00:00Without objection to order. Chair recognizes Mr. Conner from California.
00:04Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Governor Pritzker, I've admired your moral clarity during these times.
00:11You had a speech about a month and a half ago where you said you would not bend the knee to any president of any party.
00:20I highly recommend the American people listen to that speech in its entirety.
00:23Professor Chenoweth has said at Harvard that if 3.5% of a population engage in peaceful protest,
00:33that is the single best way to bring change and stand up for constitutional values.
00:37As you know, there's the No Kings protests that are happening this weekend.
00:41I'd like you to weigh in and share your thoughts about what that could mean for the country.
00:47Thank you, Congressman.
00:48And let me say that peaceful protest has been the avenue for so much positive social change in this country.
00:55I think about the civil rights movement as the best example of that.
00:59And it continues to be civil rights for LGBTQ people, civil rights for immigrants, et cetera.
01:05I encourage people to peacefully protest.
01:08And I have said that many times.
01:10I think, you know, getting out your microphones and your megaphones, speaking up, speaking out,
01:14and very importantly, for people who can vote, go to the ballot box and vote.
01:21Too many people don't do that.
01:22And too many people don't stand up and speak out because they're a little bit afraid.
01:26And in this environment, I have to say, President Trump has created a situation where people are afraid.
01:33They're afraid.
01:34And they're afraid they're going to get targeted because that is what's happening under this administration.
01:39People are getting individually targeted when they stand up and speak out.
01:44Governor Walz, I thought you conducted yourself with such dignity as our vice presidential candidate, Ewan Gwynne,
01:51and many of your former colleagues are really proud of how you ran.
01:55And one of the things even people who voted for President Trump said about you is he's so decent.
02:00He's kind.
02:01He deals with people with respect.
02:05What is happening in this country that we've started to demonize immigrants?
02:09You know, when I grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, I was 99 percent white.
02:12I grew up as an Indian American of Hindu faith.
02:15I never felt demonized, felt different, made to feel like I didn't belong.
02:22Something is going on where we've created a permission structure for that.
02:26How do we model the kind of decency that you've exhibited so that we become a cohesive community like this country has always been?
02:35Well, Congressman, thank you for the kind words.
02:38I think the people of this country expect us to do that.
02:41Look, I think we could all agree these horrific situations that happened that have been highlighted in here, we all hate that.
02:47But we also lift up the great success stories.
02:50And I will just tell you, Congressman, on Tuesday night at 2 a.m., Minnesota has the most closely divided legislature in the country, 101 to 100.
02:58And we passed bipartisan legislation that kept us with a balanced budget, a triple-A bond rating.
03:04We invested in our schools.
03:05We invested in our roads.
03:06And we did it with civility.
03:09We did it with an eye to the future.
03:11And we did it, Republicans and Democrats, with the idea that we are a nation of immigrants.
03:17And people simply want to make sure that if the laws are being asked to be followed, people are given due process.
03:24So I have to tell you, we have a model.
03:26It's our Constitution.
03:28We have a model on how to do this, and we've done it before.
03:32And I would just encourage all of us to be part of the solution rather than just continue to demonize each other.
03:37Thank you, Governor.
03:39Governor Hochul, I appreciate your speaking out about the Marines being sent into my state.
03:43I was horrified.
03:44There's just footage today of Senator Padilla being shoved out.
03:48I don't know if people have seen it, but he went to ask Secretary Noem a question,
03:52and the police literally grabbed the senator and shoved him out of the room.
03:58You know, the Marines, I want to get back to the Marines, though.
04:01I mean, the fact is that we have a principle called federalism in this country.
04:05No one in Los Angeles asked for the Marines.
04:08No one in California asked for the Marines.
04:10I mean, do people's voices not matter of what we want locally and in a state way?
04:14Tell me how you would feel if Marines were sent into your state
04:18or your senators were taken by the fists and pushed out of rooms.
04:22What is going on in this country?
04:25Thank you for the question.
04:26It's disturbing at so many levels.
04:30I mean, I served as a member of the Armed Services Committee when I served in this body years ago.
04:34And to think that the Marines are being deployed against fellow citizens, fellow residents, is unprecedented.
04:41Now, we have different levels of law enforcement to manage crowds.
04:45That's all this is, is a crowd.
04:46When it gets out of control, when it's violent, there must be consequences.
04:49And that's what the police are trained to do, whether they're LAPD or what we have in New York is one of the highest trained organizations of top law enforcement.
05:01People who put their lives on the line every day who know how to deal with crowds and protests and if they devolve into riots.
05:07But to go to the extreme of not just the National Guard, which usurps the governor's authority, the governors are the commanders-in-chief of the National Guard,
05:16but to go all the way to the U.S. military as an indication that a mayor and a governor can't handle what's happening in their own streets is overkill at a level that is just unconscionable.
05:27And I hope we do not see this in other cities.
05:30We need to calm the situation down, get rid of the criminals, we'll work together every day, and leave law-abiding individuals alone.
