Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA10) was on CNN’s State of the Union this morning. See below for video (h/t to Raw Story), a transcript and highlights (bolding by me), particularly Subramanyam’s exchange with one of the most dishonest/worst people on CNN – and really a disgrace to their network that they allow him on, hell they PAY the guy (!) to spew out lies – Scott Jennings. Fortunately, Subramanyman was more than able to hold his own, using those crazy little things called “facts” and “logic,” also “reality,” against the barrage of bulls*** from Jennings and his fellow right-wing panelist, Republican strategist Erin Maguire.
REP. SUHAS SUBRAMANYAM (D-VA10): “Yes, right now, I represent a district with a lot of federal workers, for instance, and a lot of people who touch foreign policy.
And I have learned a couple of things. One, we’re losing a lot of really critical, important people. There’s a brain drain in our federal work force. And a lot of people that are being cut are actually people who are very critical to a lot of these government services that people really rely on. So it’s going to hurt every American.
And the second thing I keep hearing is that people are having to take loyalty tests, essentially. And, really, this is just — this is not about cutting waste, fraud, and abuse at this point. This is about who’s loyal to the president, revenge on political enemies, and control over the federal government.
And so this is bad for all Americans, not just federal workers in my district.”
Scott Jennings: “…regarding Elon and the bureaucracy, if I just may respond to something you said about the bureaucracy, there seems to be, when Republicans are president, that this idea that the bureaucracy and the government should not be responsive to the political leadership of the executive branch. That is totally false.
It has nothing to do with a loyalty test, but it does have to do with whether or not the unelected bureaucracy is responsive to the political oversight of the government. Democrats right now do not seem to believe that the president should be able to be the president.”
SUBRAMANYAM: “You should come to my town halls. You should come and talk to some of these federal workers. Many of them are veterans, in fact. But many of them are very competent. What we’re doing is, we’re prioritizing loyalty over competence.”
JENNINGS: “I don’t doubt it.”
SUBRAMANYAM: “That’s bad for our country right now.”
JENNINGS: “But I prioritize the political leadership. Elections have consequences, and they need to understand that.”
SUBRAMANYAM: “But critical programs are being cut off. Contractors are having their contracts canceled for things that really will hurt the American people if we end up doing this. It’s already starting, right?”
[REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST ERIN] MAGUIRE: “But, right now, these are just fearmongering talking points at this point from Democrats.”
SUBRAMANYAM: “No, that’s really happening.”
MAGUIRE: “No, I understand that people are losing their jobs, and I am sympathetic to that.
But all Democrats, you have yet to actually point to something concrete that has been cut, an employee that has been cut, a service that has been cut that has caused…”
(CROSSTALK)
SUBRAMANYAM: “We have people who are in charge of tax fraud losing their jobs. We’ve been talking about waste, fraud, and abuse, right?”
(CROSSTALK)
MAGUIRE: “Because, what, Democrats wanted to add 84,000 more IRS agents? That is bloated bureaucracy that’s failing the people.
That is not a critical — tax fraud is not a critical need for the country.”
(CROSSTALK)
BASH: “Let the congressman respond.”
(CROSSTALK)
SUBRAMANYAM: “Yes, but that money is going to come back. That’s how we get more federal revenue, right?
The IRS is in charge of trying to make sure that we have less tax fraud, less tax waste, right? And to allow the cuts to the IRS means we’re going to lose money. I mean, this is not allowing taxpayers to get their money back. We’re losing money as a country.”
HINOJOSA: “And going back to loyalty, I think it’s a very fair point, because you claim that Trump is not asking for loyalty within the federal government.
He absolutely is. I was at the Department of Justice. They’re telling essentially attorneys, career prosecutors, if you are not loyal to Trump, then you should get out of here. He fired the January 6 prosecutors. He’s trying to fire FBI agents, 5,000 FBI agents who worked on January 6 cases.
If you fire 5,000 FBI agents, we will have a terrorist attack, unfortunately.”
JENNINGS: “We have elections for a reason in this country. We vest all executive authority in a president of the United States, not in an unelected bureaucracy, not in independent agencies, but in a president.
The president’s agenda matters. When a Republican is president, the bureaucracy resists. It has to stop.”
HINOJOSA: “That sounds more like a king. It does not sound like a president of the United States.”
JENNINGS: “Sounds like our Constitution to me.”
HINOJOSA: “It sounds — well, they’re not upholding the Constitution.”
SUBRAMANYAM: “Yes, it’s not our Constitution to impede on the spending power of Congress, for instance, and take away agencies that we authorized. So this is not constitutional at all.”
MAGUIRE: “Oh, but then Democrats want to sit here and complain about that, but had no issue whatsoever when Joe Biden defied the Supreme Court and continued to unilaterally pardon student loan debt. That money…”
(CROSSTALK) MAGUIRE: … “monopoly then.”
BASH: “Ten seconds, Congressman.”
SUBRAMANYAM: “You know, right now, I have talked to the federal workers. This is going to do lasting damage to our country if we let these cuts go through.
And so I’m going to continue to fight…”
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