Transcript: Trump Is Sinking. Here’s Why Dems Shouldn’t Save Him.
Malinowski: We will see. I think it’s clear that most of them do. I think Hakeem Jeffries is doing exactly the right thing, whipping against this thing. I think Democrats in the House will be fine. It’s a good sign, as you mentioned, that Patty Murray, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, has taken a really tough stand against the C.R. Generally, members follow their committee leadership. It would be a very good sign if new senators like Elissa Slotkin, who had to run and win a very tough race in a Trump state, take that stand. So I’m cautiously optimistic, but we’ll have to see.
Sargent: You served in the State Department in previous administrations. I want to pick your brain a little bit about that. Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, had something to say on Twitter early Monday morning. He said, “After a six-week review, we are officially canceling 83 percent of the programs at the U.S. Agency for International Development. The 5,200 contracts that are now canceled spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve the core national interests of the United States.” It’s all so ridiculous. First of all, these programs do serve the core interests of the U.S.—I’d like you to talk a little bit about that. Also, this is like a tiny fraction of the budget. Why would any Democrat read that tweet and then vote for the C.R.? The secretary of state has said explicitly, Whatever you pass in your budget, we are canceling it. That’s what he just said, right?
Malinowski: Yes. The C.R. will include all of that money for USAID. So if you vote for it, you’re voting for a lie because the administration is dismantling USAID and a bunch of other parts of the government as well. I read that tweet, and that small part of my heart dedicated to Marco Rubio sunk even further. He was one of the greatest champions of American global leadership when he was in the Senate. When I was in the State Department, he would scold me for not doing more of the work that he is now responsible for destroying.
