00:00Thank you for being here. Thank you for coming out. Thank you to Majority Dems for bringing us together so
00:06soon after an amazing election that gave some hope back to us.
00:12I'm the senator, now the senior senator from the great state of Michigan.
00:18And I was asked to speak about what is next. And many of you know I have a national security
00:24background by training.
00:26And in that world, in order to talk about what is next, you have to talk about the lessons learned
00:32from what just happened.
00:33So here's what I think we just saw a couple of days ago during our election.
00:40Most of it can be encapsulated by my experience two weeks ago knocking doors in Sterling Heights, Michigan.
00:47Thank you for the one person who cheered for Sterling Heights, Michigan.
00:52I was knocking every single door and to a house, everyone is clutching my arm, some of them in tears,
01:00talking about the economic choices they are making, the economic stress they feel, the shame they feel because they can't
01:09provide for their kids what was provided to them.
01:11A feeling like someone else is getting rich while they are getting poor, and then on top of that, a
01:17feeling like AI and technology is going to make that worse, right?
01:21They're making trade-offs between prescription drugs and food.
01:24They're deciding which of their children gets to go to college.
01:28These are the kinds of things that are leading to a deep sense of shame.
01:32And their vote on election night was because they cannot handle that level of stress going forward.
01:38So the lessons for me on what we need to take, as happy as we all are, are very sober.
01:44They're threefold.
01:45First of all, the economic crisis, the talk of affordability is actually much bigger than that.
01:51The thing that we have going on right now is whether we will have a middle class in this country,
01:57whether the American dream in this country is real or not.
02:00And it is up to us to deliver and make sure we demonstrate how we feel about that.
02:06Number two, and I would just say, I am a national security person, but the existential crisis in this country,
02:13the existential threat, is not coming from some other country abroad.
02:16It is coming from that threat to the middle class.
02:20Number two, on election night, people voted very clearly for a new generation of leadership.
02:25That was very, very clear.
02:29People won all over the country, and to be honest, they did not wake up in the morning and say,
02:34well, I'm a progressive or I'm a moderate and this is the way I'm.
02:37They voted for a new generation who thinks differently and works harder and never forgets who they serve.
02:44And I just want to say, because we're at a conference of Democrats right now, I think Michigan gave a
02:51really clear demonstration that whatever side of the Democrats you feel like you're on, that is not what is important
02:57right now.
02:58Okay?
02:58Teamwork is what is important.
03:01And if you have elected officials who are spending all their time fighting progressive versus moderate, then they have missed
03:07the plot of the election.
03:11That new generation is not going to be defined by progressive versus moderate.
03:16That new generation, quite simply, is are you on team fight or are you on team flight?
03:21Those are the only two distinctions we have.
03:24And I think, for me, the third thing that came across so clearly in these elections is that people are
03:30desperate for big and bold ideas.
03:33They do not want marginal change.
03:35They do not want small bureaucratic changes in a bill.
03:40They want big swings.
03:41So what does that mean if those are the lessons from this election?
03:46It means going forward that, number one, we have to be ruthless about fighting for a middle class.
03:52That means passing legislation, as we just heard in our last panel, that takes big swings, first of all, to
03:58mop up what President Trump has done with the war and the tariffs and the Medicaid cuts.
04:03But it also means putting our money where our mouth is on big swings on health care and prescription drugs
04:09and housing and then daring the president to veto them.
04:15Number two, we have to have accountability for people who broke the law and who stole taxpayer dollars.
04:23That is, we have to be a country of rules and laws.
04:26So picking signature cases of people that really abused the law and taxpayer dollars and going and demonstrating that you
04:34can't do that.
04:35This should not be a controversial statement.
04:37It has become controversial, including for me last night when the Department of Justice indicated that they are again threatening
04:44to criminally indict me for those exact words on accountability.
04:49And then number three, we need to make sure that a very unsexy group of people are thinking very hard
04:57about how to Trump-proof the government going forward so that no leader can do this again.
05:02No leader can enrich themselves on the backs of the American people, Democrat or Republican.
05:09So we had a great night on election night, right?
05:13It gave us hope in a way that I think I'm so glad for my Gen Z staff that they
05:17got to experience what it was like to feel hope on an election night, right?
05:22It was great.
05:23I was particularly thrilled, I got to say, as a good Midwesterner to see all the wins in the Midwest.
05:31Because I think the Midwest is a place that understands core values that can be very, very useful at this
05:37time, right?
05:38Putting your head down, being practical, being neighborly, pulling together when your community and your country needs you.
05:46Because we are in a moment of an economic crisis, but it is not the first time our country has
05:52been in this kind of trouble, right?
05:55We do have experience of coming together and getting through tough moments.
05:59Think about what was going on in a city like this in the middle of the Depression, right?
06:04Every single time our country has been at a tough economic moment, we get through it with two things.
06:11Engaged citizens and principled leaders.
06:15Every single time, engaged citizens do a little bit more than they're used to doing because their country they love
06:20needs them.
06:21And then there are principled leaders ready to receive the ball and do something about it.
06:27So thank you for being here.
06:29Thank you for participating.
06:30Thank you to all the voters who came out and voted.
06:32You are engaged citizens because you love your country and you love your community.
06:37And I am so thrilled to be up here on stage and will do everything in my power to be
06:43the principled leader that you all deserve.
06:45So thank you, thank you, thank you.
06:46Appreciate you.
06:47Have a great one.
