Senator Dick Durbin Talks Trump Administration First Week

Published Jan 28, 2025, 10:35 PM

Senator Dick Durbin joins to discuss the Trump Administration's first week, grant funding freeze and other legal actions. He speaks with Bloomberg's Joe Mathieu and Kailey Leinz. 

Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator, welcome back to Bloomberg TV and Radio.

It's good to see you.

We hear the line, a lot elections have consequences. Was President Trump acting within his authority? Was the acting legally in firing these people?

Well, there's a question about that and about a lot of other things. In eight days this notion. A gentleman named mister Vaith was the acting director of the Office of Management and Budgeting. He sends out this notice yesterday that basically shuts down the federal government in terms of the money that's flowing to local communities. And so with one dash of the pen, he ends up hurting the kids in head start hurting the elderly people who are in food programs, and then cutting off medical research. It took a federal judge today to bring people back to their senses.

Well, that just developed.

In fact, you're right, the president's freeze on grant funding and aid has been temporarily halted by a And i'd love to get your take on a lot of the actions that we've seen in the last eight days with regard to the Department of Justice, though, is that the president's right to fire those people who, in many cases serve beyond a single president's term.

Well, many of them are career employees, and certainly they have their legal rights under the law, and they're going to assert them in many instances, I think, for to have maximum effect and to have reaction from the public. You're seeing some of these extreme things happening in the Department of Justice and other departments. Ultimately this will be sorted out in the courtroom.

Well, I guess it will be.

You've also got inspectors general for any number of agencies, dozens in this case that have been fired the president. The White House did not notify Congress, as would typically be the custom here. I believe it's thirty days notice. Was this move legal, of course not.

He tiktoked this issue, just like he did the TikTok issue. Ignore the law, ignore what the courts say, do what you can to do, and in this situation is basically saying that the inspector generals are gone. Who are these women and men. They are individuals who have no allegiance to the individual heads of the agency. Their allegiances to the law and to the Constitution and to the budget. And they call them as they see them. They're the referees and the empires. Well, he wanted to get them off of the scene as quickly as possible so that he could pursue this next measure of shutting down federal spending.

It's not a.

Pretty picture, and it indicates gathering more and more power by Donald Trump at a time in history when we need to be careful, to be respectful of this constitution.

Well, that brings us to the actions of today.

And as we just learned, once again, a judge has halted the president's freeze on grant funding.

There were already some hiccups today.

We tried to get answers at a White House press briefing and there were some clarifying remarks from the Press Secretary's office. But we do know that the online portal for head Start is warning of delays.

Here. Before that judges ruling, the online Medicaid.

Portal was not accessible in some states, including Illinois. And so it becomes a question of what do you do about it now, Senator, If there's not a legal solution, will there be a legislative one.

Well, I don't know that a legislative one is worth anything at this point, because Donald Trump is basically announced with TikTok and the Inspectors General, he's going to ignore the law. He doesn't care what Congress says. And with the spending decision it was made yesterday, it caused such chaos all across the country and hurt so many innocent people. Is basically a decision on their path that they're going to go ahead and do it. Did the law be damned? So the American people have basically got to stand up and take notice here that there are some people who are part of the transition that are in a radical and extreme position.

Well, there are reports that some Senate Democrats, some of your colleagues, are calling for a delay to slow the confirmation process of Russell Vote to head up the Office of Management and Budget until this freeze is taken off the table or at least somehow clarified.

Would you support that, Yes, Votes got his fingerprints all over this, this project twenty twenty five. They're following this roadmap. They disavow it and said they really didn't know what was going on. President Trump said he had never heard of the thing, and basically what it boils down to if you read it, this is they're following that roadmap, just stop by stop, and unfortunately it violates the law and constitution.

Well, so you brought us there, and we can all check our mail after this conversation. When you start talking about Project twenty twenty five, the antennas go up across Washington. What are the breadcrumbs that russ vote left in that document that leads you to what he will do here or informs your view on what he will do inside the White House.

I tell you there's some radical ideas in there, and extreme ideas. They won't make America great again. They'll hurt a lot of innocent people. And if we want to be number one in the world, and I certainly hope we aspire to that, we've got to have the means of educating and providing for the basic citizenry of this country to excel in. Project twenty twenty has a negative attitude towards this government's role in helping people and businesses get off the ground and succeed.

So it's been eight days.

As we've established, Senator, you have a pretty important role on the Judiciary Committee as the confirmation process unfolds here and you're going to have quite a conversation. I know you had the Pambondi hearings, but many folks are eagerly awaiting Cash Ptel. Of course, the president has chosen to run the FBI. You've gone out of your way to talk about this, and I know that you're not a fan of Cash Patel. As you've pointed out, he is the man who wants to run the FBI, but also claims the FBI is responsible for what took place on January sixth. He posted on social media January sixth, never an insurrection, cowards in uniform exposed. Will you ask him to prove the FBI's involvement as some sort of inside job that day?

Absolutely, and there's no proof, no evidence of that whatsoever. The thing about this Cash Pattel person, as we have his playbook, he wrote a book and spelled out all of his weird conspiracy theories in detail. Now President Trump wants to give this man thirty eight thirty eight thousand FBI agents and professionals all over the world so he can pursue all his weird conspiracy theories. I mean, that's not fair to America. If we want to keep this country safe away from drugs and terrorism and assaults on our body. Politic we need someone who has a responsibility and a record of proven performance. Mister pttel Ate even close.

Wow, well, we'll see this unfold.

As I read from your statement after meeting with Cash Pattel, I have grave concerns about his fitness for the role of FBI director. He has neither the experience, the temperament, or the judgment to lead the FBI. Christy Nome, however, Senator got her job to run Homeland Security and gave her first remarks today as we hear reports of mass deportations. She actually posted some videos of them happening in New York. Here's what she said about the agency's jurisdiction, the thing.

That we can to protect the American people. We have jurisdiction over people who live here, people who leave here, and people who come here. We have jurisdiction over products that come into this country and which ones leave. We have jurisdiction over our internet, what comes in, what goes out, what kind of business has Virtually I tell people we have jurisdiction over everything, and we will exercise all legal authorities that we have to protect this country. Because it is the only last light of freedom left.

So, Senator, what should employers and in fact workers in cities like Chicago be prepared for as we talk about mass deportation and workplace raids.

Let me tell you it's going to have an impact not only individual lives of people, many of whom are innocent and shouldn't be swept up in this mass deportation, it's going to have an impact on businesses. When business leaders come to my office and with a hospitality industry, restaurant industry, you name it, they tell us that migrants and immigrants working on their workforce are critical to their success. Forty percent of the agricultural workers in Illinois are undocumented. If this administration is going to shut down their activities on the farm, I guarantee the produce section is going to look a lot worse in the stores across America, and we're going to see a lot of things increasing in price. That is not what the American people voted for in the last election.

Senator would be watching for you Thursday morning.

In that hearing we discussed Illinois Senator Dick Durbin. We thank you for your time. As always on Bloomberg TV, and radio

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