[indiscernible] -- in 2008 to elect bomani jones, you will see among democrats this -- barack obama, will you see among democrats this fall. ms. pelosi: we in the house have set a model for how to win elections by winning in the most gerrymandered, voter-suppressed political arena you could ever put together, net gain of 40 seats. so we think we are an engine that can help us win that election. whoever our nominee. is thank you. mr. schumer: thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2020] >> house republican leaders also held a briefing on the the president's 2021 budget plan. they're joined by the top republicans on the budget and armed services committees.

>> good morning, everyone. thanks for joining us this morning. we have a terrific lineup of members here. to talk about a number of issues. obviously the republicans had a tremendous week last week. now that impeachment is over, however, we want to make sure people recognize and understand that for the democrats, they're going to be back to kind of business as usual with their policies that we've seen consistently. what they demonstrated to us over the course of impeachment and since then and before they began impeachment was that they absolutely cannot be trusted. we are seeing both here in the house, as well as on the

campaign trail, a series of policies that would bring socialism to this country. i'm sure you all saw on the debate stage, only one of their candidates, and it was with a lot of hesitation, raised her hand when the question was whether you'd be troubled by having a socialist at the top of the ticket. ms. cheney: so we're going to continue to fight to make sure the american people don't forget the damage that the democrats have done. it's particularly clear this week, as the president has unveiled his budget request, and that's what we've got our members here to speak about, but don't forget, as you hear them talk about the president's budget, the fact that the democrats once again don't have a budget. once again the democrats haven't proud a budget. that is largely because of the cost of the proposals their presidential candidates and many of their members of congress have put forward. $32 trillion, health care plan that would eliminate all private insurance. at least $93 trillion and

probably much more in terms of the green new deal, which would abolish the use of fossil fuels, outlaw airplanes, cars, embrace thing socialism across e board -- embracing socialism across the board, opening up borders, abolishing i.c.e. in addition to those and to the costs that they know they can't agree on and they know they can't put down on paper because the american people would absolutely reject it, their policies have refused to stand up for the state of israel. they've refused to protect the unborn. and they've taken action that would violate our first amendment rights, our second amendment rights, and put legislation forward and support legislation that emboldens america's adversaries, weakens this president, weakens our ability to defend the nation. so we look forward as this year progresses to being able to bring the message to the american people of a party that is very much focused on what's necessary to continue the tremendous policies of

president trump, continue the growth, the opportunity and the restoration of our national security we've seen under this president. we think the contrast with the democrats will be very clear and the choice will be a clear one as well. with that, i'm going to turn things over to the republican leader of the budget committee, the gentleman from arkansas, mr. womack, to talk a little bit about the president's budget. mr. womack: thank you. i -- good morning. i thank the conference chair for the opportunity. look, i applaud the president for putting forward a budget proposal. that's a lot more than i can say for my friends on the other side of the aisle. as you've already heard, for the second straight year house democrats that lead the budget committee will not produce a budget. that's not leadership. the president's budget includes deficit reduction measures, specifically $4.6 trillion between 2021 and 2030, that's a

nice start, but a lot more work remains to be done to put our country on a solid fiscal path. our debt is over $23 trillion, deficits continue to rise and we've -- we're headed toward a fiscal crisis in our nation. the time to act is now. there's little motivation within the democratic majority to make the tough budgetary decisions necessary to reverse the course. we've 45erd about the daunt regularality of our fiscal trajectory yet it seems the democrats are not taking these warnings seriously. policies promoted by some democrats like medicare for all and the green new deal would increate -- increase mandatory spend big tens of millions of dollars thus drastically adding to the national debt.

frankly i know that's why my counterpart in the budget committee, john yarmuth, cannot produce a budget, because he knows it would be loaded with programs that would be crushing in terms of its impact on future generations. there's no better indicater of where democrats are headed than where they've already been. in this congress alone, house democrats have already violated their own pay-go rules 25 times. if you ask me, that's pretty clear evidence that our colleagues across the aisle don't care about the fiscal crisis we face that will negatively impact every single american. tomorrow, the house budget committee will hear from o.m.b. volker irector russ regarding the budget qusm i'm looking forward to the discussion and i hope more eyes will be opened to the stark reality we face. i will be interested to see how many committee democrats will

harshly criticize the president's budget knowing full well they failed to produce one of their own. in every reputable business, every local and state government the fiscal plan of the entity begins with a budget. but here we are, the greatest nation in the history of the world, and we can -- we can't even muster something as simple as a budget. we must start doing our job to put our country on a sustainable, responsible fiscal path. this is our duty to the american people, not promoting budget-busting policies that will leave future generations sad wled the consequences of congressional democrats' eagerness to spend with no way to pay. it's time for democrats to roll up their sleeves, join us at the . ble to do the difficult work president trump is leading on the issues. he put forward a budget,

democrats have not. doing nothing is no option. i yield back. ms. cheney: thank you, mr. womack. i would like to recognize the republican leader of the house armed service committees, mr. thornberry, to discuss the president's defense budget request. mr. thornberry: the administration's budget request for defense is consistent with the two-year budget deal that was reached last year. .3% increase a over this year's budget. now obviously the world has gotten a lot more dangerous than .3%. thinking about the iranian activities, north korean missile activities. hina's so what the pentagon has done is look internally for savings. that means doing less of some of the things that we have been doing in order to fund the capability we need for the

future. i think it's going to be a major test for this congress, whether we are able to take the longer, brder view in thinking about the future even though it means doing some things -- less of some things than we're doing now. if you look at this budget request, number one is people. a 3% pay raise. number two, the largest budget ever for research and development. and that is part of where those savings go, to fund more things like hypersonics. artificial intelligence. space. some of the areas where others are actually ahead of us. there's also a major increase on missile defense so that we cannot -- so that we can not only do better at protecting troops in the field but protecting our homeland. certainly the nuclear deterrent. increasing the credibility of the nuclear deterrent upon which we have depended for so long is a major priority.

through neglect and maybe wishnessful -- wishfulness, we have let all aspects of the nuclear deterrent wear out at the same time. we've got to buy new sub, new bombers, new missiles, we have to fix the weapon, we've got to repair and replace nuclear command and control, all at the same time. at in point does that take more than 6% of the defense budget, buts the foundation upon which all the remainder of our defense efforts rest. one last point. you take all this, looks like all this stuff we're doing for defense, it's still 15%, 15% of the federal budget. it was about 50% during john kennedy's day. it is about 3% of the gross domestic product, close to the lowest it has ever been in the country's history. we got down to 2.7% in 1999. not so much to ask to defend everything else that the country

has and the american people. ms. cheney: thank you, mac. now i'd like to yield to the chief deputy whip, mr. ferguson of georgia. mr. ferguson: thank you. good morning,ern. what a weesk contrasts we had last week. when i was home this past weekend, the nrbling level among voters was really high and the topics they were talking about, quite can kidly, were the contrast between the president's actions and where the socialist democrats are. simply look at the -- on day one of last week, monday, on monday you had the president in iowa, generating tremendous enthusiasm, high record turnout voters in caucus there. and yet the democrats still cannot count votes in iowa. i think that was a sharp contrast. the state of the union speech. boy, what a remarkable speech by the president. highlight manage of the accomplishments of this administration. and really laying out a vision for the future. that was a sharp contrast to

nancy pelosi standing behind the podium and tear thing speech like a pet lant child. another sharp contrast. on wednesday, as our colleagues schiff and nadler continued to push forth the narrative on impeachment and the hoax of impeachment, the president was acquitted in the senate. i think we had a very sharp contrast. i think america has responded to that if you look at what's going on this week, nancy pelosi is again asking her members to take an unconstitutional vote on the e.r.a. bill they're going to put forward this week. it is nothing more than a messaging bill and it is remarkable to me that in a week where we're going to also have -- we've had the president's budget unveiled, the democrats have failed to produce a budget, nancy pelosi toneds try to wrap herself in the constitution, she seems to only do it when it's convenient. she's ignoring her constitutional responsibility of the lead ore they have socialist democratic party to produce a budget and really quite candidly

the shameful act of tearing up a speech at the state of the union. sharp contrast, america has responded. we're going to keep telling the story of a bright future nor country and we're going to continue to show along with the help of the socialist dems their vision of destroying this country. with that, i turn it over to our leader. thank you. mr. mccarthy: he was right, the contrast was tremendous. last week we saw two directions for america. the president's state of the union, one of the best i have ever heard, then you waffed him get acquitted for life. watched the jobs report. many people redicted around 100,000, more than doubling, shows a continuing growth. then you restheaved good news that u.s. forces took out a terrorist leader that claimed responsible for the attack that killed three of our service members in nafle air station pence coe lasm the president produced a budget. compare that to the democrat majority on that side of the house.

they've got trouble. they've got trouble with turnout in iowa. they have trouble with temper tantrums during the state of the union. they had trouble with the truth, impeachment. and to quote the speaker, show me your budget, show me your values. the number one responsibility of the majority is to plan for the future. once again, no budget. i wonder if the speaker will propose eliminating the budget committee because they have no work to do in this new majority of not producing a budget itself. last night i was in new hampshire with the president. i've watched democrats spend millions of dollars trying to get a turnout. i watched the president produce one rally that produced much more than all of combined. the enthuse nasm was tremendous. the number of people, packed house. same as we saw within iowa. the turnout from the democrats was a decrease in turnout and the president set a new record for any president running for re-election in turnout in iowa. enthusiasm gap between the

democratic party is shown time and again. this president also on the way up there changed course. gave a shorter rally than times before. because what the president did instead is flew to dover. we understand the cost of freedom and this president understands it greatly the president wanned to make sure because this weekend our country lost two heroes. sergeant first class gutierrez and sergeant first class rod redwezz. last night the president traveled to dover, was with the family we continue to keep them in our prayers and we understand what the cost of freedom is about. you listened to mac thornberry and steve womack they understand what it means to have a responsibility to protect our men and women and understand we have to plan with budget to produce that and keep the world free and at the same time to keep our troops. that's the fundamental divens between the americas of this

republican party and the democrats. they won't produss a fwouget lay out a framework of what the world should look like. i think that's why they're having a turnout decrease across the country. with that, i open it up to questions. yes, sir. reporter: mr. leader. last friday when the president dismissed colonel vindman and ambassador sondland, your reaction to that. and also several senators in the wake of the verdict said they hoped the president had learned a lesson. do you think the president has learned a lesson from the impeachment? mr. mccarthy: i think there's a lot oflesstons -- lessons to learn. first i'd go to the intel committee. we have a chairman on the intel committee that read a transcript that was not true to the american public. we have a chairman of the intel committee who came before the american public and said he had a great fear that the administration was going to withhold the whistleblower from

giving information. we learned later that the this -- that this same chairman met with the whistleblower and the only transcript with held if the basement of those interviewers was that one about the inspector general. all he needs to do is bring the committee to vote to release that transcript. i wonder what that transcript would read? could it possibly state out that member who is the chame of the intel committee could be a fact witness? could it come forth that he met with this individual before, the only person in congress who would know who the whistleblower is? could we he have just taken america through a second nightmare when we could have been focusing on so many other items? i think that's the biggest lesson for america today. i think the democratic party in their own civil war based upon the speaker's jumping to an impeachment, based upon following adam schiff, i think there's a great frustration. they talk about lessons, i believe that's the lesson.

>> was it appropriate for the president to take the action against vindman and sondland? >> it appropriate for the news to say he was fired when he was not? i think it is appropriate. reporter: i want to ask about some commonsense, on television last night about the investigation. it was said there's classified evidence about related matters. your reaction to that have you read any classified evidence that convinces you? mr. mccarthy: i have not. i did not see the interview, i was with the president. i do not know from that. i think that's a question for steve. but i would leave it up to durham to do his investigation and come back. i make no predetermined judgment. let him find the information and ind out what happened. reporter: the house this morning

opinion on them being elevated? mr. mccarthy: jim jordan and i had a competition to become leader. i called yim jordan after that and asked him to become the ranking member on oversight. i think he's done an excellent job. one thing i would take from all this, we have a united republican party. we're united in the facts. we're united in fighting for the american public. much different in contrast to the democrat party where they have their own civil war, first internally inside this house, a number of democrats who are fearful of lose their seats based on decision thegs speaker made about moving forward in impeachment and trusting adam schiff who continued to lie to them themselves. then you've got a civil war on the national pages that you see bernie sanders in the lead and once again the democratic party

trying to steal the nomination from bernie sanders. remember, just four years ago, the chair of the democratic national committee had to resign the night before their convention because truth came forward in emails that they had rigged the system to make sure bernie could not win. they changed the process, there was no superdelegates on the first round they thought they fixed iowa. interesting that the poll the night before that has always come forward could not come forward. interesting the night of the election they could not report any who was winning from a lead within the lead bernie sanders had. it's interesting the speaker of the house saying she had to rush through impeachment and then hold the papers which gave an advantage to joe bind. to mayor pete. and a disadvantage to every senator who was running for president. bernie sanders being one of them and in the lead. interesting to me how divided

the democratic party. even if you talk to democrats inside congress, they will not say they are democrats. they will claim they are socialist democrat. this is a new movement within the party. i would say from the aspect of what you saw within our steering committee today, we're probably more unified as a party than we've ever been and open to more people willing to join us, just as we had jeff van dwue join us from a democrat to a republican. i think that's probably one of the biggest signs you'll see that america is open and ready for a different direction inside the majority. i make you this one promise. that they would trust us being in the majority we'd be the majority that gave you a budget. wouldn't hide from the facts but plan for the future. and we'd be a majority that wouldn't use impeachment simply because of the an mossties you have for somebody else. we'd be a congress that would work for the american public, not for their party.

thank you. >> president trump is plo posing a $4. trillion federal budget that would become balanced in 15 years. to get to that point he'd make cuts to domestic programs including food stamps, farm subsidies, student loans an medicaid. medicare and social security benefits would remain unchanged though medicare payments to doctors and hospitals would be trimmed. you can find our coverage of budget briefings an reaction at -span.org. >> article 2 is adopted.

>> do you solemnly swear that in all things aper taining to the trifle the impeachment of donald john trump, poth the united states, now pend, you will do impartial justice according to the constitution and laws so elp you god? what we have seen over the last couple of days is a descent into constitutional madness. >> again, we think the base basis upon which this has moved forward is irregular to say the least. >> donald john trump, president of the united states, is not guilty as charged in the second article of impeachment. >> for the third time in u.s. history, a president has been impeached and acquitted. from the house hearings to the senate trial, c-span has provided live, comprehensive coverage of the impeachment of president trump. you can find all of our video and related resources at c-span.org/impeachment. c-span, your place for unfiltered coverage of congress.

>> the new hampshire primary is today. watch results and candidate speeches starting at 7:30 p.m. eastern live on c-span. c span.org. or listen on the free c-span radio app. >> our c-span campaign 2020 bus is traveling across new hampshire. asking voters what issues should presidential candidates address? >> the issue that's most important to me in 2020 is taking care of our veterans, making sure that we don't go to war, and that we are working with our allies to secure our united states. >> financial reform, having candidates take on wall street and be able to stand up to them.

>> focus on issues of racial justice whether it be police brutality, addressing systemic racism within our government and also issues of like, reparations and things. >> i'm mostly concerned about social programs, maintaining of social programs, such as social security and everybody swears on the bible they're not going to touch it but you know that's the next thing they'll try to dismantle. i would say that is cause number one. >> i am most interested in ensuring that kids in school and adults still have access to the arts. that there's no programs that are suffering, that they still can get funded as best they can. no one will take arts education out of the schools. keep children culturally aware. incredibly important to, you know, each one of us.

s from the road, on c-span. >> jerome powell was on capitol hill to give congress a report on the economy and monetary policy. he then answered questions from house financial services committee members about the fed's decision. ms. waters: i now recognize myself for four minutes to give an opening statement. i'd like to welcome back chairman powell. as i discussed earlier at our last hearing with you, i remain very concerned