House Republicans passed a budget Monday night in Washington, laying the groundwork for massive tax cuts and spending cuts — including potential cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. But, while the future of those budget negotiations remains up in the air, it’s exactly the kind of action Arizona’s senior senator says he’s seeing most of from the Trump administration just over a month into a chaotic term.
Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat, joined The Show to discuss why through the barrage of action, he’s most concerned about Trump’s focus on tax cuts for the rich on the backs of the poor. And the United States' tenuous alliances in Europe in light of Trump’s recent talks with Russia.
But, liberals and activists around the country are beginning to voice frustration with congressional Democrats and what the New York Times calls their "restrained approach."
So, how should the Democratic Party respond to this new political reality and show of force from Trump? Kelly told The Show he’s choosing the issues to fight — and where to try to work together, like immigration.
Full conversation
SEN. MARK KELLY: Well, if you're going to do this smartly, you would, you would do it in a bipartisan way in the United States Senate and the House and have Democrats and Republicans working together because when they go it alone, there's only so much they can do.
They can, they can spend some more money. They can build a camp on Guantanamo, which by the way, is going to cost a lot more than it would be to build anywhere else. And it's really for show. I mean, it's for intimidation purposes, but if you want to change policy, border security policy, you've got to do that through the United States Congress, and he knows that he's not going to do that or it doesn't seem like he's going to do that because that's not what this is about.
This is, is for, it, it's mostly for show when you look at, you know, the number of deportations, who they're deporting. You want to be deporting criminals, felons and gang members. That's where the focus should be. You have limited resources to do this work. Now I don't care if it's the Biden administration or the Trump administration or Obama or Bush. You only got so many resources to do this, so you should be focused on what really matters, you know, not some poor family that's just trying to get by or a mass deportation, by the way, that rips communities apart.
And then as we focus on border security, we should also be focused on comprehensive immigration reform, a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers. We've got a lot of Dreamers in Arizona. We've got a lot of farm workers. These folks need certainty in their lives. They contribute to our communities.
Focus on the criminals, focus on border security. Let us work together on this so we can change border policy. And you know, when it comes to like barriers and technology, my position on this has always been to listen to the Border Patrol. These guys are the experts. We should put barriers up where they want them. I helped them actually, you know, get four pieces of border wall south of Yuma because Border Patrol really wanted it.
LAUREN GILGER: I want to also ask you about the broader picture here of, of Democratic opposition to Trump. I mean, you've been making statements, writing letters, you've spoken on the Senate floor, you're talking to the media, obviously. I wonder, you know, is it enough?
Like, like, should Democrats in Washington be using more extreme maneuvers, you know, debate time insisting Republicans have all 51 senators on the floor holding up nominations, things like that. Are those things on the table?
KELLY: Well, there's only so much you can do when you're in the minority, and we're doing as much as we possibly can, and it's frustrating. It's frustrating for us. I think it's frustrating for the American people when they see Washington is not working for them. And we are, I am trying to change that.
You know, we're doing some of the things you suggest, but you know, there's there's limits to, you know, what we can do when we, you know, we lost a few Senate seats. We hope to get back the Senate majority. When you're in the majority, you can do a lot more, you know, I think it's a matter of explaining to for me to explain to Arizonans, to explain to the American people what's really going on here.
You know, you have, you know, Elon Musk in an unelected billionaire gutting these federal agencies with no detailed process beforehand, with no plan, laying off people that work at the Veterans Administration. I mean, we're gonna have veterans in Arizona that they're gonna get worse health care because the staff, staff members are gonna be gone. I mean, administering health care for vets who served our country is already a hard thing to do. And they don't have the resources to do it now and they're, you know, they're firing people. By the way, a lot of the federal government employees that Elon Musk is firing are veterans, about a third of them.
Hey, I am all for looking for where we have government waste, where there is redundancy. You know, I think a smart president would, would have done something like say, hey, let, let me talk to my, the head of all these agencies, and let's spend some time to think about this and let's find where there is waste, where maybe there's some fraud, there's redundancy, there are people we don't need anymore. Let's come up with a comprehensive list. Let's reduce the size of the agency in a thoughtful way.
This was not that.
GILGER: There seem to be some kind of differing approaches among Democrats about how they're thinking about how, how to deal with this Trump administration and sort of the rapid fire approach they've been taking to changes and cuts. What's yours like? Do you think you swing at every ball that's thrown? Do you look forward? Do you try to present a different vision for the country?
KELLY: You know, if you're swinging at every ball that's, that's thrown, I think it would be rather cartoonish because there's, there's so, there's so many out there, it's like you'd be overwhelmed. So what I try to focus on is the stuff that really matters.
I'm also going to try to work with the administration when it makes sense and, and to do, I'm on the Armed Services Committee and the Intelligence Committee. We've got real national security issues in Europe, this is being botched in a significant way that's going to be hard to recover from. We also have conflict in the Middle East. We've got the, you know, situation in the Western Pacific with a rising China, and they're increasing military capability.
So I'm focused on when can I make, you know, progress with the administration. I've got some, you know, folks there I've got good relationships with. I have legislation with, I worked on legislation with the National Security Adviser Mike Waltz. We're going to continue to focus on that stuff.
But on the stuff that it's not in the best interest of this country, not in the best interest of the folks I represent, of our safety, of our economic security. I'm gonna be working against them in every way I can possibly find.
GILGER: What about when it comes to funding the government? Will Democrats be able to use that as leverage?
KELLY: Well, so that's, you know, coming up here pretty quickly, you know, mid-March, we've got to do something and if we don't, the government gets shut down on March 14. I think government shutdowns are a really bad idea. It has consequences that extend throughout the nation, negative consequences. There's nothing good about it.
GILGER: Let me ask you lastly, Senator, about what your vision is for the future of the Democratic Party going forward. You're talking about sort of focusing on issues where you can work in a bipartisan fashion, opposing the Trump administration where you can. But you know, coming off of the losses that November brought for the Democratic Party, do you feel like there is a unified vision going forward for the party?
KELLY: Unified? You know, we're working on it. You know, my vision is, you know, that the Democratic Party continues to be one that is standing up for working people and senior citizens and young folks trying to get a decent education, public education. I'm a product of public schools in the state of Arizona. Our public school funding has been gutted by this voucher system that's been put into place by the Legislature. So, you know, we're, we're fighting for people who are trying to get by.
I'm the son of two police officers. This approach that this administration is, is taking is very one-sided. And it's going to help the wealthiest Americans and right now if they pass this budget that they're talking about, it's going to be on the backs of people's health care. Folks on access in Arizona, or seniors on Medicare, or possibly both.
