Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that he was “not going to root for President Trump’s success simply on his terms.”
Partial transcript as follows:
JONATHAN KARL: And what are your – what are your expectations for a second Trump term?
PADILLA: There’s sort of a lot of – maybe not hoping for the best, but hoping for some good, but preparing for some bad if the first administration was any indicator. Look, there’s been a lot of assessment or analyzing of what this means for Democrats, the outcome of the November elections. I think Democrats, and I’m speaking for my colleagues here, stand ready to work with the new administration where we agree. If we want to build on our progress from the last four years in record job creation, wage increases, record-sustained low unemployment, and historic investments in our nation’s infrastructure from an economic and security standpoint, that’s great. But if he wants to start the administration by gutting the social safety nets simply to fund tax breaks for billionaires, that’s a non-starter. So, I think the question is really for Trump and Republicans, how are they going to choose to approach this new term and this new session of Congress?
KARL: Well, let me ask you about the working with Trump part of that. John Fetterman, your Democratic colleague from Pennsylvania actually went down to Mar-a-Lago and met with Trump. And he said — he actually told me shortly before going down there that he is rooting for Trump to be a successful president, saying, if you’re rooting against the president, you’re rooting against the nation. So are you — are you rooting for Trump to be successful? And have you reached out — would you like to meet with him one-on-one the way Senator Fetterman did?
PADILLA: Look, if I’m going to root for any president to be successful, it depends on how we define success. And I just laid out, if we’re going to continue the progress of the last four years for the sake of our national security, for the sake of our economy and working class families — and absolutely, Donald Trump or anybody else. But I’m not going to root for President Trump’s success simply on his terms.
And I’ll give you a classic example. Just a couple of months ago, despite all the rhetoric around immigration and immigrants that we’ve heard from him for years and years and years when he says publicly that he’s supportive of helping Dreamers, hey, I’m all ears. I have to do that.
I owe it to Dreamers and all of my constituents to see if there’s a path forward for young people who came to this country and have established their lives here are contributing to communities, contributing to our economy, whether it’s legalization and a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, for farm workers or millions of essential workers. That’s the goal, and I’ll work with whoever I need to try to make that happen.
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