Van Hollen rallies with seniors, union leaders and advocates against Trump's nominee to lead SSA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0pJCtIOEuQ 

 

May 5, 2025

U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen joins concerned seniors, union leaders, and advocates at a rally against Trump’s nomination of Frank Bisignano to serve as Commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA).

Transcript

0:01

uh thank you Nancy and thank all of you

0:04

for being here You know we've gathered

0:07

in Baltimore in front of the Social

0:10

Security

0:11

Administration We've gathered on the

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Senate floor We've gathered in

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communities all over the country And now

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we're gathered here today to say keep

0:22

your hands off of our Social Security

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And that does mean and if you want to do

0:30

that you have to vote a big no on Frank

0:33

Biznano

0:36

So what we've witnessed of course uh is

0:39

the most corrupt bargain in American

0:42

history right Elon Musk contributed $260

0:46

million to help elect Donald Trump and

0:50

Donald Trump turned around and gave Elon

0:52

Musk the keys to the federal government

0:57

This had nothing to do with government

0:59

efficiency

1:01

This had to do with cutting services

1:03

that are important to every American in

1:06

order to rig the government for people

1:09

like Elon Musk and the billionaires And

1:12

in addition to that they do say that

1:15

they want to use the savings They want

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to use the savings from closing social

1:19

security offices They want to use the

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savings from reducing services of social

1:24

security They want to use that to

1:27

finance tax cuts for billionaires Are we

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going to let them do that Hell no I want

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to thank Ron Widen who's doing a great

1:35

job on the finance committee to Nancy

1:37

Alman of Social Security Works and all

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of you who are part of this gathering uh

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and to Martin Ali uh my friend who was

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the most recent head of social security

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commissioner and who always makes clear

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that social security has never missed a

1:55

check The earned benefits that people

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have worked their lives for they deliver

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So when so when people like Howard

2:04

Lutnik say ah you know what my mother as

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others said wouldn't miss this and only

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the people who are committing fraud

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would miss this This guy obviously

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hasn't talked to people throughout the

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country because everybody recognizes

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that that's social security payment For

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some it's the difference between being

2:26

in poverty and not And for others it's a

2:28

substantial part of what it takes to

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carry on a decent standard of living So

2:35

what we see in Frank

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Bizenado is somebody who is a Doge crony

2:42

right Because this is somebody who

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essentially said he's one of those Doge

2:49

groupies He likes what Elon Musk is

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doing In fact um he was very

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instrumental in making sure that Michael

2:57

Russo uh who was like the Doge hitman at

3:01

Social Security uh got that portfolio

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And as we speak as you know while

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they've been trying to also access very

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sensitive important personal

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confidential information for Doge and

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the courts have said "No you can't get

3:17

access to it." it but I think it was

3:18

just last Friday they appealed it to the

3:23

court the higher court So what we're

3:26

facing right now is an effort to raid

3:30

important information that belongs to

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the American people as individuals for

3:37

Doge And what we're witnessing is their

3:39

effort to shut down these offices get

3:42

rid of people turn off the phones I want

3:44

to end with this because of the voices

3:46

of so many Americans they've had to back

3:49

off some of those measures But we need

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to say loud and clear that we will not

3:55

rest until we make sure that social

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security is not only safe but as John

4:00

Larson said we need to strengthen social

4:02

security Thank all of you for being here

4:04

as part of that effort