Summary
Transcript
You’ve said that you worked very closely with Leader McConnell on this. This bill, now that we see what’s in it, seems to be as bipartisan as it gets. Why wouldn’t this, why wouldn’t both sides really want this to go through? Well, it’s a great question, Mika. Look, it took a long time. Four months of arduous negotiations. They fell off the tracks a whole bunch of times. I had to be on the phone even at midnight saying, we’ve got to keep going.
Why? We’re at a turning point in America. This bill is crucial. And history will look back on it and say, did America fail itself? Why is it crucial? Well, if we don’t aid Ukraine, Putin will walk all over Ukraine. We will lose the war, and we could be fighting in eastern Europe in a NATO ally in a few years. Americans won’t like that. If we don’t help Israel defend itself against Hamas, that perpetual war will go on and on and on.
If we don’t help humanitarian aid to the starving Palestinians in Gaza, hundreds of thousands could starve. And the border, everyone has said it’s chaos. A speaker, you just saw Speaker Johnson, he said it’s chaos. We have to do something legislative a few months ago. But what has happened in answer your question. So this is crucial for America. It’s a turning point. History is going to look over our shoulders and say, did we rise to the occasion? To his credit, Mitch McConnell did.
But too many Republicans, including Speaker Johnson, are just scared to death of Donald Trump. Donald Trump has said he wants chaos. Donald Trump has said, well, wait till I become president. That’ll take at least a year. Ukraine could be gone. The border will get much worse. War in the Middle east will get worse, maybe bringing us into it. He’s doing it all for political reasons. And let me just say, will senators, the crucial question, the $64,000 question.
The majority of republican senators know this bill is the right thing to do. It’s a compromise. I don’t like everything in it. Neither does McConnell, but it’s a compromise. That’s the only way you get things important done in the Senate. We proved that two years ago in our bipartisan legislation. And will the senators drown out the political noise from Trump and his minions and do the right thing for America? It’s a crucial question.
History is looking down on every one of us right now. .