Questions, please follow up with me
or our press team and we will work
to get you responses.
Please note that because we are
doing this webinar style, you will
not be able to record the meeting
within the Zoom app.
However, you are welcome to use a
third-party platform to record.
Otherwise, our office will send a
recording via email afterwards to
all participants.
Now I'll hand it over to Senator
Baldwin to make some remarks.
Senator.
Thank you.
I want to start by thanking all of
you for joining us this morning,
whether whenever I'm not
working in Washington, D.C., I
am usually traveling the state of
Wisconsin and visiting with
folks from communities,
big and small,
rural and urban.
And no matter where I go, I really
hear about the same issues
facing Wisconsin families.
Whether it's the rising cost of
housing or childcare or
healthcare, it's really harder
for them to make ends meet.
I take my job seriously to
address those concerns and be a
part of the solution.
Trump promised these
families to be a part of that
solution too.
He campaigned on bringing down
the cost of all goods,
cutting down the costs of gas
and rent, groceries,
you name it.
Trump promised it.
He also promised no
new wars.
This was welcome news because
Wisconsinites have been clear.
They do not want another
endless foreign war.
But less than two weeks ago,
Trump started an
illegal war with Iran.
This is yet another broken
promise from this president who
pledged to end foreign conflicts,
not start them.
President Trump may have forgotten
the lessons we learned in
Iraq and Afghanistan,
but Wisconsinites have it.
They remember the cost of wars
started without good
reasons.
And without a plan to
get us out.
Already this war has
taken the lives of seven
American service members and
injured over 100 others.
My thoughts are with the families
who now have an empty seat
at the dinner table and for
the families who are up at night
praying that they don't find
themselves in that same position.
President Trump started
this war on a whim,
with no congressional approval.
Thousands of Americans in uniform
who are stationed in the region,
including Wisconsinites, are
at risk because of it.
This war of choice,
this is a war of choices,
but it shouldn't be the president's
choice. So far,
we've gotten no clear answers
from this administration.
On why we're in this war.
Actually, we've gotten about 10
different and sometimes conflicting
reasons why we are in this
war.
And we certainly haven't seen a
clear plan of how it
will end.
While Trump was saying the war was
very complete,
Secretary Hegseth was saying
exactly the opposite.
So which one is it?
All signs point to this president
getting us into this war
haphazardly, and it's
deeply concerning because
it's Wisconsinites who are going to
pay the price.
Wisconsinites need some answers.
They should know why this
administration is spending billions
of dollars on a war with
Iran, instead of
investing in our schools or
lowering the cost of groceries,
health care, or rent.
Since this administration has
refused to do so on their own,
I'm using every bit of leverage
as a U.S.
Senator I have to get
those answers.
At my core, I want this
war to end.
I want to stop wasting billions
of dollars abroad and I want to
prevent any more service members
from dying.
But to get to that end,
we need sunlight and
to get some answers so
that the American public can
see in plain sight what
is happening here.
And that's why I'm calling on
Leader Thune to hold public
hearings and for Secretary Hegseth
and Secretary Rubio and
others from this administration to
come to Congress to
make their case to the American
people.
It's high time President
Trump answered to the families
of the brave soldiers putting
their lives on the line
for our country.
And to the Wisconsinites who are
paying the price for this war
at the gas pump.
I, along with five of my
colleagues, have filed war
powers resolutions,
which we can force the Senate
to vote on to end this
war with Iran, unless
Congress authorizes it.
If Leader Thune refuses
to hold public hearings,
and the Trump administration
continues to hide
in darkness, I'm
prepared to force every
single senator to go on
record and tell the American people
whether or not they support
another endless foreign
war.
I have long advocated
against foreign wars.
My whole career, I have
believed that the very hard
work of diplomacy
is the answer,
not war.
I believe that when I voted against
a war in Iraq,
and I believe it today,
Wisconsinites do not want more
war. And that is why
I'm fighting to end this
one. And with that,
I'll allow Aisling to open
up the floor to your questions.
Thank you. Just a reminder that
questions should be submitted to the
chat Q and a function.
We will get to as many on topic
questions as we can with Senator
Baldwin. If you have any follow up
questions, please direct them to our
office via email afterwards.
And it looks like we have a
question already.
Senator, what will hearings actually
get you?
That's a great question.
And I would posit
that they can make a huge
difference. Just ask former
Secretary Kristi Noem
the difference that public
hearings in Congress can make.
But, first and foremost,
public hearings on the war in Iran
is the
bare minimum that we need to
do to hold this administration
accountable for this war of
choice. And secondly...
Holding public hearings will
be the vehicle through which the
American people will get some
answers.
They need to know why we're even
in this war.
What is the goal of this war?
And how are we going to get
out of it?
And why are we spending billions
of dollars on this war
instead of lowering health care
costs and grocery costs and
energy costs?
Thank you.
The next question we have is,
Senator, what's your reaction to new
reporting that indicates U.S.
Forces were responsible for the
deadly strike on an Iranian girls'
school?
I was absolutely heartbroken
when I heard about
the bombing in the first place, that
a girls' school with
about 175 students
and teachers was
struck on the first day of
airstrikes in this war.
And all signs point
to the idea that
these innocent children were killed
because of Donald Trump's
reckless and illegal
race to war.
I want accountability.
I want an investigation because
the people I work for
are not okay with
their tax dollars funding
this kind of thing.
And again, it all underscores
the tragic consequences
of a war that no one wants.
We have soldiers dying, and
we have innocent children who
are being bombed.
And this administration cannot even
muster a coherent
rationale for why
we're in this war in the first
place. Or I want to remind you
of what I said earlier.
The president has
grasped about a half-dozen
separate different reasons why we
might use military force in Iran.
Can't land on one,
and that is not acceptable.
Thank you, Senator.
The next question we have is,
have you gotten a response from
Leader Thune? Do you expect to get
one?
I have not yet heard
back from Leader Thune
on our demand for
public hearings with
Secretary Hedgeseth,
Secretary Rubio, and other top
administration officials to
tell the American public why
we are at war and why this
administration is prioritizing
spending billions on this
for risking American
servicemembers' lives.
Instead of prioritizing on what
Trump said he would, which is
bringing down the costs of things
here at home and ending
foreign endless wars.
However, I want to
remind folks that because
I have filed the War Powers
Resolution, I will
be able to use that as
leverage to demand these public
hearings. And I hope Leader Thun
decides that it's a better
allocation of Senate
time to hold public hearings.
On Trump's war of choice than
it is to,
you
know, spend time
voting on the floor on
an issue that
the administration should
have come to us first on.
Great, thank you, Senator, and we
have time for one more question, so
we'll end with this one.
Any thoughts on short-term solutions
to rising gas prices?
You know, certainly
the prices of
gas are rising because
of this
president's war of choice.
We were not under imminent threat of
attack. We were under attack
when the president decided to
go into Iran.
Iran is near
the Gulf of Oman and
the Persian Gulf and the
Straits of Hormuz
Uh, it is using it's,
um,
leverage to try to
bring to a halt the
passage of all commerce
through the Straits of Hormuz,
including the 20% of
all global oil that travels
through those Straits.
That's going to have a
very significant impact on
the price of a barrel of oil and
ultimately, and in quick
order, the price of the pump.
Believe that we
need to be clear-eyed about why
the price of gas is going up.
But I also think that
we should be going
forward with ameliorating
that as best we can for the people
of America.
And I would
say two things about the
price-of-energy. One is, I think
it's appropriate to be looking at
the strategic petroleum reserve
as is being done.
But I also wanna say that energy
overall and US energy
independence has also been seriously
impaired by our president's
attack on renewables, which
are a part of our overall energy
portfolio.
And I believe this
president has been very wrong and
wrong-headed about
his approach to energy
overall.
Great. Thank you so much.
And that's all we have time for
today. I'll be sending around a
recording of this meeting to all
participants in the next 30 minutes
or so.
Please feel free to reach out to me
with any follow up questions.
Thanks everyone.
Recording.