Meet the Press - February 18, 2024 Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Cornell Belcher, Sara Fagen, Mara Liasson and Patti Davis
Interview
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Thank you. It's great to be back on. Thanks, Kristen.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Well, that is up to Senator Durbin. But I will say that Hur is conducting his own investigation, and he has concluded very clearly that there was no criminal liability here for the president. And that was his focus, right? And that got decided. And I think there are many other things that we need to do on the Judiciary Committee, including passing some legislation when it comes to tech, including many other issues related to fentanyl and the like that we're focused on. But again, that will be Senator Durbin's call.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
You know, that is going to be, again, up to the president and his lawyers. But I've got to comment on this just from my own personal experience. I was on Air Force One with the president, going from Minnesota to Wisconsin for – going from Washington D.C. to Wisconsin for an infrastructure project. And I was with the president for over an hour and talked about so many things, domestic, international. He was focused. His recall was good. It was the same experience that my colleagues had who met with him for hours, Democrats and Republicans, about the Mideast only a few weeks ago. And so I think that we've got to evaluate what's happening right now by, one, what he has done, which is bring us out of this pandemic, first time that we're finally seeing negotiation on prescription drug prices, and focus on what matters to the American people and compare what he is doing to what we've got as the alternative on the Republican side, which is Donald Trump–
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
–who is nothing but standing up week by week for chaos.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
My reaction is, as someone who ran against Joe Biden, as someone who has spent significant amount of time with Joe Biden, that he is up for this job. And again, I just keep looking at the facts. Our country, the GDP, our unemployment rate, the fact that we're now at the place where we can tackle the challenges before us, which is things like housing and child care. And then I look – you can’t – you've got to look at the alternative here as well. Joe Biden has been standing up for women's health care.
Joe Biden's not the one that has called for a national abortion ban. Joe Biden is standing up for women's health care and believes that women should make their own decisions about their health care and not politicians. That is a stark difference. I look at the facts, the actual numbers, when you look across the country. The fact that in New York Congressman Suozzi won that race, swinging it by 16 points, because he stood up for what Joe Biden is standing up for: infrastructure, finally doing something at the border on a bipartisan basis and giving the president the emergency powers that he needs, standing up against election deniers. You look at what happened in Kentucky with Governor Beshear, the abortion measure that was on the ballot in Ohio, the supreme court race in Wisconsin. Time and time again the American people have stood with the policies and the work of Joe Biden–
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
–because they do not want to go back to the chaos and madness of Donald Trump.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Again, I'm a believer in President Biden because I believe he is a good moral person that has the backs of the people of this country. And just the examples I cited as time and time again people have sided with that over election deniers and the like. So, I am proud to be supporting Joe Biden for president. As far as the challenges, the challenges are real. And that is why, not just President Biden but many of us in the Senate, have been leading the way on bringing down costs. You've got to not just talk the talk–
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
–to take–
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
–on the pharmaceutical–
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
–companies. You actually have–
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
– to pass –
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
– the bill, which we have done. Pardon? I didn't hear the question.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Okay. Well, there are many challenges in front of us, and people are going to have to decide if they want to go back to that chaos or look at someone that actually has the proof points of working on bringing costs down. And if you want to talk about numbers and polls and how people are feeling, let me give you some numbers. Thirty-five – $35 a month. That's how much insulin is going to be for our seniors and actually for others as wel,l as the prices are rolling out. Number two, 3.4 million.
That's how many veterans are going to be helped by taking on toxic burn pits. 40,000. There's a number. That's how many infrastructure projects, including the bridge from Minnesota to Wisconsin, that are getting funded and completed right now as we speak. So there is a case to make, and there's also a case to make. He is not running, as the president has said, against the almighty. He is running against Donald Trump. And time and time again, the voters have made clear where they stand on Donald Trump. Independents, modern Republicans –
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
– they want to support someone who believes in democracy and has led the world against tyrants like Vladimir Putin, as opposed to Donald Trump –
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
– who literally a week ago said that Donald – that Vladimir Putin should be able to do whatever the hell he wants. Those are exact words, where he said “they”, as in Russia and Putin, should be able to do whatever the hell they want.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
And what happens now? One of his leading opponents dies–
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
–Vladimir Putin's opponent.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
That's what we're –
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
– dealing with. He was killed.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Okay.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
The president has been doing that. I was heartened by Congressman Turner's words in your interview just about the fact that there are Republicans that want to move forward on this.And let me – Ukraine has been an absolute incredible force. President Zelenskyy. They have taken back half the territory from Russia that they got in the invasion. They have just shot down a war ship. They have opened up trade again on the Black Sea. They have done this, despite the fact that, right now, rounds of ammunition, Russia, 10,000 a day, Ukraine, 2,000 a day. So, our job right now, if you talk about avenging the death of the hero Navalny, if you talk about anything for our democracy – and actually for our economic partners across the world – it is to get this security package over the line. And so extreme Republicans are stopping it right now. The president's standing up for it. The Senate is standing up. Twenty-two Republicans–
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
– in the U.S. Senate voted for it, including the lead Republicans on Armed Services–
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
– and Foreign Relations. It's time for them to get the job done.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
The best thing we can do is to make sure we have the backs of the Ukrainian people. That is the best thing–
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
– because when you look at what this funding is for, it is for making sure our own troops, in places like Poland, are funded so they can be a deterrent for any additional Russian invasions because who stops Vladimir Putin if he marches right into Kyiv, marches right into Ukraine, from going further. I've stood on that border. I have been in Poland. I have been with President Zelenskyy in Ukraine. And this is an international crisis. So the consequences–
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
–are what has happened so far with Ukraine killing or injuring over 300,000 Russian troops. But the consequences are – will mean nothing unless we stand with our allies and stand with Ukraine.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Thanks, Kristen.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source