{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/icymi-tuberville-joins-national-report-on-newsmax-2/", "ICYMI:\u00a0Tuberville Joins \u201cNational Report\u201d on Newsmax", "2024-12-20", "2024", "2024-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AL", "Tommy Tuberville", "T000278", "www.tuberville.senate.gov", "tuberville", "https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/press-releases/", "scraper", "Today, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) joined Newsmax to discuss the latest government funding discussions. Senator Tuberville also discussed his joining Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) in creating the \u201cMake America Healthy Again\u201d caucus to focus on nutrition, access to affordable, high-quality, nutrient-dense foods, creating health care transparency, and addressing the root causes of chronic diseases.\n\nExcerpts from Senator Tuberville\u2019s interview can be found below and his full interview can be watched on YouTube or Rumble.\n\nON POTENTIAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN:\n\nRECHENBERG: \u201cSenator Tommy Tuberville is with us now. Great to have you on, Senator. Lots of talk here\u2014some Republicans against this bill. Do you expect that there is going to be a shutdown? We do have some time here yet to try to get something done. Do you expect that to happen today?\u201d\n\nTUBERVILLE: \u201cAll talk, no action. That\u2019s what happens in Washington, D.C. I wish I was on a plane to Arizona to get out of this clown show\u2014go out and listen to some speakers that actually know what they\u2019re talking about. But you\u2019re right. This is before and after Trump. President Trump just needs a a fresh head start when he takes over [January] the 20th. I understand today they\u2019re gonna do a couple of stand-alone bills in the house with farmers\u2019 disaster [relief]\u2014which they need\u2014and the disaster in North Carolina relief, and then a clean CR. If we can\u2019t do that, let\u2019s shut it down. Shut it down all the way to January the 5th. Start new, fresh ideas, get people on the same page. Right now, everybody\u2019s looking at Christmas. We\u2019re not gonna do the right thing unless we get this done today. Democrats don\u2019t wanna do anything. But guess what? The ball is in their court. If we shut it down, it\u2019ll be because of them.\u201d\n\nRECHENBERG: \u201cSo again, you\u2019re in favor of the shutdown if they can\u2019t come to an agreement today? That would mean, you know, you\u2019ve got federal employees\u2014they go without pay during this time. Your thoughts, sir?\u201d\n\nTUBERVILLE: \u201cThat\u2019s not gonna happen. Payday is today, by the way. We got two weeks. If you can\u2019t do a couple days without a paycheck, and again, you\u2019re gonna get paid back with interest. So that makes no difference. It\u2019s all blown out of proportion by shutting the government down. Again, this is\u2014I\u2019m new up here in four years, I guess, in being new\u2014and I\u2019ve looked all through it. But there\u2019s nothing that would happen across this country that would affect any of the taxpayers. What\u2019s gonna affect the taxpayers is a bad bill that they get and more spending and putting this country back in a situation where President Trump\u2019s not gonna be able to get us out of a hole.\u201d\n\nGLASGOW: \u201cYeah. That\u2019s a good point. I mean, we\u2019ve got House Democrats here. They\u2019re blaming the Republicans. Republicans are blaming the Democrats, as you just mentioned. Here\u2019s what the minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries had to say, watch this.\u201d [\u2026] So, Senator, what do you think is the biggest hold up here? And Democrats would argue that the Republicans are holding this up since more than thirty of them decided to vote against this bill.\u201d\n\nTUBERVILLE: \u201cWell, first of all, he is no Nancy Pelosi. You know, listen to that guy, you can tell it\u2019s a lie. He has no business being the majority leader over there. And then where\u2019s Nancy Pelosi? We listened to her for so long, everything she said, you pretty much tried to believe a little bit of it, but, of course, we found out with Wall Street Journal and everything that the Bidens have done over the last four years that he had no sense in being\u2014no business being in the White House with all the things that were lied to us from the mainstream media. But, the thing we have to do\u2014again, we gotta get back to a budget. I mean, it\u2019s not rocket science. All we do is kick the can down the road. Now, this is spending. We\u2019re gonna continue to spend from Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, okay? This is not spending that the Republicans came up with. So, it\u2019s way overspending\u2014waste, fraud. We gotta get away from the CR. We gotta start doing a budget. Give President Trump a chance. He\u2019s not gonna have a chance [if] we continue this absolute disaster of spending up here. And again, President Trump has weighed in on it, the DOGE brothers have weighed in on it\u2014it\u2019s great to have them aboard. But, again, I think the American people finally are listening to what\u2019s going on up here, and it is a clown show.\u201d\n\nON JOINING MAHA CAUCUS:\n\nGLASGOW: \u201cWe\u2019ll continue to follow that, but I wanna pivot here a little bit. In the Senate, you\u2019re part of the five Republican senators launching the \u201cMake America Healthy Again\u201d caucus. You were a high-level football coach for a lot of years, and you focused on the importance of nutrition. But how, along with RFK Jr., the nominee to lead the Health and Human Services department, how are you going to make America healthy again?\u201d\n\nTUBERVILLE: \u201cWell, we\u2019ve got to get back to really telling people what\u2019s good and bad for you. Right now, [people don\u2019t]trust the American government. Why in the world would anybody trust anybody up here the way this place has run? So now we\u2019re finding out that stuff that is put in our food is not good for us? Oh, I asked the other day, the FDA director, \u2018Okay, tell me about these red dyes. We can\u2019t put them in cosmetics because it causes cancer, but we\u2019re putting them in food.\u2019 \u2018Well, we hadn\u2019t done a research on it in ten years.\u2019 \u2018Well, let me ask you this. What about Europe? They don\u2019t use it.\u2019 \u2018Well, they\u2019re twenty years ahead of us on research.\u2019 How in the heck is Europe twenty years ahead of us on anything? Our food is contaminated with all kind of things. It\u2019s been overlooked, it\u2019s been pushed down the Americans\u2019 throats. Everybody trusts the government, but folks I\u2019m telling you, we\u2019ve got to get back healthy again. RFK Jr. is the perfect pick. He\u2019s not a doctor, he\u2019s not a scientist, but he\u2019s putting together a team like Dr. Oz and a CDC director and NIH director that actually care about the American people. How about that? That seems out of the norm. But he\u2019s a perfect fit for the job. He\u2019s a great guy, and he\u2019s doing it for the right reasons.\u201d [\u2026]\n\n\u201cThis is President Trump\u2019s pick to be on his coaching staff\u2014I\u2019ll put it that way\u2014and give him the people that\u2019s gonna turn this country back around, that\u2019s gonna be trustworthy, that\u2019s gonna tell the American people the truth. That\u2019s what we want, that\u2019s what the American people want. And if we senators up here vote against one of these people, it\u2019s gonna be a tough time for them. I\u2019m telling you because the American people are sick of it. And as I tell them, what we\u2019re doing right now folks ain\u2019t working, okay? So, if you\u2019re gonna stay with the same things we\u2019re doing, you\u2019re dead wrong. Let\u2019s give somebody else a chance. President Trump and his team will do a great job and let\u2019s confirm them.\u201d\n\nGLASGOW: \u201cWe shall see if that happens. Thank you so much. We appreciate you coming on, Alabama Senator. Tommy, Tuberville. Appreciate it.\u201d\n\nTUBERVILLE: \u201cMerry Christmas.\u201d\n\nRECHENBERG: \u201cMerry Christmas to you to. Thank you.\u201d\n\nSenator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans\u2019 Affairs, and HELP Committees.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:07:19Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/icymi-tuberville-joins-national-report-on-newsmax-2/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.066294964402914, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}