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>> since 1979, in partnership with the cable industry, c-span has provided complete coverage of the halls of congress from the house and senate floors to congressional hearings, party briefings, and committee meetings. c-span gives you a front row seat to how issues are debated and decided with no commentary, no interruptions, and completely unfiltered. c-span. your unfiltered view of government. >> republican conference chair elise stefanik spoke out a policy retreat on the parties upcoming agenda and former president donald trump. from orlando florida, this is 30 minutes.

>> hello. thank you all for being here. i'm sorry to interrupt your filing on deadline. i'm not that sorry. thank you to elise stefanik, and the chair of the house republican conference for allowing us to do this again. this is the second weekend in a row interviewing atop a publican leader at the republican retreat. last week we interviewed kevin mccarthy, hakeem jeffries, and pete aguilar. just a note for the record. the republican conference did not write any of these questions and had no editorial control. here we go down the path.

i am jake sherman from punch bowl news and hello to everyone in c-span land. let's start with the news of the day. president trump, former president donald trump has indicated he believes he will get indicted and arrested this week. you defended him. give us your read of the situation. >> first i want to thank you and punch bowl for hosting this. i had the opportunity to speak with president trump this morning. >> that is news. >> i did. it is very important to take a step back and look at how this i believe is the opinion is a -- the up enemy -- the epitome of the weaponization against republican candidates. he is the leading opponent of joe biden going into the presidential election. going back to 2016, the russia hoax, you can use the department of justice targeting parents as another example of going after

republicans, prominent republicans and using federal agencies in these political offices to be weaponized. being from new york i think alvin rag in particular is the most radical da you can get to. george soros funded him over $1 million. we have a significant crime crisis and new york state. it's one of the reason we have picked up more congressional seats. at the same time as you have him politically persecuting president trump, he is lowering felonies and misdemeanors which is one of the reasons why crime has skyrocketed. we announced under chairman jordan's leadership that we expect and intend to call alvin bragg to testify. we are going to work very hard and the american people deserve to have him appear. we want access to any documentation between the department of justice and the manhattan da office.

there have been numerous members of alvin bragg's team who have left in prominent fashion who have been focused solely on going after president trump. the other piece i would note is as much as i have been critical of the mainstream media in years past that many of you know, even the washington post has pointed out that this is a zombie case the department of justice passed upon, the southern district of new york passed upon, and now you have the most radical da imaginable going after president trump and doing the bidding of joe biden. >> what did president trump say to you? >> i talked about our efforts on the oversight committee. we talked about how when i have heard from supporters across the country is that he has never been in a stronger position in terms of rallying support. i think you will see his poll numbers go up. i think it is interesting to watch the other potential republican candidates, both announced and not, how they have responded.

this is important to speak up against this politicization and the weaponization against political opponents. >> ron desantis today said -- i am paraphrasing. something like, i do not know anything about paying hush money to a poor and star -- to a porn star. what do you think of his comments? >> i think he is going to see slippage in his poll and i thinks you are going to see president trump solidify his position in the republican nomination. >> you obviously endorsed trump. you were a strong supporter of him in the last administration. do you think americans are sick of the drama? do you think any of this -- the question is can he expand his appeal.

i cannot imagine this helps him. >> i think it is a unifying message that people have felt fundamentally that equal justice under the law has been slipping away particularly over the past couple years. as much as you say people are tired of the drama, they are tired of the fake russia hoax has been reported ad nausea him -- ad nausea. they are tired of the lack of accountability when it comes to lying in front of congress whether it is anthony fauci, jim comey, or klapper. i have had a front row seat on the house intelligence committee which adam schiff turned into the impeachment committee. as i'm reading the beltway coverage of this her publican presidential primary process, it is eerily similar to 2016, fundamentally out of touch with voters across america, outside of the beltway. i have yet to see a flag for any other candidate in the

republican primary other than donald trump in my district. you drive around, there are still trump flags everywhere and i can guarantee even though i'm here at this retreat there are more flags and more signs going up in the past 48 hours than ever. >> let's move to policy. you are from a huge district in upstate new york. there are a lot of community banks, a lot of regional banks in your district. regional banks are under a tremendous amount of pressure. are you confident your constituents who are banking with these small banks, are there deposits safe? rep. stefanik: i have confidence in the regional and community banks and i will tell you after treasury did the bicameral update to the house and senate, both parties over the weekend, the call went from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. i touched base with 9:00 2:11 with -- for with 9:00 to 11:00

the head of my regional banks. as i have been in touch with them throughout the past week, they have not seen slippage in their deposits, they have not seen withdrawals. it is important and what i have advised are members of the house republican conference particularly our new members where this is the first ripple potentially of financial significant news, is reaching out to your local banks is really important. i feel confident and i have confidence in patrick mchenry who's our chairman of financial services to do very robust and effective oversight and also potential legislation to address this. he's done a good job briefing members of congress. this is very technical. if you are on the financial

services committee you live and breathe this stuff. for those members that are not it is important to get the technical update. jake: the fdic's insurance deposits up to $250,000. that is obviously under a microscope right now. some members in your conference have said the fdic's should ensure all deposits. $500,000, $1 million. what do you think? should they fund -- they fund this through fees on banks. should they fund deposits across the board? rep. stefanik: you say fees, but ultimately it is consumers who pay those fees to provide the insurance fund for the fdic's. i do not think necessarily that is the right approach. we will have robust discussions in our conference. i'm sure there are lots of ideas out there. i also think it is important to

step back and this was reported by some of the outlets here in our internal house republicans discussion. there's a context to why this happened. historic inflation with historic government spending led to a significant rise in interest rates with the fed attempting to keep up. that is the context which unfortunately helped cause this crisis at silicon valley bank which was exacerbated by the twitter, the money that was pulled out that morning before silicon valley bank became the second largest bank failure in american history. with the fbi see, those proposals, it will be discussed. i do not believe we should be passing on morpheus to the already strapped consumers -- passing on more fees to the already strapped consumers. jake: the chairman of the financial services committee said he's going to hold hearings ,: regulators, the san francisco fed which had direct oversight. do you think there is any legislation necessary from what you know now?

and we know a lot now. they invested in long-term treasury bills. they lost value. people pulled their money out of the bank. the basic underpinnings of the story are well-known. do you think congress has a role to pass any legislation or do you think this is a failure of the regulators? rep. stefanik: we need to get all information which is why it is important to call those regulators first. the financial services committee is the most educated to handle this. if you look back it is unfortunate joe is pointing fingers at 2018 bill which got bipartisan support by the way and that is not discussed accurately by the white house and this administration. any type of legislative solution regarding financial services will work through the committee and the floor. more regulation is not the answer here but it is important when you talk about policy impact, this is one of the many reasons we need to bring our budget back towards balance, to stop runaway inflation which has caused a significant rise in

interest rates to keep pace. jake: you let me to my next question, the budget. joe biden has submitted his budget. you are not in favor of joe biden's budget. you are working on your own budget right now. could you commit that house republicans, the budget committee, you could -- can you commit at this point that the budget committee will report a budget on the floor? rep. stefanik: joe biden submitted his budget a month late and it's going to be in stark contrast, his vision. more spending, tax increases. we will present a budget that brings the budget back toward balance, no tax increases. we are committed to bringing a budget to the floor and the committee is working hard on that. all the members are going to have an important say. that is one of the hinge points of the discussion at this retreat. the appropriations process and the debt ceiling are important

issues we are working throughout the conference. i would say house republicans have been underestimated. i had an interview earlier today -- jake: not as good as this one. rep. stefanik: not as fun. they said people underestimated what the house republicans could accomplish and we have set the agenda. whether it is the d.c. crime bill overwriting and forcing joe biden's hand, the esg cra which forced the first presidential veto, we are driving this policy agenda more than the senate. we are playing our role as the last backstop for the american people from single party democrat rule. jake: i'm going to press you on this. you used an important distinction which is bringing the budget toward balance. you guys in a stark change to 2010, 2012, 2014, you said you will not budget entitlements. entitlements are off the table. someone you worked with made

changing entitlements a cornerstone of his agenda. that is no longer the position of the house republican conference. you cannot balance the budget without touching entitlements. how do you bring the budget toward balance without touching entitlements and mandatory spending? rep. stefanik: this is part of the discussion in the week of the speaker's race. i believe that when we focus on social security and medicare him a those are important programs we must protect for current seniors and future generations. any modernization efforts -- the reality is they will have to be done on a bipartisan basis. jake: you do not think now is the time? rep. stefanik: as we have this discussion, those are off the table. the speaker has been clear on that. i support the speaker's decision on that. where i think we can find real savings is looking at every committee, every department, to find potential savings. every committee chair has been tasked to do so by the speaker. whether it is unspent covid

funds, which is low hanging fruit to have fiscal responsibility, or whether -- i sit on the armed services committee. there are programs at the department of defense that are not focused on our national security, they are focused on woke ideology. we can go after those as well. jake: let's talk about the debt ceiling. i do not even know where to begin. the debt ceiling is going to be a massive issue. you've been around for some of these in the last 10, 15 years. how does this get solved? mccarthy has said there will be some sort of lowering spending back to 2022 levels. does it need to be more than that? rep. stefanik: we had an interesting briefing from a former omb official. it is the debt ceiling negotiations that oftentimes force the biggest budget reforms , which have been really important for our country. you can go back to the 1970's,

1990's, and see that. it is important instead of continuing down this trajectory of trillions of dollars in spending that we look for where we need to find savings. a clean debt ceiling is a nonstarter. we have already played a very effective hand. the white house and the president started out this year saying there's not going to be negotiations, we are not even starting these discussions. house republicans are unified. speaker mccarthy had the meeting with joe biden which was an important first step. it is also important that senator mcconnell said it is house republicans were going to drive the process. president biden and speaker mccarthy saw each other at the st. patrick's day event this week and speaker mccarthy effectively pressed president joe biden and said every day that goes by is a day we are not having this important discussion. we are ready to get to work. we invite you to join us. our commitment is we are not going to raise taxes, we are going to look for effective savings and no clean debt ceiling. jake: if you talk to senate

democrats, they are convinced you are going to blink. they think this is an unsustainable position. that at the end of the day, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 republicans, moderate republicans will side with democrats to get a bill to the floor. what do you say? rep. stefanik: senator schumer is counting his votes before he has them. i do not think he has a vote for a -- the votes for a clean debt ceiling hike. look at the senate map. states like montana, west virginia, states president trump and republican statewide candidates have won by double digits. those incumbent senators who have crossed the aisle on issues like the d.c. crime bill override, issues like the esg cra, senator schumer does not have the votes that his own chamber for a clean debt ceiling hike. house republicans are going to do what is our responsibility, to drive this process and lead those negotiations with joe biden. jake: does the banking crisis put pressure on you to come to a debt ceiling solution quicker

than stash sooner rather than later? -- debt ceiling solution sooner rather than later? rep. stefanik: our members have done a good job staying disciplined. if you look at the banking crisis as well as if you overlay that with the debt ceiling crisis, we have to bring fiscal responsibility back to reign in the spending that has fueled inflation, which is the context which caused the silicon valley bank to fail. jake: let's talk about immigration for a minute. one of the planks of the republican agenda has been you will not deal with immigration laws, migrant loss, people coming into this country, until the border is fully secure. if that means you will not get any border money is that something you're comfortable with? rep. stefanik: we are committed to putting a border security bill on the floor and working through the committees.

judiciary and homeland security committees are working on our border security package. i will tell you, some lessons learned when we lacked the majority is we had a huge missed opportunity. for those who covered the discussion, bill had funding for border security, specifically a border wall, but it fell apart when we made it too heavy with immigration reform aspects. we are unified as house republicans in that we must secure the border before we touch fixing our broken legal immigration system. i have been a strong advocate for fixing the h2a visa program which is important in my district. i have a huge amount of local family farms. h1b, does need to be improved but you have to stem the tide at the border. there has been so much focus on the southern border, rightfully so because it has been a crisis, but i'm met the northern border and we have seen an 800%

increase in illegal crossings in the area that i cover. we do not have the resources we need at the northern border because border patrol personnel have been transferred over and over to our southern border. this impacts every district, not just a border district, but also every district because of the fentanyl overdoses etc. jake: but joe biden is not going to just -- i don't want to pull out a crystal ball. i did not necessarily think he would open up huge swaths of land than alaska to drilling which he did this last week. maybe there is cause for hope. it seems unlikely he will sign a border security bill without some sort of changes to immigration laws. how do you square that circle? rep. stefanik: this crisis is of his making. we had the most secure borders and modern history under president trump. we know what policies work and they cannot continue to ignore this crisis.

if they do they are continuing to stick their heads in the sand heading to a presidential election where there is no better communicator on border security issues then donald trump who is lightly going to be the republican nominee. jake: you say that confidently. rep. stefanik: i'm very confident. i always say show me a poll where he is not ahead and they cannot find one. i know how to read a poll. sometimes no one wants to read a poll. what i'm saying is when it comes to the border we are going to drive the agenda. we are going to put the border security package on the floor and let's see what joe biden does. if he really wants to not spend a single dollar on the border he is going to be judged as a weak president. jake: one more question, then a rapidfire round. you have drew brees coming tomorrow, former quarterback of the new orleans saints. you had somebody talk about teamwork last night. i'm starting to sense a trend. needing to tighten up the teamwork.

why are you having these? rep. stefanik: both of those speakers have unique friendships with different members. in the case of pat lee and coney, he has been a childhood friend of kevin mccarthy. in the case of drew brees, i contacted jason smith to remind me how we were able to get to drew brees. they have a mutual friend that jason went to high school with and he -- drew is speaking to us about teamwork and overcoming adversity. it is important for every caucus or conference to learn from other industries to learn how to rally together especially when you have a slim majority. this is the tightest majority certainly since i have been in the republican majority and that can be unifying or dividing. i think it has been unifying. as tumultuous and stressful and painful as the speaker vote prolonged that week was, that was very unifying because i have

not seen the house republicans more disciplined, more on message, and more willing to work with their colleagues before. i'm sure it will be a positive unifying speech and it will be fun. jake: i have one more question. you have a five seat majority. there are 18 -- let's not even talk about that. five seat majority is slim. emma macaques do not have to win a lot of seats to take back the majority. what is your case for keeping the majority in 2021? rep. stefanik: candidate quality matters and we had incredible candidates who did well on the ballot, oftentimes were top of the ticket in terms of performers. in new york we won seats that joe biden won by 16 points. double digit wins and our candidates were able to pick up seats whether it was michael lawler, anthony d esposito, or nick will oda.

we were able to flip districts we have struggled with in the past rep. stefanik: -- struggled with in the past. we have seats that are real opportunity whether you look at alaska or kansas. jake: you have 18 people in biden seats, that is difficult to maintain. rep. stefanik: many of these are proven winners. michelle steel, you go down the list, they have won again and again. it is interesting the narrative which i do not agree with, but the narrative has been trying to blame president trump for not having as big of a red wave in 2022. i would argue when president trump has been on the ballot in 2016 and 2020, house republicans did not lose a single seat. that is an amazing step. he's able to draw out voters. we work hard through our commitment to america to make sure people know our agenda to

bring out those voters as well. i'm optimistic. nothing is more important than candidate quality and recruiting the right candidate for this district is going to be crucial. jake: he did support candidates in districts you could have won. there are districts in ohio and north carolina. across the northeast, he supported candidates who did not win. i think it is a mixed bag but we can go back and forth on this, we don't have to do that. we asked pete aguilar some of these questions. i was not happy with answers he gave especially on the bagel caucus and the food options at the capitol. what is your favorite place to get food in the united states capital? rep. stefanik: this is boring, i'm a creature of habit and i like the buffalo chicken salad at long horse cafeteria. jake: he said he liked the buffalo chicken sandwich. rep. stefanik: i like the

buffalo chicken salad. jake: we are sensing a theme that buffalo chicken in the capitol -- it deserves further inspection and we at punch bowl news will take a look at the quality of buffalo chicken across the board. rep. stefanik: and to the right of where they have that salad area there used to be soups that they do not have any more. jake: i'm not an expert on the soups. you have not joined the bagel caucus but we will be having our own bagel event pretty soon. you are a big reader. what is the best book you have read recently? rep. stefanik: that's a great question. i am a very eclectic reader. i would say historical fiction by maggie o'farrell. it is a pretty lyrical amazingly well-written book, fictionalized account of shakespeare who lost his son, one of two twins,

hamnet. you do not need to be an expert in hamlet to read this book. it is interesting just looking at the timelessness of that storyline, that arc, and hamnet--i recommend it for those who want a nonpolitical rate. jake: we both have children. what is your son's favorite book? rep. stefanik: my son's favorite book is different than my favorite book. jake: i would imagine. rep. stefanik: i have preferences on what children's books i like to read to sam. jake: he does not actually read right now. rep. stefanik: he has his favorites he will out. jake: he cannot physically read -- because if he can -- your son is younger than my oldest son and if he can read and mind cannot we have issues. my son is five years old. rep. stefanik: is amazing they can pick book they want.

sam likes good night moon. he likes the sandra boynton books. i love and it makes me cry, wherever you are, my love will find you. jake: i do not know that one. rep. stefanik: that makes me cry. amazing book. i have that book memorized. jake: i have cat in the hat memorized. my oldest who is five is big on spider-man. rep. stefanik: we have not gotten there yet. jake: you will get there. they wake up from nightmares, fighting and all this stuff. but it is an important part of the american literature canon so i'm supportive of spider-man. thank you very much and thanks everyone for hanging out.

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