00:00Hi, everybody. My name is Jason Crow from the great state of Colorado, and I am incredibly proud to stand
00:05here with my fellow veteran members of Congress and soon to be members of Congress, incredible patriots who have stepped
00:13up and time and time again, who understand that when we took that oath, some of us years ago, I
00:20won't say how many years ago, when we took that oath, that it was a lifetime oath, that our commitment
00:27to this country, our commitment to the Constitution,
00:30that our commitment to the brotherhood and sisterhood of military veterans is a lifetime oath and continues, and we will
00:39always go where the fight is. We'll always go where we need to go to defend our country, to defend
00:45our military families and our fellow veterans.
00:47So, as you have heard, as my brothers and sisters have so well articulated, I no longer care about the
00:57lip service of so many people here who tell us what they value, who tell us what they support, and
01:05then turn around and go the opposite direction and do the opposite thing.
01:11Today, for example, they denied us the opportunity to vote on a bill to say no to massive cuts to
01:19the VA that would decimate the veteran system.
01:24They jammed it through because they're not willing to actually take a vote on it, just like they avoid votes
01:30on Pete Hegseth, just like they avoid votes on Epstein, just like they avoid votes on the war with Iran.
01:37So, the best way on this Veterans Day to support our fellow veterans is to make sure that our budget
01:44reflects our values, that we are investing in our veteran system,
01:48but also to make sure that we are not unnecessarily creating more veterans.
01:56We support our military service members when we don't ask them to do things they don't need to do, and
02:03right now they are in the Middle East fighting a war that Americans don't want, that Americans have not authorized,
02:11that last week Americans said very clearly they want this war to end.
02:15So, we must end this war in Iran, bring our service members home, reinvest in our military of the future,
02:23and make sure that our military families are brought back together.
02:27So, with that, I am very honored to introduce my friend Adam Hamaway from the Commonwealth of New Jersey.
02:36Thank you very much.
02:40I'm Dr. Adam Hamaway, I'm a U.S. Army veteran and served in Iraq, and come January I will represent
02:46the good people of New Jersey's 12th District.
02:48Thanks to Donald Trump and his immoral war of choice, gas and grocery prices have hit record highs, and America
02:57is less safe.
02:59New Jersey sent me to Congress to tell some hard truths.
03:03On day one of this joint offensive with Israel, Donald Trump bombed the Shadr al-Tayyibah school in Iran, killing
03:11over a hundred little schoolgirls, and the horrors since then have continued.
03:18I'm a U.S. Army veteran and I know war crimes when I see them.
03:23Donald Trump is a war criminal, and we must hold him and Hexeth and everyone else culpable of this to
03:30account.
03:31It's time to end this war.
03:33It's time to stop this madness and to get our government back to delivering to the American people,
03:39to backing up our veterans and to getting our prices down and working for working families.
03:47Thank you very much.
03:49And next, I'd like to introduce my fellow Navy veteran and neighbor from New Jersey's 7th District member elect, Rebecca
03:57Bennett.
04:01Thank you, Adam.
04:02Well, good afternoon, everyone.
04:03Happy Veterans Day.
04:04My name is Rebecca Bennett.
04:05I am proud to be the representative elect for New Jersey's 7th Congressional District.
04:09I'm a former Navy helicopter pilot and experimental test pilot, and I served in the military for over 15 years.
04:15And I have friends right now that are forward deployed in the Middle East.
04:18And Donald Trump and Pete Hexeth started a war of choice without any sort of clear plan, objective, or exit
04:24strategy.
04:24And ultimately, what they are doing is making our nation less safe, less secure, and the damage that they are
04:29causing to our military is unacceptable.
04:31And I look forward to holding them accountable for that when we take back the Congress in January.
04:35But it's also Veterans Day, and I want to take a minute to also acknowledge the work that we have
04:40to do for our veteran community.
04:41It is our moral obligation as a country to make sure that we are taking care of our veterans.
04:46I am a disabled veteran myself.
04:48I qualify for the PACT Act.
04:49And so I know firsthand how difficult it is to be able to navigate the VA.
04:53And that was before Donald Trump cut the VA with doge cuts and everything else that's happening.
04:59And so we have to make sure we are taking care of our service members, both while they are serving
05:03as well as when they come home.
05:04And so I am really excited to hit the ground running in January.
05:07But thank you all so much for being here.
05:08And with that, I have the honor of introducing my future colleague, Jessica Killen.
05:18Jessica Killen, I am the member elect from Colorado's 5th Congressional District.
05:24I am honored and privileged to be the first veteran to serve my community, which includes over 100,000 veterans,
05:32almost 50,000 service members and five military installations in almost 50 years.
05:38I'm looking forward to giving them the representation that they deserve.
05:41I served mostly overseas at a time when our leaders knew and understood the importance of our allies
05:46and how critical they are to our national security.
05:49When the leaders at DOD knew and understood how critical troop morale and welfare is to mission readiness.
05:55And I look forward in the 120th Congress to deliver on a promise to have a more accountable VA,
06:00a more accountable DOD and a Congress that delivers for the American people again.
06:05And now I will turn it over to Chris Deluzio again.
06:09Well, I want to thank my current and future colleagues.
06:12We are unfortunately losing this space.
06:14We're out of time, but I'll be over.
06:15And if others want to ask questions, we'll be over by the benches.
06:18One of the upsides of having so many new veteran members is that we ran out of time,
06:22but it's great to be with you guys.
06:24And again, we'll take some questions over on the side.
06:26Thanks very much.
