02:33ل determine for me. So, plus people have people who are not just calling in sick,
02:41but are leaving the job because they're not being paid?
02:45I haven't gotten any reports of anyone leaving the job. and i want to clear something up.
02:49Officers are not calling in the sick. Officers are not received the paycheck.
02:53They don't have the means to come to work. They're calling in because
02:56they cannot put gas in their car, or they cannot afford to pay for daycare.
03:01And that brings up a whole other thing.
03:03Daycares have wait lists.
03:05Those children that are not able to go to daycare right now, once the government reopens,
03:09they then have to find other places for the care of their children while they report to work.
03:15Let me ask you about this thinning of air traffic.
03:174% on Friday.
03:19It could go up, the Secretary of Transportation says, at some point to 20%.
03:23That may mean fewer people coming through the lines.
03:27Is that help for you if there are fewer flights or fewer people coming through these TSA lines?
03:33We're built for this in Atlanta.
03:35We deal with heavy passenger volume on a daily.
03:38So that may be the case for someone, but people are still going to be coming to Atlanta.
03:42So it may be a slight decrease in the passenger volume.
03:46It would help, but I don't think it will change much for Atlanta because of the way the airport is configured and everything.
03:50I think it will still be about the same.
03:52Let me play something that you said a month ago.
03:55This was near the start of the shutdown.
04:00One of the biggest concerns that I have for our members and what has been expressed to me is, you know,
04:06the mental anguish that's coming from not the uncertainty.
04:10The concern that I have is the security risk that that presents.
04:14The more that things are weighing heavily on someone's mind, you know, just in general,
04:19you lose focus of what's, you know, in front of you.
04:22Now, every politician that I've heard has said that there's no correlation between the lack of pay and safety and security.
04:31You say there that there is a security risk created by this.
04:35I think anyone that says that is absolutely insane with any what we're going through as federal workers is traumatic for a lot of people.
04:42And we know that traumatic experiences have effects on your mental.
04:47So if anyone is saying that, I absolutely don't agree with that.
04:50My stance will still be that this is affecting officers mentally.
04:54And if this continues to go on there, I hope that it doesn't happen.
04:58But there needs to be some recourse that happens immediately to take care of these officers so they can get the stress of not knowing what's going to happen with their home,
05:06their homes, their children, their families every day.
05:08All right, let's expand the conversation now and bring in Daryl Wilson, retired naval aviator and pilot,
05:14who is one of the leaders of the Georgia Black Republican Council, and Theron Johnson, a Democratic strategist.
05:19Daryl, let me start with you.
05:20We just heard here from a TSA worker who says that this is a safety risk, not paying people.
05:29What's your reaction to that?
05:30Well, that's one of the reasons that the Secretary of Transportation has taken the steps to alleviate the congestion and the stress upon the system
05:39and reducing the number of flights, as you pointed out, reducing the number of folks that come through the line for security.
05:47You have to be able to do something, take some action, and that's the action that's being taken at the time.
05:51I don't know that that eliminates the safety risk.
05:53If he cuts the number of people who come to the line to five and the people who are working TSA still aren't being paid,
05:59that's the risk, is it not, that they are focused on how to pay the rent, how to pay for food,
06:05how to fill the gas tank up, instead of what's coming through on that scanner.
06:09Oh, no, I agree with you.
06:10And Secretary Duffy has also made that case for the air traffic controllers as well.
06:16So there is a safety issue.
06:18And, again, until the Democrats vote for opening the government again, you have to take some action, and action is being taken.
06:26Theron, why did Democrats yesterday vote against a bill to pay federal workers?
06:31What justifies that?
06:33Because Democrats want this shutdown to end that the president created.
06:37You've got to remember, Victor, we tried to negotiate with the president months ago.
06:41We trusted him in the first able, we were first able to stop the first shutdown in March because we trusted that he was going to do the right thing.
06:49Now we're saying, hey, we can reopen this government because you guys control the White House, you control the House, and you control the Senate.
06:56Also, President Trump this week said that unless we explore the nuclear option, which he's encouraging Republicans to do,
07:02you guys are going to be blamed for the shutdown.
07:04Now, Democrats previously did vote for federal workers, like Aaron and the women and men in his union, to receive some pay.
07:11But going forward, we want this shutdown to end, not just continue to piecemeal it.
07:14You can't do both?
07:16Aaron's members of his union can't keep their apartments, and they can't feed their children and put gas in the car and continue to negotiate?
07:25Well, first of all, I want to thank Aaron and the women and men in his union for continuing to work.
07:29Our hearts and prayers are with you guys, and that's why you saw Democrats, like Congresswoman Nakeema Williams, who was just a couple weeks ago,
07:34who made sure that they went out to the airport and provided lunches and extended hours.
07:38Our mayor.
07:39Also, Victor, this week, I went through the airport and I handed out gas cards because, like Aaron, I had a supervisor tell me,
07:45if my folks can't get to work, I can't depend on them there.
07:48But I want to go back to this public safety issue really quick.
07:50These people, these women and men on the first line of defense, we forget when you're going and rushing to that flight,
07:56they have to really make sure that they use their proper training and their skills.
07:59And if they're tired, if they're broke, and if they're sick and they got their family members complaining, they may miss something.
08:05We confiscate guns at the airport all the time.
08:07So these TSA workers and these air traffic controllers need to have their jobs fully funded, and they need to be able to get their time back.
08:13But it still doesn't answer the question of why the negotiations over the ACA subsidies can't continue while the federal employees get paid.
08:20Yes, absolutely.
08:21I think we should do that, yes.
08:22But what the Republicans are going to tell you is pass the clean resolution first.
08:27It's not an or, Victor, it's an and.
08:28I totally agree with you.
08:29Darrell, let me come to you on the White House's fighting all the way down to the Supreme Court, paying out full SNAP benefits.
08:36I mean, the headline here is that the president is fighting, paying for food stamps for 42 million people.
08:45Do you support that?
08:47I support that we should not have interference between the legislative branch and the judicial branch trying to be activist judges.
08:59And so that's the issue.
09:00You know, is this a constitutional problem or where the judicial is overstepping their bounds?
09:10And so will the president even have the authority to do that?
09:15So they agreed with the with the with the court system and then it was was terminated by the Supreme Court.
09:24The president has posted on social media five or six times yesterday to end the filibuster, which would allow Republicans to end the shutdown without reaching the 60 vote threshold.
09:37So they wouldn't need any Democrats.
09:40Leaders in the Republican conference are not going to do that.
09:44Thune has said it's not going to happen.
09:46I want to play the president from a little more than a decade ago about the leadership required to end a government shutdown.
09:53Let's play it.
09:54Well, very simply, you have to get everybody in a room.
09:58You have to be a leader.
09:59The president has to lead.
10:00He's got to get Mr. Boehner and everybody else in a room and they have to make a deal.
10:05Where's that leadership?
10:08Well, the leadership is it's we already know the bills have already passed the House.
10:13And so that leadership has taken place.
10:15And now it's in the Senate where we're looking for Democrats to say, let's keep the government open.
10:20The leadership that president, well, then private citizen Trump said, is that it is up to the president to lead, to get the people into a room and to negotiate a deal.
10:29It is day 39.
10:31There are members of Aaron's union who are living in their cars.
10:35Where is the president's leadership?
10:37Well, the president has already met with both the leaders of the House and the Senate, you know, prior to this debacle already starting.
10:48And the Democrats have made it clear that they're not going to open the government until they get what they want.
10:52Just holding the president to the standard he set for previous presidents, Aaron, Darrell and Theron.
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