and then say this is ai generated and he had [1:24:59] like the curly animated mustache too it's like do the american people do you really not realize the [1:25:05] american people recognize that he did not actually come to the white house wearing a sombrero and a black [1:25:10] curly animation mustache like give the country a little bit of credit we're all trying to do a [1:25:15] very important job for the american people the president united states likes to have a little [1:25:18] bit of fun when he's doing it and i think that's okay i'll take one more question [1:25:23] in every previous shutdown workers have been furloughed not laid off so why does the president [1:25:28] want to fire some workers and not just furlough them why is this shutdown any different well [1:25:33] first of all we haven't made any final decisions about what we're going to do with certain workers what [1:25:36] we're saying is that we might have to take extraordinary steps especially the longer this [1:25:40] goes on we're going to have to take extraordinary measures to ensure the people's government operates [1:25:45] again not perfectly because it's not going to operate perfectly in the midst of a shutdown [1:25:49] but operate as well as it possibly can and i think that the democrats if they're so worried [1:25:54] about the effect this is having on the american people and they should be what they should do is [1:25:58] reopen the government not complain about how we respond to the fact that chuck schumer and the democrats [1:26:03] have shut down the government in the first place thank you all carolina [1:26:11] all right guys well let's let the fun continue the vice president's a very busy man and i'm happy to [1:26:16] take some more questions i know there's more news today aside from the shutdown we can focus on the [1:26:20] shutdown if you want but let's go ahead kate why don't you start the president talked about doing things [1:26:24] that he said were irreversible during the shutdown you know cutting vast numbers of people he said and [1:26:29] cutting programs can you specify what exactly he was referring to what's on the table and what's going to be [1:26:33] cut look i think the vice president just referred to this in some of the answers that he gave gave [1:26:38] regarding the layoffs there are unfortunate consequences to a government shutdown and the [1:26:43] federal government is not receiving any cash at the moment and so the office of management and budget [1:26:48] has been tasked with looking over the receipts and looking over the budget of the entire federal [1:26:53] bureaucracy and as the vice president said determining what needs to continue to go out the door and what [1:26:59] can we continue to keep running and what unfortunately is going to have to come to an end so those [1:27:03] decisions are being made and unfortunately layoffs are very likely as the vice president just said [1:27:08] going to be a part of that and has the windows had any direct response from hamas from the the peace [1:27:13] proposal that was laid out you know the president said he would give three or four days but is there [1:27:17] a hard deadline now or what are the next steps here i will reiterate what the president of the united [1:27:21] states said three or four days and i can tell you that there are some very sensitive discussions that are [1:27:27] are taking place but i certainly don't want to get ahead of any announcement at this podium i'm [1:27:31] going to let special envoy whitkoff and the president of the united states handle that [1:27:38] thank you caroline two questions first of all following up on that the president said [1:27:41] yesterday i believe within three or four days he wanted to hear an answer from hamas is he still [1:27:45] sticking by the timeline yes as i just confirmed and then a second question is a comment that's gotten [1:27:50] a lot of global attention uh senator uh dick durbin he was uh sent to receive a lifetime achievement [1:27:57] award from the catholic church and since declined accepting it because there has been some [1:28:01] controversy pope leo uh commented on this and he said that someone who says i'm against abortion [1:28:08] but i'm in agreement with the inhumane treatment of immigrants in the united states i don't know if [1:28:13] that's pro-life you've been very open about your catholic faith how do you respond to that i would reject [1:28:19] there is inhumane treatment of illegal immigrants in the united states under this administration there was [1:28:24] however uh significant inhumane treatment of illegal immigrants in the previous administration as they [1:28:29] were being trafficked and raped and beaten and in many cases killed over our united states southern [1:28:35] border you also look at the inhumane treatment at the hands of some of these illegal immigrants that [1:28:40] took place uh under the previous administration as well uh lake and riley comes to mind a beautiful [1:28:45] american citizen who was killed at the hands of an illegal immigrant so this administration is trying to [1:28:51] enforce our nation's laws uh in the most humane way possible uh and we're upholding the law and we're [1:28:58] doing that on the behalf on behalf of the people of our country who live here thanks a lot caroline [1:29:05] what is the level of concern that the administration has regarding a protracted government shutdown in [1:29:11] terms of its impact on the u.s economy and also its impact on small businesses as well well look [1:29:18] this government shutdown is no doubt going to impact everyday americans and it is the fault of the [1:29:23] democrats that we are in this position and i know i relayed some uh programs that will be impacted the [1:29:29] vice president did as well but i just want to make sure the american public understand what the democrats [1:29:35] have done to our government in our country 1.3 million active duty troops will work now without pay [1:29:41] critical food assistance for low-income women infants and children will now lapse no new mothers or [1:29:47] children are allowed to join this critical program because of the democrats decision to shut down the [1:29:53] government telehealth services for seniors and in-home treatment options for medicare patients [1:29:58] will now come to an end nearly 50 000 members of the united states coast guard are going to have to [1:30:03] work unpaid over 13 000 air traffic controllers will work without pay as well as tsa agents will which will [1:30:11] very likely create flight disruptions and pay will now stop for over 150 000 federal law enforcement [1:30:18] officers these are not just numbers and statistics these are real americans who have families at home [1:30:24] and i saw some democrat uh members today saying they're still going to accept their paychecks because [1:30:29] they have three kids at home and they have mouths to feed well so do these federal workers who those same [1:30:34] democrats just voted to shut down the government and turn off their pay and we believe that's very unfair [1:30:39] and it's why the administration wants to see the government reopened gdp growth fell by about half [1:30:45] a percentage point during the last government shutdown during the president's first term are you expecting [1:30:51] a similar type of impact on gdp growth related to this potential protracted government shutdown well look [1:30:58] i think it's dependent upon how long this shutdown continues so it's as it's up dependent on how long it [1:31:03] takes democrats to muster up the coverage five of them to vote uh in the best interest of our [1:31:09] country our citizens and our economy uh eman thank you caroline yesterday your administration took [1:31:16] a five percent stake in lithium america's uh and a stake in the mine that they're working on and [1:31:21] you've taken stakes in other companies and revenue streams from other companies can you articulate the [1:31:25] broader principle here when does the administration see it as appropriate to demand equity stakes or [1:31:31] revenue streams from american companies uh and what other companies are you going to be demanding those [1:31:35] from well look this is a creative solution by the president of the united states to tackle our [1:31:41] nation's crippling debt crisis as i said earlier we are 37 trillion dollars trillion with the [1:31:47] crats in congress have officially shut down the united states government house republicans passed a [1:31:53] non-partisan clean piece of legislation to extend current government funding until november 21st [1:32:00] but nearly every single democrat senator voted against this bill to be clear this was the exact [1:32:07] same bill that democrats approved six short months ago in march just adjusted for inflation this is [1:32:13] the same kind of clean funding bill that democrats passed 13 separate times when they held the majority [1:32:20] during joe biden's administration so the american people woke up this morning and asked the obvious [1:32:26] question why is the government shut down right now the answer is pure partisan politics being played by [1:32:33] the democrat party the democrats shut down the government because president trump and the republicans [1:32:38] will not force american taxpayers to pay for free health care for illegal aliens america is 37 trillion [1:32:46] dollars in debt we cannot afford to provide taxpayer-funded free health care to illegals who broke the law to [1:32:52] enter our country to put this all into perspective the democrats refused to keep the government open over [1:32:59] health care to illegal aliens and now now have jeopardized critical health care programs for american citizens [1:33:05] instead the women infants and children program community health center funding medicare treatment options [1:33:12] and other health programs are now all at risk because of the democrats rejecting the clean cr the most vulnerable in our [1:33:20] country are being punished because the democrats want to prioritize illegals over american citizens and if [1:33:26] democrats actually cared about health care they would applaud the actions taken by president trump just [1:33:32] yesterday in the oval office he took a bold and massively popular action to improve our health care system [1:33:39] he announced the first agreement with a major pharmaceutical company pfizer to lower drug costs for americans [1:33:46] this is a historical achievement long sought by past democrat presidents that only president trump [1:33:52] was able to get done also yesterday while the democrats were whining about health care for illegal aliens [1:33:59] president trump signed a powerful executive order to supercharge american ai innovation and unlock cures for [1:34:06] pediatric cancer patients in the united states while president trump took action to lower drug prices and [1:34:13] improve the lives and the care of american children with cancer again democrats are fighting to give health [1:34:19] care benefits to illegal aliens the trump administration is fully committed to lowering health care costs and [1:34:26] advancing policies that will save american lives but right now we need to keep the government open and [1:34:32] funded and individuals and organizations across the political spectrum across the country agree with the trump [1:34:38] administration and republicans the labor union leader the teamsters sean o'brien sent a very blunt message [1:34:45] to democrats over their destructive antics he said american workers are not bargaining chips senators need [1:34:51] to stop screwing around and pass the house passed clean short-term funding bill the u.s chamber of commerce the [1:34:58] world's largest business organization called to immediately pass the republican clean cr saying quote shutdowns are [1:35:05] harmful to the economy the american people and our national security and even democrat senators cortez masto [1:35:12] and fetterman acknowledge that their party is betraying the american people with this costly and chaotic [1:35:18] democrat shutdown enough is enough democrats need to stop sabotaging our country and holding the american [1:35:24] people hostage in the country democrats need to do their jobs the american people want the government reopened and [1:35:31] this is proven in a new new york times poll showing that two and three americans say the government [1:35:37] should not be shut down by the democrats even if their absurd demands are not met the president and [1:35:43] republicans are working very hard to reopen the federal government the vice president here has been crucial [1:35:48] in this effort we encourage all americans across the country call your democrat senators and encourage them [1:35:54] to reopen the government that's what president trump and the vice president want to do and with that i will turn it [1:35:59] over to our great vice president jd vance great well thank you carolina and good afternoon to everybody [1:36:05] and good afternoon to everybody who's watching at home uh it's a tough act to follow but let me just [1:36:09] say a few things then i'll take a few questions number one democrats say that they care a lot about [1:36:14] lowering health care costs and yet when the president took historic action to work with the drug companies [1:36:20] to lower prescription drug prices the democrats did nothing to help us in fact we would have loved to [1:36:24] have the democrats helping us but they didn't they talk about doing something they don't actually [1:36:29] do the hard work of making it happen what they have done instead is to shut down the government [1:36:33] because we won't give billions of dollars to health care funding for illegal aliens that is what has [1:36:38] actually happened to the american people who are watching the reason your government is shut down at [1:36:42] this very minute is because despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of congressional republicans and [1:36:48] even a few moderate democrats supported opening the government the chuck schumer aoc wing of the [1:36:54] democratic party shut down the government because they said to us we will open the government but only [1:36:59] if you give billions of dollars of funding for health care for illegal aliens that's a ridiculous [1:37:04] proposition let me say two two other quick things then and then again i'll take some questions number [1:37:09] one we all understand that democrats and republicans have policy disagreements the democrats want to do [1:37:14] things look when chuck schumer and hakeem jeffries were in here a couple of days ago they made some [1:37:19] suggestions that the president was more than happy to say yes let's sit down and talk about how we can solve [1:37:25] the health care crisis that we inherited from the biden administration but it's one thing to say [1:37:29] that we should solve the health care crisis for americans it's another thing to say that we're [1:37:34] going to shut down the government unless we give the democrats every single thing that they want which [1:37:38] as caroline says includes giving billions of dollars of taxpayer funding for health care for illegal [1:37:44] migrants that's ridiculous you don't have policy disagreements that serve as the basis for a [1:37:50] government shutdown let's have the conversation about how to fix american health care about how to make [1:37:54] health care more accessible as the president showed he's more than willing to act on behalf [1:37:59] of the american people for this for this very reason what you don't do is say unless you do exactly [1:38:06] what we want to do as congressional democrats we're taken hostage and the hostage it turns out is critical [1:38:11] essential services that the american people need caroline talked about some of it let me talk about some [1:38:16] more our troops are not getting paid starting today because of the chuck schumer wing of the democratic party [1:38:22] uh we have people who require who require food assistance low-income americans who require food [1:38:29] assistance who will not get it unless we reopen the government thanks to chuck schumer and his his wing of [1:38:34] the democratic party we have flood insurance as we start hurricane season in the southeastern part of [1:38:40] our country that flood insurance is going to disappear because of chuck schumer and the and the and the far left of the democratic party [1:38:46] we need to reopen the government let's fix america's problems let's work together to solve them but let's [1:38:52] reopen the government before we have our our negotiation about health care policy that's what the american [1:38:58] people demand and that's certainly what the president united states wants let me make one final point i think [1:39:03] a lot of americans are asking themselves why did this happen why did the democrats shut down the [1:39:07] government despite as caroline said voting on the exact same piece of legislation six months ago and there are a [1:39:13] lot of different spins that we can put on it a lot of different answers that we could give all of them [1:39:17] true one answer i already gave is that they want to give health care benefits to illegal aliens that is [1:39:21] true they gave us legislative text that would have undone us cutting off health care benefits for illegal [1:39:28] aliens that's one of the things that they asked for but the reality here and let's be honest about the [1:39:33] politics is that chuck schumer is terrified she's going to get a primary challenge from alexandria [1:39:39] ocassia cortez the reason why the american people's government is shut down is because chuck schumer is [1:39:46] listening to the far left radicals in his own party because he's terrified of a primary challenge so i'd [1:39:51] invite chuck schumer to join the moderate democrats and 52 senate republicans do the right thing open up [1:39:57] the people's government and then let's fix health care policy for the american people questions mr vice [1:40:03] president that's a lot matt boyle okay mr vice president uh there's two key democrat lies i would [1:40:08] like uh to get you think on and see if you can address the first is is that you're seeing a number [1:40:13] of top democrat leaders from kamala harris and chuck schumer to hakeem jeffries claim that it is a [1:40:18] republican shutdown caused by trump uh the second is is that they're out there now claiming that they [1:40:24] don't want to to give health care to illegal aliens uh can you address both of those lies from the [1:40:29] democrat part yeah so on the point that it's a republican shutdown look it's obviously a democratic [1:40:34] shutdown just look at the vote totals in the house look at the vote totals in the senate and look at [1:40:38] the president united states own action and conduct throughout this crisis nearly every single house [1:40:44] republican voted to open the government matt nearly every single senate republican voted to open the [1:40:49] government last night and even to their credit a few moderate democrats voted to open the government [1:40:55] that's not a republican shutdown when nearly every single senate democrat votes to shut it down and [1:41:00] every republican voted to open it up it's just obviously not true now you can disagree about a [1:41:05] number of things but you can't disagree about the obvious fact that republicans voted to open the [1:41:10] government the president stands ready to sign that opening of the government we just need a few more [1:41:14] democrats to join us in that effort to open the government your final question about illegal alien [1:41:19] benefits look the text is very clear and i've i even saw i think it was george stephanophilus in an [1:41:25] interview with mike johnson did a fact check that was totally rooted in baseless claims it was basically [1:41:30] democrat propaganda if you look at the legislative text that they gave us they tried to turn on two [1:41:37] separate provisions that would give health care benefits to illegal aliens number one if you're an [1:41:42] american citizens you've been to a hospital in the last few years you probably noticed that wait times are [1:41:46] especially large and very often somebody who's there in the emergency room waiting is an illegal [1:41:51] alien very often a person who can't even speak english why do those people get health care benefits [1:41:57] at hospitals paid for by american citizens the answer is a decision made by the biden administration [1:42:03] that the trump administration working with congressional republicans undid we turned off that money spigot [1:42:09] to health care funding for illegal aliens the democrats in their legislative texts want to turn it back on [1:42:14] that's one thing the second thing matt is we all know that there are various ways in which the the the [1:42:20] biden administration waved away illegal immigration status they gave parolees they gave asylum claims to [1:42:27] people who weren't really claiming asylum and when they waved the magic wand of amnesty giving millions [1:42:32] of people legal status even though they were in the country illegally they also gave those people access [1:42:39] to health care benefits so what the democrats are engaging in is a sleight of hand they're saying no no no [1:42:44] those weren't illegal aliens who were getting health care benefits even though everybody excuse me knows [1:42:50] they were in the country illegally it's a lie told by the democrats that they're not trying to give [1:42:54] health care benefits to illegal aliens it's a lie that is obviously untrue if you just look at the text [1:43:00] that they gave us and all you have to do is understand that this is about who benefits we think the american [1:43:07] people's government ought to benefit american citizens the democrats are willing to shut it down to benefit [1:43:12] illegal aliens the contrast couldn't be more clear peter thank you vice president vance the big holdup [1:43:18] is of course that you guys say illegal illegal immigrants are getting taxpayer funded health care [1:43:25] democrats say you're lying that makes it feel like it could be a really long shutdown is this going [1:43:30] to be a long shutdown you know i don't know i can't predict what congressional democrats are going to do [1:43:36] peter but i actually don't think it's going to be that long of a shutdown this is a pure [1:43:39] guess from the vice president united states because i think you already saw some evidence that moderate [1:43:44] democrats are cracking a little bit they they understand the fundamental illogic of this look [1:43:49] for years every single one of us we can we can remember barack obama on the white house lawn we [1:43:55] can remember chuck schumer we can remember you know nancy pelosi for years in chuck schumer's case [1:44:00] for literally decades we've heard them say you don't shut the government down over policy disagreement [1:44:06] okay republicans think this thing about health care that thing about health care democrats think [1:44:10] this thing about immigration republicans disagree whatever those disagreements are you don't shut [1:44:15] down the government over it for the first time since the democrats have been in politics they're now [1:44:20] saying that unless we get every policy item that we demand we're going to shut down the people's [1:44:26] government they're trying to take a hostage and we're not going to let them and the administration [1:44:29] announced today that 18 billion dollars bound for new york transportation projects is going to be frozen [1:44:34] so it can't go to dei programs there but the timing of this does announcing that today mean that you [1:44:41] guys are going to squeeze chuck schumer's home state until he blinks look i haven't talked to russ about [1:44:47] this this morning but look i'm sure that russ is heartbroken about the fact that he's unable to give [1:44:53] certain things to certain constituencies we want to do everything that we can to help the american people [1:44:59] but when the democrats shut down the government we have to actually do a little triage [1:45:04] to make sure the most critical and most essential services are provided the government does a lot [1:45:09] of things of course republicans think that the federal government probably does too much but [1:45:13] there are a lot of critical things the federal government does that absolutely all of us would [1:45:16] agree need to do our troops need to get paid our air traffic controllers need to make sure that people [1:45:21] are flying safely and on time we need low-income people to be able to access the food services that are [1:45:28] provided by the federal government there are critical things that need to be saved we're going to do [1:45:32] everything that we can over the coming weeks if the shutdown lasts that long to ensure that people [1:45:38] get the essential services that they need despite the fact that chuck schumer has shut down the federal [1:45:43] government it's not going to be perfect because we are in a government shutdown we are going to have [1:45:48] to lay some people off if the shutdown continues we don't like that we don't necessarily want to do it [1:45:53] but we're going to do what we have to to keep the american people's essential services continuing to run [1:45:58] thank you thank you mr vice president thank you for being here yesterday president trump said [1:46:03] as a result of the shutdown we'll be laying off a lot of people that are going to be very affected [1:46:08] and the democrats they are going to be democrats has the administration asked agencies to target [1:46:15] federal workers who they believe to be democrats in these reductions of forces we're we're not targeting [1:46:21] federal agencies based on politics we're targeting the people's government so that as much as possible of the [1:46:27] essential services can continue to function that is the question the president has asked the entire [1:46:32] government is fundamentally okay we're in a shutdown that causes some problems the troops aren't getting [1:46:37] paid there's nothing that we can do about that while the government is shut down but there are [1:46:40] essential services that we want to make sure as as much as possible they still continue to function [1:46:46] that is the principle that's driving us forward during the shutdown it's going to be continue to be the [1:46:50] principle that drives us forward but let's be honest if this thing drags on for another few days or god [1:46:55] forbid another few weeks we are going to have to lay people off we're going to have to save money in [1:47:00] some places so the essential services don't get turned off in other places that is the reality of [1:47:05] the government shutdown that chuck schumer and democrats have foisted upon the administration [1:47:09] so what does he mean by they're going to be democrats he said they're going to be democrats [1:47:13] you've laid out a lot of the pain and problems that would come with a democratic shutdown and yet in the [1:47:18] oval office yesterday the president said that a lot of good could come from a shutdown [1:47:23] so square that circle is is which is a democratic caused crisis or a republican opportunity for reform [1:47:31] well i think all the president is saying phil is that he wants to make sure the american people's [1:47:34] government functions as well as it can despite the fact that we're in a shutdown we're going to have to [1:47:39] make things work and that means that we're going to have to triage some certain things that means [1:47:42] certain people are going to have to get laid off and we're going to try to make sure that the american [1:47:47] people suffer as little as possible from this shutdown that's what the president is saying is that yes [1:47:51] this is a bad thing obviously the president is trying to reopen the government but we're going [1:47:55] to make things work as well as we possibly can given the constraints that we have and then all [1:47:59] those policy differences for the discussion and the negotiations to come later during the [1:48:04] biden administration democrats twice voted to expand these affordable care act tax credits [1:48:11] but those were supposed to be temporary and they were slated to expire at the end of the year [1:48:15] um as you sort of crack the door open to negotiation at a later date would the party that ran on defunding [1:48:23] obamacare really negotiate about potentially expanding obamacare well phil what we've said to the democrats [1:48:30] is that we're willing to have a conversation about how to ensure that americans continue to have access [1:48:35] to health care and frankly they should have access to better health care at a lower cost we inherited [1:48:40] a mess of a health care system from the biden administration it's why the president has worked so [1:48:45] hard on the mace most favored nation status for prescription drugs it's why we care so much about [1:48:49] lowering the cost of prescriptions and why we're doing everything else we're willing to have that [1:48:53] conversation but i think it's important to bracket the health care policy conversation because it's [1:48:59] separate from the government shutdown we think that we can open the government and then have the [1:49:04] conversation about what best health care policy to fit the needs of the american people that's all we're [1:49:09] trying to do that's all we're trying to accomplish we've got to reopen the government first now [1:49:13] caroline i don't know how you do this how you actually choose people because i don't know [1:49:17] ninety percent of the names in here is it just who's the best dressed okay i really like your shirt go [1:49:22] ahead thank you mr vice president you are president of the senate can you talk about what you're doing [1:49:29] what the administration is doing to try to get other senate democrats to vote to open the government [1:49:34] yeah we're talking to a number of our colleagues democratic and republican in the senate i talked to a [1:49:38] number of them last night the president of course is talking to them as well i think there are there really are [1:49:42] are two categories of demands that i've seen privately from congressional democrats i think [1:49:47] on the one hand those who are negotiating in good faith are saying look we just want to make sure that [1:49:51] we're able to have a conversation with the administration about some of the the critical [1:49:55] needs that we see that need to get fixed over the next few months we recognize it's kind of absurd and [1:50:01] a lot of them will admit in private that it's kind of absurd to shut down the people's government [1:50:05] over these disagreements but just agree to negotiate with us in good faith on these issues and of course [1:50:11] we're having that conversation with them then there's another category people who say give us [1:50:16] everything we want or we're going to keep the government shut down we just write those people [1:50:19] off because they're not negotiating in good faith and frankly we don't need them we've already got [1:50:24] three more democrats last night than i thought we would get and i think it's because they recognize [1:50:29] the illogic of the position of taking the entire american economy hostage because they don't get their [1:50:34] policy priorities so three moderate democrats joined 52 republicans last night we need five more in order to [1:50:41] reopen the government and that's really where we're going to focus is how to get those five [1:50:44] additional democrats uh thanks mr vice president uh first two questions are there plans uh to meet [1:50:52] democratic leaders again in the coming days or are you planning on uh plucking off sanders one by one [1:50:58] so that's the whole question no i got a second okay go ahead and ask the second question so the [1:51:02] the president's been posting some images of leader jeffries and uh senator schumer [1:51:06] i saw recently um you've said that you're interested in good faith negotiations with these [1:51:11] leaders but you know what message does that send is it helpful to post pictures of leader jeffries [1:51:16] in a sombrero if you're trying to have good faith talks with him oh i think it's funny the president's [1:51:21] joking and we're having a good time you can negotiate in good faith while also poking a little bit of fun [1:51:26] at some of the absurdities of the democrats positions and even you know poking some some fun at the [1:51:31] absurdity of the democrats themselves i mean i'll tell hakeem jeffries right now i make this solemn promise [1:51:36] to you that if you help us reopen the government the sombrero memes will stop and i've talked to [1:51:40] the president of the united states about that now to your first question are we negotiating one-on-one [1:51:46] are we negotiating in groups look i will go to the u.s capitol right now and meet with chuck schumer or any [1:51:51] senate democrat if it helps us reopen the government most of the conversations my experience at least [1:51:56] have been one off we're also of course relying on some of our senate republican colleagues who have good [1:52:01] relationships across the aisle we're going to do whatever we have to do is the answer and i think it's [1:52:05] tough to predict what shape this negotiation is going to take over the next few months but i feel [1:52:10] good about the fact that democrats already realized privately the fundamental irrationality of their [1:52:16] position i hope that they're going to publicly acknowledge it and reopen the government [1:52:21] in the back yeah thank you mr vice president uh you responded to a post on x and chuck schumer on the [1:52:26] house floor back in 1996 railing against illegal immigrants receiving taxpayer funded benefits [1:52:32] right you said chuck schumer once recognized that it was disastrous to give illegal aliens rewards [1:52:36] for breaking the law now he wants to shut down the government unless we reward illegal aliens for [1:52:41] breaking the law why has chuck schumer changed his stance you know that's a good question that's a [1:52:46] actually it's a very tough question asking me to get in the head of chuck schumer is not a place i [1:52:50] particularly want to be but my basic read on it is that the entire democratic party the political [1:52:57] leadership not not every democrat nationwide but the political leadership of their party [1:53:02] has got it into their heads that the only way to be compassionate is to be compassionate to illegal [1:53:07] aliens rather than american citizens if you go back to what bill clinton was saying even barack obama [1:53:12] in some cases what he was saying about illegal immigration 10 15 20 years ago you would put them [1:53:17] on the maga right based purely on their rhetoric around illegal immigration so i don't know why they've [1:53:22] gone so far to the left i think it's bad for the country i think it's bad for them politically [1:53:26] but our principle all i can do is speak for the president that i serve in the country the [1:53:31] administration that i serve right now we believe that the american people's government exists for [1:53:36] the american people that means the people who have the legal right to be here and that's why we're [1:53:41] fighting to reopen the government and unfortunately the democrats are fighting to shut it down for the [1:53:45] benefit of illegal aliens and i'll take a couple more and then i'll let caroline i'll go back to my day [1:53:50] job so caroline go back to hers all right yes thank you mr vice president um just going back to the [1:53:56] sombrero um you said that the president's joking but um hakeem jeffrey says that these you know these [1:54:01] means were racist what's your response to that and just if i may briefly go off topic um secretary [1:54:06] hegseth yesterday uh made an edict about no more beardos in the military just what uh sorry what did [1:54:13] what did he say beardos beard beard so that's my accent i just wanted your responses to that i [1:54:20] didn't see that particular comment i thought pete gave a hell of a speech and a speech that really [1:54:24] is just oriented around returning the american military to the very high standards that it has [1:54:29] had for virtually its entire history until joe biden came along and decided to lower standards i think [1:54:34] it was bad for our military and it was bad for our troops when i was a young united states marine i did [1:54:40] not have a beard i am now the vice president so i get to do what i want to do but um i i think i [1:54:45] think pete's trying to reimplement high standards and that's a very good thing on the sombrero thing [1:54:48] i mean hakeem jeffrey said it was racist and i know that he said that and i honestly don't even know [1:54:54] what that means like is is is he a mexican-american that is offended by having a sombrero meme and i saw [1:55:02] one of the major tv stations put um the meme up and then say this is ai generated and he had like the curly [1:55:09] animated mustache too it's like do the american people do you really not realize the american [1:55:13] people recognize that he did not actually come to the white house wearing a sombrero and a black [1:55:18] curly animation mustache like give the country a little bit of credit we're all trying to do a [1:55:24] very important job for the american people the president united states likes to have a little [1:55:27] bit of fun when he's doing it and i think that's okay i'll take one more question [1:55:32] in every previous shutdown workers have been furloughed not laid off so why does the president want to fire [1:55:37] some workers and not just furlough them why is this shutdown any different well first of all we [1:55:41] haven't made any final decisions about what we're going to do with certain workers what we're saying [1:55:45] is that we might have to take extraordinary steps especially the longer this goes on we're going to [1:55:50] have to take extraordinary measures to ensure the people's government operates again not perfectly [1:55:54] because it's not going to operate perfectly in the midst of a shutdown but operate as well as it [1:55:59] possibly can and i think that the democrats if they're so worried about the effect this is having on [1:56:04] the american people and they should be what they should do is reopen the government not complain [1:56:09] about how we respond to the fact that chuck schumer and the democrats have shut down the government in [1:56:13] the first place thank you all carol all right guys well let's let the fun continue the vice [1:56:22] president's a very busy man and i'm happy to take some more questions i know there's more news today [1:56:27] aside from the shutdown we can focus on the shutdown if you want but let's go ahead kate why don't you start [1:56:31] uh the president talked about doing things that he said were irreversible during the shutdown you [1:56:35] know cutting vast numbers of people he said and cutting programs can you specify what exactly he [1:56:40] was referring to what's on the table and what's going to be cut look i think the vice president just [1:56:43] referred to this in some of the answers that he gave gave regarding the layoffs there are unfortunate [1:56:50] consequences to a government shutdown and the federal government is not receiving any cash at the [1:56:54] moment and so the office of management and budget has been tasked with looking over the receipts and [1:56:59] looking over the budget of the entire federal bureaucracy and as the vice president said [1:57:04] determining what needs to continue to go out the door and what can we continue to keep running [1:57:09] and what unfortunately is going to have to come to an end so those decisions are being made [1:57:13] and unfortunately layoffs are very likely as the vice president just said going to be a part of that [1:57:17] and has the windows had any direct response from hamas from the the peace proposal that was laid out [1:57:23] the president said he would give three or four days but is there a hard deadline now or what are the next steps [1:57:27] here i will reiterate what the president of the united states said three or four days and i can [1:57:33] tell you that there are some very sensitive discussions that are taking place but i certainly [1:57:36] don't want to get ahead of any announcement at this podium i'm going to let special envoy [1:57:42] whitkoff and the president of united states handle that thank you caroline two questions first of all [1:57:48] following up on that the president said yesterday i believe within three or four days he wanted to hear [1:57:52] an answer from hamas that he's still sticking by the timeline yes as i just confirmed and then a second [1:57:56] question is a comment that's gotten a lot of global attention uh senator dick durbin he was uh sent to [1:58:04] receive a lifetime achievement award from the catholic church he's since declined accepting it because [1:58:09] there has been some controversy pope leo uh commented on this and he said that someone who says i'm [1:58:15] against abortion but i'm in agreement with the inhumane treatment of immigrants in the united states [1:58:21] i don't know if that's pro-life you've been very open about your catholic faith how do you respond [1:58:27] i would reject there is inhumane treatment of illegal immigrants in the united states under [1:58:31] this administration there was however uh significant inhumane treatment of illegal immigrants in the [1:58:36] previous administration as they were being trafficked and raped and beaten and in many cases killed [1:58:42] over our united states southern border you also look at the inhumane treatment at the hands of some of [1:58:47] these illegal immigrants that took place uh under the previous administration as well uh lake and riley [1:58:53] comes to mind a beautiful american citizen who was killed at the hands of an illegal immigrant so [1:58:58] this administration is trying to enforce our nation's laws uh in the most humane way possible [1:59:05] uh and we're upholding the law and we're doing that on the behalf on behalf of the people of our [1:59:10] country who live here thanks a lot carolyn what is the level of concern that the administration has [1:59:17] regarding a protracted government shutdown in terms of its impact on the u.s economy and also [1:59:22] its impact on small businesses as well well look this government shutdown is no doubt going to impact [1:59:30] everyday americans and it is the fault of the democrats that we are in this position [1:59:34] and i know i relayed some uh programs that will be impacted the vice president did as well but i just want [1:59:39] to make sure the american public understand what the democrats have done to our government in our [1:59:45] country 1.3 million active duty troops will work now without pay critical food assistance for low [1:59:51] income women infants and children will now lapse no new mothers or children are allowed to join this [1:59:57] critical program because of the democrats decision to shut down the government telehealth services for [2:00:03] seniors and in-home treatment options for medicare patients will now come to an end nearly 50 000 [2:00:09] members of the united states coast guard are going to have to work unpaid over 13 000 air traffic [2:00:15] controllers will work without pay as well as tsa agents will which will very likely create flight [2:00:22] disruptions and pay will now stop for over 150 000 federal law enforcement officers these are not [2:00:28] just numbers and statistics these are real americans who have families at home and i saw some democrat [2:00:34] members today saying they're still going to accept their paychecks because they have [2:00:38] three kids at home and they have mouths to feed well so do these federal workers who those same [2:00:43] democrats just voted to shut down the government and turn off their pay and we believe that's very [2:00:47] unfair and it's why the administration wants to see the government reopened gdp growth fell by about [2:00:54] half a percentage point during the last government shutdown during the president's first term are you [2:00:59] expecting a similar type of impact on gdp growth related to this potential protracted government shutdown well [2:01:06] look i think it's dependent upon how long this shutdown continues so it's it's up dependent on how [2:01:11] long it takes democrats to muster up the coverage five of them to vote uh in the best interest of our [2:01:18] country our citizens and our economy uh eman thank you caroline yesterday your administration took a [2:01:24] five percent stake in lithium america's uh and a stake in the mine that they're working on and you've [2:01:29] taken stakes in other companies and revenue streams from other companies can you articulate the broader [2:01:34] principle here when does the administration see it as appropriate to demand equity stakes or revenue [2:01:39] streams from american companies and what other companies are you going to be demanding those from [2:01:45] well look this is a creative solution by the president of the united states to tackle our nation's [2:01:50] crippling debt crisis as i said earlier we are 37 trillion dollars trillion with the crats in congress [2:01:56] have officially shut down the united states government house republicans passed a non-partisan clean [2:02:03] piece of legislation to extend current government funding until november 21st but nearly every single [2:02:10] democrat senator voted against this bill to be clear this was the exact same bill that democrats approved [2:02:17] six short months ago in march just adjusted for inflation this is the same kind of clean funding bill [2:02:24] that democrats passed 13 separate times when they held the majority during joe biden's administration [2:02:31] so the american people woke up this morning and asked the obvious question why is the government [2:02:37] shut down right now the answer is pure partisan politics being played by the democrat party the [2:02:43] democrats shut down the government because president trump and the republicans will not force american [2:02:48] taxpayers to pay for free health care for illegal aliens america is 37 trillion dollars in debt we [2:02:55] cannot afford to provide taxpayer-funded free health care to illegals who broke the law to enter our [2:03:02] country to put this all into perspective the democrats refused to keep the government open over health [2:03:07] care to illegal aliens and now now have jeopardized critical health care programs for american citizens [2:03:14] instead the women infants and children program community health center funding medicare treatment options and [2:03:20] other health programs are now all at risk because of the democrats rejecting the clean cr the most vulnerable [2:03:28] in our country are being punished because the democrats want to prioritize illegals over american citizens [2:03:34] and if democrats actually cared about health care they would applaud the actions taken by president [2:03:40] trump just yesterday in the oval office he took a bold and massively popular action to improve our health care [2:03:47] system he announced the first agreement with a major pharmaceutical company pfizer to lower drug costs for americans [2:03:55] this is a historical achievement long sought by past democrat presidents that only president trump [2:04:01] was able to get done also yesterday while the democrats were whining about health care for illegal aliens [2:04:08] president trump signed a powerful executive order to supercharge american ai innovation and unlock cures for [2:04:15] pediatric cancer patients in the united states while president trump took action to lower drug prices and improve the lives [2:04:23] and the care of american children with cancer again democrats are fighting to give health care benefits [2:04:29] to illegal aliens the trump administration is fully committed to lowering health care costs and advancing policies [2:04:35] that will save american lives but right now we need to keep the government open and funded and individuals and [2:04:42] organizations across the political spectrum across the country agree with the trump administration and republicans [2:04:48] the labor union leader the teamsters sean o'brien sent a very blunt message to democrats over their destructive antics [2:04:56] he said american workers are not bargaining chips senators need to stop screwing around and pass the house passed clean [2:05:02] short-term funding bill the u.s chamber of commerce the world's largest business organization called to immediately pass the [2:05:10] republican clean cr saying quote shutdowns are harmful to the economy the american people and our national security [2:05:18] and even democrat senators cortez masto and fetterman acknowledged that their party is betraying [2:05:24] the american people with this costly and chaotic democrat shutdown enough is enough democrats need to stop [2:05:31] sabotaging our country and holding the american people hostage in the country democrats need to do their jobs [2:05:36] the american people want the government reopened and this is proven in a new new york times poll showing [2:05:42] that two and three americans say the government should not be shut down by the democrats even if [2:05:48] their absurd demands are not met the president and republicans are working very hard to reopen the federal [2:05:54] government the vice president here has been crucial in this effort we encourage all americans across the [2:05:59] country call your democrat senators and encourage them to reopen the government that's what president trump [2:06:05] and the vice president want to do and with that i will turn it over to our great vice president jd vance [2:06:10] great well thank you carolina and good afternoon to everybody and good afternoon to everybody who's [2:06:15] watching at home uh it's a tough act to follow but let me just say a few things then i'll take a few [2:06:19] questions number one democrats say that they care a lot about lowering health care costs and yet when the [2:06:25] president took historic action to work with the drug companies to lower prescription drug prices the democrats [2:06:31] did nothing to help us in fact we would have loved to have the democrats helping us but they didn't they [2:06:35] talk about doing something they don't actually do the hard work of making it happen what they have [2:06:40] done instead is to shut down the government because we won't give billions of dollars to health care [2:06:45] funding for illegal aliens that is what has actually happened to the american people who are watching [2:06:49] the reason your government is shut down at this very minute is because despite the fact that the [2:06:54] overwhelming majority of congressional republicans and even a few moderate democrats supported opening the [2:06:59] government the chuck schumer aoc wing of the democratic party shut down the government because they said [2:07:05] to us we will open the government but only if you give billions of dollars of funding for health care [2:07:10] for illegal aliens that's a ridiculous proposition let me say two two other quick things and then again [2:07:16] i'll take some questions number one we all understand that democrats and republicans have policy [2:07:21] disagreements the democrats want to do things look when chuck schumer and hakeem jeffries were in here a [2:07:26] couple of days ago they made some suggestions that the president was more than happy to say yes let's sit down and [2:07:32] talk about how we can solve the health care crisis that we inherited from the biden administration but [2:07:37] it's one thing to say that we should solve the health care crisis for americans it's another thing to [2:07:41] say that we're going to shut down the government unless we give the democrats every single thing that [2:07:46] they want which as caroline says includes giving billions of dollars of taxpayer funding for health care [2:07:52] for illegal migrants that's ridiculous you don't have policy disagreements that serve as the basis for a [2:07:58] government shutdown let's have the conversation about how to fix american health care about how [2:08:03] to make health care more accessible as the president showed he's more than willing to act on behalf [2:08:08] of the american people for this for this very reason what you don't do is say unless you do exactly [2:08:14] what we want to do as congressional democrats we're taken hostage and the hostage it turns out is critical [2:08:20] essential services that the american people need caroline talked about some of it let me talk about some more [2:08:25] our troops are not getting paid starting today because of the chuck schumer wing of the democratic [2:08:30] party we have people who require food assistance low-income americans who require food assistance [2:08:38] who will not get it unless we reopen the government thanks to chuck schumer and his his wing of the [2:08:43] democratic party we have flood insurance as we start hurricane season in the southeastern part of our [2:08:49] country that flood insurance is going to disappear because of chuck schumer and the in the and the far left of [2:08:54] the democratic party we need to reopen the government let's fix america's problems let's work together to [2:08:59] solve them but let's reopen the government before we have our our negotiation about health care policy [2:09:06] that's what the american people demand and that's certainly what the president of united states wants [2:09:09] let me make one final point i think a lot of americans are asking themselves why did this happen [2:09:14] why did the democrats shut down the government despite as caroline said voting on the exact same piece [2:09:19] of legislation six months ago and there are a lot of different spins that we can put on it a lot of [2:09:24] different answers that we could give all of them true one answer i already gave is that they want [2:09:28] to give health care benefits to illegal aliens that is true they gave us legislative text that would [2:09:33] have undone us cutting off health care benefits for illegal aliens that's one of the things that they [2:09:39] asked for but the reality here and let's be honest about the politics is that chuck schumer is terrified [2:09:44] she's going to get a primary challenge from alexandria ocasio cortez the reason why the american people's [2:09:51] government is shut down is because chuck schumer is listening to the far left radicals in his own [2:09:56] party because he's terrified of a primary challenge so i'd invite chuck schumer to join the moderate [2:10:01] democrats and 52 senate republicans do the right thing open up the people's government and then let's [2:10:07] fix health care policy for the american people questions mr vice president that's a lot matt boyl mr vice [2:10:15] president uh there's two key democrat lies i would like uh to get you on and see if you can address [2:10:20] the first is is that you're seeing a number of top democrat leaders from kamala harris and chuck schumer [2:10:25] to hakeem jeffries claim that it is a republican shutdown caused by trump uh the second is is that [2:10:30] they're out there now claiming that they don't want to to give health care to illegal aliens uh can you [2:10:36] address both of those lies from the democrat part yeah so on the point that it's a republican shutdown look [2:10:42] it's obviously a democratic shutdown just look at the vote totals in the house look at the vote [2:10:45] totals in the senate and look at the president united states own action and conduct throughout [2:10:49] this crisis nearly every single house republican voted to open the government matt nearly every [2:10:55] single senate republican voted to open the government last night and even to their credit a few moderate [2:11:01] democrats voted to open the government that's not a republican shutdown when nearly every single [2:11:07] senate democrat votes to shut it down and every republican voted to open it up it's just obviously not [2:11:11] true now you can disagree uh about a number of things but you can't disagree about the obvious [2:11:17] fact that republicans voted to open the government the president stands ready to sign that opening of [2:11:21] the government we just need a few more democrats to join us in that effort to open the government [2:11:25] your final question about illegal alien benefits look the text is very clear and i've i even saw i think [2:11:32] it was george stephanophilus in an interview with mike johnson did a fact check that was totally rooted [2:11:37] in baseless claims it was basically democrat propaganda if you look at the legislative text [2:11:43] that they gave us they tried to turn on two separate provisions that would give healthcare benefits to [2:11:48] illegal aliens number one if you're an american citizens you've been to a hospital in the last few [2:11:53] years you probably noticed that wait times are especially large and very often somebody who's there in [2:11:58] the emergency room waiting is an illegal alien very often a person who can't even speak english why do those [2:12:03] people get healthcare benefits at hospitals paid for by american citizens the answer is a decision made [2:12:10] by the biden administration that the trump administration working with congressional republicans [2:12:15] undid we turned off that money spigot to healthcare funding for illegal aliens the democrats in their [2:12:20] legislative text want to turn it back on that's one thing the second thing matt is we all know that [2:12:26] there are various ways in which the the the biden administration waived away illegal immigration [2:12:32] status they gave parolees they gave asylum claims to people who weren't really claiming asylum and when [2:12:38] they waved the magic wand of amnesty giving millions of people legal status even though they were in the [2:12:44] country illegally they also gave those people access to healthcare benefits so what the democrats are [2:12:50] engaging in is a sleight of hand they're saying no no those weren't illegal aliens who were getting [2:12:54] healthcare benefits even though everybody excuse me knows they were in the country illegally it's a lie [2:13:01] told by the democrats that they're not trying to give healthcare benefits to illegal aliens it's a lie [2:13:06] that is obviously untrue if you just look at the text that they gave us and all you have to do is [2:13:11] understand that this is about who benefits we think the american people's government ought to benefit [2:13:17] american citizens the democrats are willing to shut it down to benefit illegal aliens the contrast couldn't [2:13:22] be more clear peter thank you vice president vance the big hold up is of course that you guys say [2:13:30] illegal illegal immigrants are getting taxpayer funded health care democrats say you're lying [2:13:35] that makes it feel like it could be a really long shutdown is this going to be a long shutdown [2:13:41] you know i don't know i can't predict what congressional democrats are going to do peter but i [2:13:45] actually don't think it's going to be that long of a shutdown this is a pure guess from the vice [2:13:49] president united states because i think you already saw some evidence that moderate democrats are [2:13:54] cracking a little bit they they understand the fundamental illogic of this look for years every [2:13:59] single one of us we can we can remember barack obama on the white house lawn we can remember chuck [2:14:04] schumer we can remember you know nancy pelosi for years in chuck schumer's case for literally decades [2:14:10] we've heard them say you don't shut the government down over policy disagreement okay republicans think [2:14:16] this thing about health care that thing about health care democrats think this thing about [2:14:19] immigration republicans disagree whatever those disagreements are you don't shut down the government [2:14:24] over it for the first time since the democrats have been in politics they're now saying that unless we [2:14:30] get every policy item that we demand we're going to shut down the people's government they're trying to [2:14:35] take a hostage and we're not going to let them and the administration announced today that 18 billion [2:14:39] dollars bound for new york transportation projects is going to be frozen so it can't go to dei programs [2:14:45] there but the timing of this does announcing that today mean that you guys are going to squeeze chuck [2:14:51] schumer's home state until he blinks look i haven't talked to russ about this this morning but look i'm [2:14:57] sure that russ is heartbroken about the fact that he is unable to give certain things to certain [2:15:03] constituencies we want to do everything that we can to help the american people but when the democrats shut [2:15:09] down the government we have to actually do a little triage to make sure the most critical and [2:15:15] most essential services are provided the government does a lot of things of course republicans [2:15:19] think that the federal government probably does too much but there are a lot of critical things the [2:15:23] federal government does that absolutely all of us would agree need to do our troops need to get paid [2:15:28] our air traffic controllers need to make sure that people are flying safely and on time we need [2:15:33] low-income people to be able to access the food services that are provided by the federal government [2:15:37] there are critical things that need to be saved we're going to do everything that we can [2:15:43] over the coming weeks if the shutdown lasts that long to ensure that people get the essential [2:15:47] services that they need despite the fact that chuck schumer has shut down the federal government [2:15:52] it's not going to be perfect because we are in a government shutdown we are going to have to lay [2:15:57] some people off if the shutdown continues we don't like that we don't necessarily want to do it but [2:16:01] we're going to do what we have to to keep the american people's essential services continuing to run [2:16:06] thank you mr vice president thank you for being here yesterday president trump said as a result of [2:16:12] the shutdown we'll be laying off a lot of people that are going to be very affected and the democrats [2:16:18] they are going to be democrats has the administration asked agencies to target federal workers who they [2:16:25] believe to be democrats in these reductions of forces we're not targeting federal agencies based on [2:16:31] politics we're targeting the people's government so that as much as possible of the essential services [2:16:37] can continue to function that is the question the president has asked the entire government [2:16:41] is fundamentally okay we're in a shutdown that causes some problems the troops aren't getting paid [2:16:46] there's nothing that we can do about that while the government is shut down but there are essential [2:16:49] services that we want to make sure as as much as possible they still continue to function that is the [2:16:55] principle that's driving us forward during the shutdown it's going to be continue to be the principle [2:16:59] that drives us forward but let's be honest if this thing drags on for another few days or god [2:17:04] forbid another few weeks we are going to have to lay people off we're going to have to save money in [2:17:08] some places so the essential services don't get turned off in other places that is the reality of [2:17:13] the government shutdown that chuck schumer and democrats have foisted upon the administration so what [2:17:18] did you mean by they're going to be democrats he said they're going to be democrats you've laid out [2:17:22] a lot of the pain and problems that would come with a democratic shutdown and yet in the oval [2:17:27] office yesterday the president said that a lot of good could come from a shutdown so square that [2:17:33] circle is which is a democratic caused crisis or a republican opportunity for reform well i think all [2:17:40] the president is saying phil is that he wants to make sure the american people's government functions [2:17:44] as well as it can despite the fact that we're in a shutdown we're going to have to make things work [2:17:48] and that means that we're going to have to triage some certain things that means certain people are [2:17:52] going to have to get laid off and we're going to try to make sure that the american people suffer as [2:17:56] little as possible from the shutdown that's what the president is saying is that yes this is a bad [2:18:01] thing obviously the president is trying to reopen the government but we're going to make things work [2:18:05] as well as we possibly can given the constraints that we have and then on those policy differences [2:18:10] for the discussion and the negotiations to come later during the biden administration democrats twice [2:18:15] voted to expand these affordable care act tax credits but those were supposed to be temporary [2:18:21] and they were slated to expire at the end of the year as you sort of crack the door open to [2:18:26] negotiation at a later date would the party that ran on defunding obamacare really negotiate about [2:18:34] potentially expanding obamacare well phil what we've said to the democrats is that we're willing to have a [2:18:40] conversation about how to ensure that americans continue to have access to health care and frankly [2:18:45] they should have access to better health care at a lower cost we inherited a mess of a health care system [2:18:50] in the biden administration it's why the president has worked so hard on the most favored nation [2:18:55] status for prescription drugs it's why we care so much about lowering the cost of prescriptions [2:19:00] and why we're doing everything else we're willing to have that conversation but i think it's important [2:19:04] to bracket the health care policy conversation because it's separate from the government shutdown [2:19:10] we think that we can open the government and then have the conversation about what best health [2:19:14] care policy to fit the needs of the american people that's all we're trying to do that's all we're [2:19:19] trying to accomplish we've got to reopen the government first now caroline i don't know how [2:19:23] you do this how you actually choose people because i don't know 90 of the names in here is it just who's [2:19:27] the best dressed okay i really like your shirt go ahead thank you mr vice president you are president [2:19:35] of the senate can you talk about what you're doing what the administration is doing to try to get [2:19:39] other senate democrats to vote to open the government yeah we're talking to a number of our colleagues [2:19:44] democratic and republican in the senate i talked to a number of them last night the president of course is [2:19:48] talking to them as well i think there are there really are two categories of demands that i've [2:19:52] seen privately from congressional democrats i think on the one hand those who are negotiating in good [2:19:57] faith are saying look we just want to make sure that we're able to have a conversation with the [2:20:02] administration about some of the the critical needs that we see that need to get fixed over the next [2:20:07] few months we recognize it's kind of absurd and a lot of them will admit in private that it's kind of absurd [2:20:12] to shut down the people's government over these disagreements but just agree [2:20:16] to negotiate with us in good faith on these issues and of course we're having that conversation with [2:20:21] them then there's another category people who say give us everything