All Hell Breaks Loose As Democrat Hank Johnson EXPOSES Trump’s ‘Manufactured Crisis’ In One-Go

Normally I would thank him for holding this very important hearing, very timely hearing, but But this is far afield from what the American people want us to be talking about. You know, they're concerned with paying the bills, groceries, gas, diesel, rent. They're concerned about living in America and being able to make ends meet. They can't do it but yet they look up and they see a few trillionaires and billionaires corruptly soaking their profits. Soaking money directly out of the profits, out of the pockets and pocketbooks of regular working people in this country. And they don't like what they see and they don't like what they're hearing when they see us addressing issues like the International Criminal Court, which has nothing to do with their cost. America's commitment to the rule of law should not end at our borders. If we believe accountability is the foundation of justice at home, Then we should not undermine or ignore it when crimes are committed abroad, but for some reason that is exactly what we are doing here today. On its face, this hearing serves to benefit Donald Trump and his friends like Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, and Bukele, and this all while he leaves the American people to suffer under the consequences of his failed policies. Because while we are allegedly here today to discuss how the International Criminal Court, quote, threatens, end quote, our sovereignty and that of our allies, much like the Trump administration's other manufactured crises, it's a farce, a smokescreen, a pathetic excuse to mask the true nature behind this hearing, to distract from the corruption and greed and cruelty. Donald Trump and his cronies here in Congress. While Trump and his MAGA Republican minions are here talking about sovereignty, American families are worried about how they are going to pay for gas and groceries and everything else that inevitably gets more expensive when war sends energy prices soaring. Over the weekend the cost of diesel fuel hit an all-time record high while Trump Trump is encouraging big tech. To continue building enormous data centers in our backyards, putting unprecedented demands on our already strained energy grid. That is the reality for millions of Americans, not an abstract debate about international law. This hearing will not put gas in the tank or food on the table. My colleagues across the aisle talk about anything other than the consequences of Trump's self-serving policies and their mindless support for them. This administration is asking Americans to look abroad and fear an international court that we don't even belong to, when the American people don't need another distraction. They need a government focused on making their lives more affordable. Not one manufacturing new enemies abroad to distract from the fact that President Trump is increasing the economic pressures facing American families every single day. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle can talk about sovereignty all they want. But I believe the American people deserve a government that understands their actual problems, not one that is only concerned with the president's ego and helping him get richer on the backs of American workers. This manufactured attack on international cooperation comes at a crucial time when the world faces threats no one could solve alone, no country can solve alone, nuclear weapons proliferation. Donald Trump has instructed our military to recommence testing of nuclear bombs. We're dealing with nuclear proliferation, we're dealing with climate change, and the increasingly unchecked development of artificial intelligence. We got the head of an artificial intelligence company telling us that mankind may be no longer In 10 years or less, some say by the end of the decade, that's only four years away. We're facing, and he's calling for a slowdown of development of artificial intelligence. And what do we do in Congress? We go back on vacation after being on vacation for four weeks. Five weeks, and we're going back on a six-week vacation, all so that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle can get re-elected, and all of this while the country is facing existential danger. In July, an open AI test became uncontrollable when agents hacked into the servers of an AI company, Hugging Face, which just got sold for $12 billion, by the way. Just a drop in the bucket, however, $12 billion, that's nothing to those up at the top with gazillions of money, the first trillionaire in the country's history. Just last week, Anthropic disclosed another instance of one of their models hacking an external system during testing. Nobody instructed the AI to take these actions. This is the AI thinking for itself. Being programmed to think for itself, escaping the guardrails that human beings in their wisdom and intelligence set, but it was not enough, it's ominous, you know, where we're headed. Now each of these incidents is concerning on its own, and they raise real questions about the soundness of the evaluation setups. But the larger question is what happens when these same capabilities are in the hands of someone who intends harm or when it's the machines themselves that are dictating what they do and speaking in language that human beings can't even decipher or understand. What happens then? We should be having conversations about robust safety standards here at home. The reason we... Have not is because Donald Trump has told his cronies in Congress that they cannot regulate AI. That is why this very subcommittee had a hearing last year to try to preempt all state laws that try to regulate AI. We have a narrow window, ladies and gentlemen, to get this right. And while we should be collaborating with our allies to address AI, augmented cybersecurity, and autonomous weaponry concerns, My colleagues across the aisle are instead busy trying to take the ICC apart brick by brick. Instead of dismantling international cooperative organizations, we need to be strengthening them, all on Donald Trump's orders. Working together with our allies, we should not be embarked on another Cold War. Where we spend billions upon billions and indeed trillions of dollars trying to build the biggest nuclear bomb or trying to build the most powerful AI capacity, another nuclear arms race that puts us all on the brink of extinction. We should be, as human beings, working together, not just America first, but America, China, and other nations in the world, working to... address this threat not just to Americans but to humanity. Yet it has become clear that Trump and MAGA Republicans are incapable of moving in that direction. Instead they confuse sovereignty with isolation and strength with intimidation. They confuse putting America first with putting America alone. History has shown that America is strongest when we lead. When we stand with our allies and our enemies and understand that the choice before us is not between sovereignty and international cooperation, we can either choose to confront these challenges together or we can confront their consequences either alone or with everyone else. We're all going to the same grave. It is my sincere hope that we choose to work together to solve these Existential threats to humanity. Thank you to our witnesses for being here today let's let's uh maybe you can enlighten us on your ideas on how we can lower costs for uh for you and your family uh and for me and mine I don't I don't know if you're prepared to discuss that today but I would gladly yield my time to anyone who has a prescription.