Whip Clark on MS NOW: Americans Deserve Better Than What They're Getting

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (MA-5) joined MS NOW's The Weeknight, where she slammed Donald Trump and Republicans for breaking their promises of lower costs, safer communities, and no new wars. Below are excerpts from the conversation:

On Republicans' Affordability Crisis:

"It's not only that he has gone completely back on his promise to lower costs, to not start a new war. But it is this attitude of: 'My family is making billions. We're busy building ballrooms. But you? You, who can't afford groceries. Who's seen the price per gallon go up over $1.30. Who is struggling already to meet and pay their electric bills and find housing you can afford. You just somehow have to grin and bear it.'

"And all of this started by taking away people's fundamental health care in order to give tax breaks to the billionaire class. Layer on tariffs, and we have a mess and true despair for American families.

"We know that 84% of families are giving up something, just like the person in the video clip said: 'You can't have it all. I can't fill up my tank and put food on the table for my family.' These are the choices that Americans are making.

"And Donald Trump and his supporters in Congress are completely deaf to the cries for help that we are hearing."

On the GOP's Complicity and Refusal to Stand Up for Americans:

"Our message is very clear to Americans at home, to American voters: you deserve better than you're getting. You deserve to have a lower cost of living so that you can afford housing, groceries, and to pay your electric bills. You deserve health care where and when you need it. And you deserve a government that is working for you. Not one that is working for self-enrichment, like we are seeing from the president of the United States.

"And it is this absolute disconnect between Republicans who know that Donald Trump and these failed policies aren't working for the people who sent them to Congress…But they would rather have his approval than work for the people.

"I don't want to know what your personal feelings are about how these policies are impacting hardworking Americans, and that you may have a private conversation that you don't think this war was a good idea. That gas prices have to come down. That we have to do something about the housing crisis and child care crisis in this country, when every time you come to the floor of the House, you vote against it. And you won't come and work with us to make our work centered around the American people."

On Families Struggling to Make Ends Meet:

"What I'm hearing from small businesses in my district [is] that this is a harder time right now than the pandemic.

"I hoped I would never hear that from small restaurants and bakeries and car detailers. But they literally are showing me their books. That customers are down because you don't go by the bakery when you're unable to fill up your tank and pay for your medication. You don't go have your car detailed and go out to dinner when you're unable to feed your family nutritious meals that you can afford.

"And all of this has this ripple effect. You add on the tariffs that raise prices everywhere, and then you go back to another lie that you mentioned at the top: that all of this would be solved by deporting the 'worst of the worst.' What we have seen [is] a mass deportation that is primarily going after law-abiding immigrants.

…

"This absolute disregard for what American families are going through is not only going to be their political undoing, but what about families? And how do they make sure that they are having voices in Washington that are fighting for them?"

On Democrats' Fight for Fair and Secure Elections:

"We are absolutely going to use every single tool we have. And that means we are going to litigate, we're going to legislate, and we're going to organize.

"If they think - as they did when they started this by doing redistricting in Texas - that Democrats are just going to fold up our tent and say, 'this is a terrible decision for the future of this country, and we'll just have to wait and see what Republicans do,' they are deeply mistaken.

"We know what we want in this country. We want people to continue to have fair and secure elections and to be able to elect their politicians of choice. Not to have their politicians choose them.

"What you saw when this decision came out were top Republican officials say: 'This is the way we lock in a permanent majority in the House.' That is so outrageous.

"This country? Sometimes we win elections, sometimes we lose them. That is the way our system is designed. We go out, we compete for ideas. But they know that Donald Trump has taken them down a road where the midterms are not going to go well for them. So they are trying every tool in the toolbox to cheat and to rig these elections. And we have been successful in meeting them on all their mid-Census gerrymandering tricks. And we are going to fight this with everything we have.

"The American people deserve to be able to choose who they send to Congress, and we are not going to stand by and let them take that fundamental right away from people at home."

To watch the full interview, click HERE.

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