Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees: Interview With Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-IL)
Interview
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Yes, Anderson. This was a bill that became really an extreme MAGA Republican bill that was not designed in any way to be able to get bipartisan support.
Now, as you know, the top line of defense spending is always a challenge for progressives, but this went far beyond that. Not only is it the highest top line number we've seen in a very long time, they put in all sorts of amendments that were added at the last minute, that aim to strip -- move towards an abortion ban across the country, basically ban abortion care and reproductive care for servicemembers, eliminate gender affirming care for trans folks and eliminate DEI, diversity, equity and inclusion, which as you know, we're trying to build up -- our military buildup our troops we need to have people from all over that represent different communities, and we have trouble recruiting right now as it is.
So this was a bill well designed to appease the MAGA extreme right wing of their party and it was terrible to see.
I haven't seen such a divided partisan vote in the entire time I've been in Congress.
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Yes, that's right. I think that this is his attempt to try and say that we don't support our service members when, in fact, everything that we are about is making sure that we have a strong military where service members get the support they need. And they made it such and you know this, you've been covering this issue for a long time. They made it such that they could only get four Democrats who, by the way, you know, there were four Republicans who voted no.
So that sort of evened itself out. This was not a bipartisan bill. And I think you're right, he wanted it not to be a bipartisan bill. And that is the issue with Team Extreme of the Republican Party. They're not interested in trying to pass things. They're not interested in trying to govern. They're not interested in getting that raised for service members. Otherwise, they wouldn't have passed a bill that is not going to pass in the Senate.
There is no way this bill is going to pass in the Senate. And we're going to have to have a bill come back to us and we'll see what the Republicans do at that point.
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It is personal for me, Anderson. This is about life and death for our kids to be able to get the care that they need and to be the heroes that they are in just trying to live their lives at a time that is incredibly difficult. So yes, it's personal to me.
But I can tell you there are Democrats and Republicans and Independents across the country who see this for what it is -- a cruel, blindly partisan, extreme thing that Republicans are trying to pin. They're, you know -- I guess what they're hoping is going to be a victory at the polls. I don't think it is. I think Americans are going to see through it.
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Well, I think the Senate is going to pass something that does have bipartisan support, but Kevin McCarthy just put Marjorie Taylor Greene on the conference committee, which means that he's still catering to those extreme right elements. And at the end of the day, the bill is going to have to come back to the House. It is going to have to pass the House. Otherwise, we are not going to be able to support our military.
And I think that Republicans, you know, are going to try to say that this is Democrats fault, but everybody can see what happened today. They insisted on passing a very partisan bill. And, Anderson, they didn't even take bipartisan amendments that essentially didn't do that much, but would have given a flavor of bipartisanship to the bill and perhaps encouraged more Democrats to vote for it, but they just insisted on making it as extreme as they possibly could.
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Thank you, Anderson.
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