some songs: Murphy, Colleagues, Advocates Call Out Trump’s Corrupt Meme Coin Dinner: Release The Names

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxHMyg1g4vo

May 22, 2025 UNITED STATES CAPITOL

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Thursday led a press conference with U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and U.S. Representative Sam Liccardo (D-Calif.), Public Citizen, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), and End Citizens United to call out the blatant corruption behind President Trump’s meme coin dinner — a secretive, high-dollar event where anonymous crypto investors are buying direct access to Trump. The Members demanded full transparency: who’s attending, how much they paid, and what kind of influence they’re expecting in return for the millions of dollars they put in Trump’s meme coin. With no press, no disclosure, and crypto wallets tied to foreign actors, this dinner isn’t just unethical — it’s a national security risk. It’s pay-to-play politics on steroids, and Trump is cashing in. The dinner is scheduled for tonight at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia.

Transcript

uh good afternoon everybody we will we'll start uh quickly i apologize for being late i know we have votes pending

in the United States Senate right now uh thanks to our House colleague Representative Licardo for joining us

here today um this is the most corrupt White House in the history of the

country just because the corruption is playing out in public where everybody can see it doesn't mean that it isn't

rampant rapacious corruption and what is happening

tonight this private secret dinner in which individuals who have put money in

Donald Trump's pocket get access to him is maybe the most corrupt of all of the

corruption um tonight Donald Trump will have a secret dinner and meeting with

the 200 individuals who have spent the most money buying up his memecoin donald

Trump's memecoin has no value in and of itself it's only value is based upon how

much demand exists for the memecoin and it's not hard to inflate demand for a

product that doesn't have any value when you're president of the United States and you have command of nearly infinite

resources given to you by the taxpayers he creates demand by essentially opening

a channel for bribery if you buy his coin the price goes up and he makes more

money if you buy his coin you get secret access to the president to be able to

plead your case to be able to ask for preferential treatment and the extra

benefit is no one will ever know that you bought the coin or that you got the

private access and so it provides cover for the most

corrupt for the most compromised for the worst of the worst to channel money to

Donald Trump in order to get their private audience with him in order to plead their case for favorable treatment

from the federal government or for investment from the US

taxpayer reportedly there's going to be a guy there tonight called Ogle

that's it that's all we know about this guy he wears a mask all the time he says

he'll take the mask off when he meets with Donald Trump but he has supposedly

spent millions of dollars getting access to the president today and an anonymous

individual who is who who is going to make an ask of the president tonight that we don't know about

the most worrisome aspect of this dinner tonight and then I'll turn it over to my colleagues is the fact that it is likely

to be loaded with non-American citizens it would be bad enough if you

could pay as an American citizen to get secret access to the president but from what we understand most of the attendees

tonight will be foreigners these could be individuals with ties to terrorist groups these

could be representatives of Vladimir Putin these could be sanctioned

individuals they could be Gulf princes they could be

oligarchs they were able to pay their way in to get an audience with the president of the United States to ask

for favorable national security concessions the Secretary of State won't be there he he claimed he didn't even

know about this meeting the other day um and it's an opportunity not just for

domestic corruption but for foreign policy corruption as well and so we're here today um you know first to just

make sure that people know this is happening amidst all the dizzying news in the world um a lot of people may have

missed this celebration of corruption that's happening today at one of Trump's properties but to call on the president

and the people who serve him to do something really simple release the names of the people who are going to be there even if you release the names it's

still corrupt but at least let us see who's going to be there at least let the American people know who has bought

access to the president um release the names if if you if there's nothing wrong

if you think that this is all above board then what are you hiding um this shouldn't be happening the president

should be held accountable for this kind of corruption and our Republican colleagues should join with us to end it

but at the very least between now and when that dinner happens um the president could decide to show us who

has bought access to him who is trying to convince him through donations to his

business to try to get favor favorable treatment from the government that is not his that is ours uh with that let me

turn it over to um uh a crusader against corruption every single day Elizabeth

Warren thank you thank you thank you so thank you all it's good to be here uh

Donald Trump's dinner is

a is a an orgy of corruption that's what this is all about

we are here today to talk about exactly one topic corruption corruption in its

ugliest form donald Trump is using the presidency of the United States to make

himself richer through crypto and he's doing it right out there in plain sight

he is signaling to anyone who wants to ask for a special favor and is willing

to pay for it exactly how to do that so let us count the ways just before his

inauguration Donald Trump launched a crypto meme coin and he has since signed

executive orders to boost the value of that coin in just three months he has

already made hundreds of millions of dollars off that launch then Trump

appointed a cast of industry insiders to run crypto policy howard Ludneck Paul

Atkins and David Saxs each of whom has extensive personal and financial ties to

the industry and each of whom is in a position in a government position to

boost crypto fortunes and Donald Trump's personal fortunes even more trump number

three disbanded the DOJ's crypto enforcement

excuse me effectively crippling enforcement of the current laws the

timing on this was particularly juicy the unit was shut down just as Binance a

giant foreign crypto exchange that had pleaded guilty to criminal violations

related to money laundering was exploring a deal with the Trump family

crypto venture and one more trump's SEC

quietly backed off enforcement actions and investigations against the crypto fir

firms that poured millions into Donald Trump's

inauguration tonight though is the topper tonight is the orgy of corruption

tonight Donald Trump will host a private intimate dinner and a White House tour

for the top buyers of his memecoin many of whom remain anonymous the American

people have no idea who is buying access to the president and no idea what they

are getting in return last month Donald Trump and his family launched yet another crypto

venture this time he issued a stable coin he calls

USD1 and already that venture is a wash in corruption as well an Abu Dhabi

investment firm with ties to the United Arab Emirates and to China has already

invested two billion dollars in Trump's stable coin making millions and millions

more for Trump and the Trump family and the corruption is already paying off

handsomely for the criminals justin's son the top buyer of Trump's memecoin

and a major investor in his family's crypto venture will be having an

especially good time at tonight's dinner he just received word that the SEC has

paused its fraud enforcement actions against Sun and his company americans

sent us to Congress to unrig the economy for them not to help the president turn

the White House into a crypto cash machine the Genius Act should be written

to prohibit the president and his family from directly or indirectly profiting

from any stable coin venture period without this fix we're not regulating

stable coins we are turbocharging the same corruption that we are witnessing

tonight as Donald Trump opens the White House doors and sells favors to his

wealthy crypto allies we need to put a stop to this and with that I turn it

over to Jeff Jeff Mkeley senator Mkeley thank you thank you

there is a big for sale sign on the White House lawn us policy for sale

anyone who thinks those 220 people who are attending the dinner tonight who paid about $150 million for those seats

just really crave to have a digital equivalent of a baseball trading

card well you're a little off the mark they absolutely want to buy influence

over US policy the head of the freight technology company said they wanted to

buy $20 million not sure if they actually purchased all 20 million or not

but he said because we want to influence the freight trade policy between Mexico

and the United States of America everybody knows what this is about

president Trump is saying "Open your wallet hand me your money and we'll consider the request that you have."

That is astounding it's a type of corruption a magnitude of corruption it

is a Mount Everest of corruption and here we are business as

usual a bill coming to the floor that we will be coming to when we come back from

recess to so-called regulate cryptocurrency that bill as Senator

Warren has pointed out has an series of holes in it that actually means it

doesn't really regulate cryptocurrency but what it does do is give legitimacy to that cryptocurrency

world the stable coin side of that world in which it will really uh put a

powerful impulse behind international companies saying if we're going to do a transaction in digital coins we might as

well use USD1 the Trump coin because that will take and put millions of

dollars in President Trump's pocket and the pocket of his family uh company

digital company and so we'll not only have the digital coins we'll also buy influence with the United States of America you know our founders were

profoundly worried about foreign players buying influence in the United States of

America there had been a whole series of incidents with with different uh

governments trying to bribe other governments in the years before our

country was founded uh this led uh to Hamilton describing in the federalist

papers federalist 22 he was explaining why we have this clause in our

constitution that forbids members who are elected and that includes Congress and it includes the president the vice

president from taking any form of gift or money from a foreign power a foreign

government he said and I quote "Many mortifying examples of the prevalency of foreign corruption in Republican

governments." That's why and you might recall that just 10 years after we were founded we had the XYZ affair where the

French tried to extract bribes from the United States of America in order to start negotiations this was a real

threat today it isn't just a threat from foreign governments it's a threat from foreign corporations it is a threat from

foreign individuals and one of those individuals who is going to be present tonight is an individual named Jason Sun

a crypto billionaire what could he possibly want when we're in the moment

of of deciding what are the sideboards for crypto trading we have to put an end to this

and we have a crypto bill on the floor and we will be coming back to it and it's why we are absolutely going to

insist on voting on an amendment that will put an end to all electeds

congressional vice president president members of the cabinet from having a financial stake in

this business so it's a moment where the vision of

government by for the people is being corroded massively

it's like a car in the east coast after salt's been put on the winter road and the whole underbelly is being corroded

out that's what this isn't government buying for this is government buying for people overseas buying the policies they

want we took an oath to defend the Constitution and that's what we're going to strive to do and that's why we're

going to strive to do everything we can to stop this corrupt practice and now it's my pleasure to turn this over to

Representative Sam Licardo from California thank you Senator thank you Senator thank you

for your work uh thank you to all my colleagues in the Senate for their uh very important work on this and thank

you in particular to Senator Chris Murphy for his leadership and partnership uh on the uh MEM Act here in

the Senate side uh and I appreciate that they let me over here the Senate side without a visa um we are all here today

because it is time to make corruption criminal again uh we have endured 120

days or so or what seems like 120 years of chaos cruelty and corruption under

the reign of Donald Trump we've seen plenty of evidence of the cruelty just last night as we myself and my House

Democratic colleagues uh voted against perhaps the crulest budget in the history of this country uh we've seen

ample evidence of the chaos whether it's around uh forced deportations in

violation of the due process or whatever may come of these horrible tariffs now

of course we get a focus today on corruption uh today at the Trump National Golf Club we have the

opportunity to see corruption at its finest uh we have all long suspected but

now we know for certain that this president is coin operated both

literally and figuratively i was not invited to dine with Donald Trump today i'm not

disappointed i suspect my Senate colleagues were also not invited they're not disappointed but you know who should

be disappointed 746,000 people probably many of them Americans who bought small amounts of

that Trump coin maybe some of them bought it a little bit more who didn't get invited because at the time that we

introduced our bill in the House in late February those 746,000 folks had lost collectively $2

billion on a pump and dump scheme that benefited Donald Trump to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars along

with his family members while they lost big

It was then that I introduced the Meme Act in the House because to borrow from Richard Nixon those

764,000 Americans needed to know that their president was a crook excuse me

that their president was a crook now a criminally indicted excuse

me a charged I should say uh by the SEC Justin Sun paid $75 million you heard

Senator Warren discuss this uh to World Liberty Financial we know 56 million of

that went directly to Donald Trump uh into his pocket weeks later the

investigation of SEC and their uh action halts weeks later Justin's son purchased

millions more of the Trump meme coin subsequently he gets invited to the

White House this is all very predictable donald Trump has created a grift machine

and every American is the victim where every American can reasonably hope or

expect the honest services of their public officials now earlier today Carolyn

Levit over at the White House characterized this activity as not something she was aware of or kept track

of because she said that Donald Trump is doing it on his personal time now I'm a

recovering federal prosecutor and what that tells me for somebody who might otherwise seek immunity of office is his

personal time well congratulations we just made him indictable so let's indict

him i want to thank all of my colleagues here in the Senate and the House who are pushing together and hopefully we're

going to find some Republicans who have the courage and the spine to say this is corruption regardless of which party is

committing it and on that day perhaps we'll finally restore some faith in the

White House and the American public thank you it's my great honor to introduce uh Senator Richard Blumenthal

from the great state Connecticut thank you uh let let me begin where the congressman ended

uh this story is about Donald Trump but it's also about Republicans it's about

Republicans having no backbone or spine it's about Republicans complicit in

Donald Trump's corruption they are aiding and abetting corruption by their

silence by their complicity and they're doing it for example just yesterday when I went to

the floor the United States Senate and I asked for votes on these payments and benefits

that Donald Trump is receiving I submitted four resolution every one of them was blocked

from unanimous consent republicans are aiding and abetting this

unprecedented and unimaginable corruption by Donald Trump and what I

asked the United States Senate to do was simply have a vote to permit him as the imuments

clause says he can do if he receives payments or benefits all he has to do is come to

the Senate and say "Here it is will you approve it?" The

plane that is a gift of $400 million in effect the fight fight

meme transactions that put already 300 million bucks in his

pocket the World Liberty Financial which is also a corporation that benefits him

and his family the private real estate investments all around the world

including the Middle East which he just visited and of course Live Golf the

Saudi owned network or tour which has tournaments at his golf courses and

produces revenue for him they are just the beginning of a list of corrupt

enterprises that provide him payments or benefits in violation of a specific

provision of the Constitution that says he has to come to Congress if he takes

these payments or benefits republicans are blocking at every turn efforts to

uncover the truth not to mention stop him from doing it

the permanent sub commmittee on investigation which I was chairman of and now ranking member

of has written the minority staff I have written

to both the memecoin operation fight and

world liberty financial asking for precisely what we are demanding today

we've written to them saying "Give us lists who's attending." When a

visiting head of state or a representative of a foreign government

comes to the United States and there is a state dinner the list is made public

when they visit the Oval Office it is completely disclosed donald Trump is

having 220 of the biggest investors some more than hund00 million

in his memecoin come to his private golf club without any

disclosure and apparently hiding purposefully concealing who they are and

some are from foreign powers

and governments potentially disguised or anonymously here so we've asked for this

information the list not only of the attendees of investors but also

representatives or anyone from the administration who is attending both lists who are the

investors who from the administration is going to be there mixing it up with

these individuals who want access donald Trump is selling access he is selling

out America he is selling it to foreign powers he is putting our national security at risk he is becoming beholden

to foreign powers that provide two billion dollars to World Liberty

Financial as the Amiradis have done who provide him with a plane as the Qataris

have done who invest in his memecoin operation as we don't know who it is

have done this is a threat to our national security it's not just about corruption

it is about corruption that endangers national security by putting the

president in a compromised position in relation to foreign powers

so uh my hope is that they'll give us the list that the permanent subcommittee on investigation has asked them to

provide and that we will move forward on a conflict of interest addition to the

stable act that will prohibit the president from engaging in exactly these kinds of transactions right now it has

no such prohibition it must and one of the reasons I have

opposed it is that it has a gaping exception that threatens to

swallow the rule i think we need to reassure the

American people that we Republicans as well as Democrats will

stop this kind of corruption but it is on Republicans it is on Republicans to

step forward to grow a spine to say that

they will protect our national security join us in stopping Donald Trump from

putting a forale sign on the White House and with that let me introduce Lisa

Gilbert of Public Citizen and I want to thank all of the groups that are here

today Public Citizens Crew and Citizens United uh these advocates have really

been so important and courageous in carrying this fight and disclosing

information that is so important lisa

thanks so much for that senator I'm Lisa Gilbert co-president of Public Citizen at Public Citizen our mission is to take

on corporate power to fight corruption uh and it is way past time to end

Trump's cryptoc corruption uh the president of the United States simply should not have the ability to make

money off purchases of his cryptocurrency so-called cryptocurrency while sitting in the Oval Office uh his

cryptocrumption has been brazen uh since returning to office President Trump has used the power of the presidency to

shamelessly promote and profit from a series of crypto ventures tied to both himself and his family uh this of course

includes his personal memecoin but also Melania's memecoin uh and as Senator Warren mentioned the launch of his new

backed stable coin uh crypto holdings now account for nearly 40% of Trump's

overall net worth 2.9 billion uh back in February Public Citizen filed a

complaint with the Department of Justice and the Office of Government Ethics to investigate whether Trump is violating

the law which bars the president from soliciting gifts by advertising his memecoin absent predictably any action

from these agencies uh as we know Trump has escalated his advertisements uh soliciting for personal gifts through

full color uh advertisements on his website and of course uh culminating with tonight's offer of special access

to the president a dinner that he has called the most exclusive invitation in the world uh the consequences of the

president profiting off his office in this manner uh is a white house that is clearly and publicly for sale to the

highest bidder uh and that includes as has been mentioned foreign nations uh we know that 19 of the 25 top purchasers of

the coin uh bought them on international exchanges which exclude US customers

that means they're likely foreign uh the constitution explicitly prohibits this kind of behavior because American

foreign policy simply should not be for sale uh this week as others have mentioned the Senate has been debating

the Genius Act to regulate stable coins uh we have lots of issues with this bill um but one of them is that it doesn't

include real provisions to prohibit President Trump and his family from lining their pockets through corrupt

crypto schemes and accepting these payouts from governments uh in fact the bill turbocharges that type of

corruption uh so we want Congress to pass different legislation uh from champions like those standing behind me

uh who will first uh hopefully effectively regulate crypto to actually protect consumers but second banning

elected officials uh including our corrupt president uh from profiting profiting from the crypto industry uh at

the end of the day what we deserve is a president who is responsive to the needs of the American people not his own greed

not the greed of his tech bros uh or billionaires uh and beyond this

outrageous crypto griff that we've been seeing we can't forget that this is part of a huge pattern he's done plenty of

other regular order corruption as well uh you know his Tesla car show on the White House lawn to benefit his buddy

Elon uh his recently accepted jumbo jet gift fromQatar uh the fact that he never

issued an executive order on ethics uh breaking a precedent of the last 30 years uh the firing of the head of the

office of government ethics uh numerous uh inspectors general and unfortunately the list just goes on and on and on uh

while Trump is truly pocketing the money for his memecoin and sch smoozing uh with crypto crooks uh he is neglecting

millions of Americans who are just struggling to meet their basic needs to get by uh we can't accept this from our

president america is not and should not be for sale uh so with that I'll hand it

over to Noah Bbinder my great colleague from crew thanks Lisa thanks so much Lisa and thanks to um to

Senator Murphy and to this really a terrific all-star team of leaders in

Congress and in civil society on the fight to limit hopefully end corruption

uh in Washington and beyond um I'm Noah Bookbinder i'm the president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in

Washington or CRU uh Cruz is a nonpartisan watchdog that works to promote de democracy hold government

accountable and ensure that it's working on behalf of the people not special interests um earlier in my career I

served as a federal corruption prosecutor uh and then in in my years at Crew uh over the course of Donald

Trump's first term Crew tracked more than 3700 conflicts of interest uh all of

which stemmed from Donald Trump's failure to meaningfully divest from his business holding um so I've seen a lot

of corruption throughout my career and even having seen all that this memecoin

dinner happening tonight is unbelievable this is as blatant an in an example of

selling access to the presidency as I have ever seen and and I think maybe as the country has ever seen uh it's over

the top even for Trump uh the practice of wealthy individuals putting money in

in this president's pocket and subsequently gaining access to him is far from new we've seen a lot of that

over the past uh nine years but in this instance it is more shameless than it

has ever been and it's on a much much larger scale uh during Donald Trump's

first term we didn't know everyone who was spending money at his properties but

you generally had to go in person to the hotel in DC or to Mara Lago in Florida

that limited how many people could do it uh limited how much money they could spend this time through Trump Media

which is the parent company for Truth Social in which Donald Trump holds uh the majority of the stock and through

Donald Trump's cryptocurrency assets uh there's an opportunity for putting

massively more money millions and millions of dollars in his pocket very easily without the public finding out

who's paying uh and because the buyers behind cryptocurrency transactions are

generally not disclosed anyone could be buying these coins and trying to influence the president with any kind of

motivations uh that could include foreign state or federal government

officials uh who could be buying these coins meaning that Donald Trump would be violating the imalments clauses of the

constitution without any of us without the public ever finding out uh now there

are a lot of ethics laws that don't apply to the president uh and even those like the amaluments clauses that do are

hard to enforce we at Crew spent four years uh bringing litigation against the president for violations of the

imalments clauses and he ran out the clock on that then um and the reason why

this is a problem is that a president is supposed to be serving the public not his own interests or the interests of a

wealthy few uh but with this memecoin dinner Donald Trump is giving the highest biders access to the president

possibly to influence decisions that affect all of us and all Americans while lining his own pockets it's past time

for Congress to step up and pass legislation to make it simpler to enforce the emalments clause to prevent

officials from holding interests in cryptocurrency and in industries that they're regulating uh as as the the

terrific members here today are trying to do um it's time for Congress to do

real oversight demand a list of who's there tonight again as these members are trying to do and it's time for Americans

to make clear that this corruption is not okay we appreciate all of the members of Congress who have called out

this historically corrupt situation at at today's press conference and beyond

and the public needs to do the same we cannot allow this to become the new normal uh and with that uh I will pass

it on to my great colleague Justin Una at N Citizens United

thank you Noah good afternoon everybody my name is Justin Ana i'm a vice president at N Citizens United we are an

organization that fights for transparency around big money and politics and fights the corrosive impact

of unlimited and undisclosed money we are four million members strong in every part of the country and growing every

day thank you to the senators and representatives who are here today leading this fight for transparency

thank you to Senator Murphy and Representative Licardo for introducing recent legislation to fight corruption

and for ensuring Americans are cleareyed about the escalating danger that's right in

front of us to be very clear that danger is Mr trump's disgraceful actions to

monetize the American presidency to enrich himself and his rich

friends at the same time this is the president who lectures hardworking Americans that they should prepare to do

more with less that they should tighten their belts and they should restrict themselves to two dolls to be more clear

this is a president who is using the most powerful seat in the world to get

richer by the minute that is exactly what is happening tonight at Trump National Golf Club

where the president will sit down with a group of anonymous foreign actors who are shelling out to the tune of $150

million for seats at the table we don't know who most of these people are as we've heard many paid through foreign

length crypto wallets the transactions are untraceable and the press and the public

are shut out unknown foreign actors are opening

their wallets for President Trump some say this is a back door to

corruption i would argue it's the front door it's the front door with valet

parking and it's got a red carpet for any anonymous force who wants to

participate in the president's auction for access and it's a slap in the face for

hardworking Americans who have been forced to strap in and ride the roller coaster of chaos that Mr trump has

brought to this economy it is not without irony that at the same time that Mr trump and his rich friends are

getting richer by the minute raking in millions that the president is working with the Republican Congress to pass a

cruel budget that forces hardworking families to choose between the medicine

they need the food and or putting food on the table this corruption of the Trump era

isn't some distant notion it's billionaires borrowing influence to line their pockets while everyday Americans

struggle to afford groceries and pay rent it's the commander-in-chief who spends more time

soliciting for a multi-million dollar luxury jet from a foreign government than fighting to protect the healthc

care for veterans seniors and children it's shameful it is urgently It urgently

deserves the scrutiny and attention of the American people and I am grateful to be standing next to strong leaders who

are holding the president to account thank you thank you Justin uh Justin Noah Lisa thank you for the work that

you do every single day to protect the taxpayers um I just want to underscore

one last point that you made Justin this is particularly offensive what the

president is doing tonight in light of what happened in the House of Representatives last night in the 24

period of 24-hour period of time the president is stealing health care from 15 million Americans making the poorest

10% of Americans even poorer while he dines lavishly with foreign oligarchs

who are patting his pockets corruptly um one set of rules for Donald Trump and his billionaire friends another set of

rules for ordinary Americans that's the story of the first 100 days and it'll be unfortunately unless we get some

cooperation from our Republicans the story uh of the rest of this term um Sam

thanks for sticking around if there's any questions I would be happy to happy to take them

hi um you've had a lot of uh colleagues who are supportive of the Genius Act be

asked about Trump White House related protections right and and the response from senators like Ruben Ggo and Kristen

Children has been look what the president is doing illegal under the law so why do we need to force this issue

well it's certainly illegal under the imalments clause but as Noah pointed out

um it is often difficult to enforce the imalments clause the quickest way to end

Trump's cryptocorruption would be to build it into the piece of legislation that is

pending right now before the United States Senate because that's black and white right the ethics prohibitions in

the pending stable coin bill are really simple it says members of Congress or senior executive officials cannot issue

a stable coin all you have to do is add the president to that list uh and it is

an openandsh case that could be enforced in the courts very quickly as to whether the president can issue a stable coin

now we could we're going to offer an amendment that would fix the problem for stablecoin you could obviously also uh

add memecoin and other types of cryptocurrencies uh into the mix um but um yes I mean obviously what he's doing

is illegal and unconstitutional but we want to be able to unwind that uh that

corruption as easily and as quickly as possible and the addition of uh the president to the list of prohibited

individuals to issue the coin would be the fastest and most expedient way to do that

great yeah go ahead Jesse Hamilton

um is is that is that revealing so those who believe that it shouldn't this issue

shouldn't be allowed to get in the way of

progress is that revealing

well I mean I can only speak for myself i mean I I think we are at risk of losing our democracy um very soon if we

don't put an end to this corruption and so I think fighting the corruption and putting an end to the corruption has to

be the priority i I want to regulate stable coin a good thing to regulate stable coin but if you do that in a way

that supersizes the presidential corruption um we may not have a

democracy a year or two years from now that can implement the provisions of

this bill so you know to me fighting and shutting down the corruption needs to be

the priority and we still have an opportunity to get that done um I know there are a number of Democrats who

voted uh to proceed on this bill who are contemplating voting against final

closure unless at the very least we have an opportunity to offer an amendment uh

that would hold the president accountable for his corruption so we're going to continue discussions all next

week uh with our Democratic and Republican colleagues to see if we can you know come to a consensus and decide

that we are you know not going to proceed with this bill unless we have made it clear that the president cannot

be um regulating a business uh in which he is the primary player

i wonder how does this

collectively talking about this or is there any receptiveness like this whole issue

because I've been talking to some of the blockers and there's

a sort of a unwilling to accept that to

even accept that Trump is having this dinner oh I don't know anything about that that's not my problem you talk to the

president's office so like I wonder if it's different on your side uh well I

can tell you all the conversations I have are usually in the elevator or at the gym or uh some quiet place and

quietly several of my Republican colleagues are quite willing to acknowledge that this is uh horrific um

whether they're willing to do so publicly is entirely a different question and I see it's my job to do all

I can to encourage them to to step up i feel a little bit like back in the criminal prosecutor days when you're

trying to get the victim to actually identify uh a culprit they're afraid to identify it's a it's a similar process

you know there there are there are several Senate Republicans on record expressing real reservations uh and

outright opposition to what the president is doing with the meme coin that's why it's important for us to

force a vote i mean the only power you have in the minority uh on many days is

to demand amendment votes in order to move to a final vote on legislation so I

think it'll be interesting to see what some of these Senate Republicans do if presented with a really simple amendment

should the ethics provisions in this bill that already apply to members of Congress and to everybody that works for

Donald Trump also apply to Donald Trump all right we can do one more go ahead yep question for Congressman Ricardo um

what do you think about this issue of support for crypto legislation

without directly addressing the voted

for that i mean

you Democrats considering your support for

crypto legislation without Well I think reasonable minds can disagree about this uh I strongly

support uh bill that Senator Murphy's introduced

and that I've introduced on the House side obviously I would strongly support its inclusion uh and stable coin

legislation i'm not eager to hold up uh regulation of an industry that

desperately needs regulation uh if we can't get that over the goal line so I

happen to believe whatever we can do we need to do because we have both a problem within industry and I think

Senator Murphy put it very well we have a very serious challenge with our democracy thanks everybody appreciate it

thank you thank you man thanks great job

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Friday, May 23, 2025

Murphy, Colleagues, Advocates Call Out Trump’s Corrupt Meme Coin Dinner: Release The Names

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