WASHINGTON D.C. — U.S. Senator Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) held a call with the press in Colorado on Thursday morning to discuss President Donald Trump’s first month in the White House. Bennet was candid about significant concerns he has with a number of issues. 

He started by giving a brief glimpse of the impact President Trump’s actions – and the threat of action – are having.  

“We’re in the midst of dealing with rumors of displacement or buy-outs of the federal workforce,” he said. “We have 40,000 federal workers in Colorado, and we want to make sure they understand their rights. We’ve got concerns all over the state with people who are afraid their funding has been cut off or are being threatened that it will be cut off – we are monitoring that in real time.” 

Bennet was then asked about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation on Thursday as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Bennet had filibustered to prevent RFK from being confirmed. 

He chose his first words carefully and said, “I’m sorry that we didn’t have the votes to prevent [RFK] from being confirmed.” 

He then went on to say, “Out of 330 million Americans, we probably could find someone better qualified for one of the most important health offices in the nation who’s not peddling conspiracy theories about vaccinations or their relationship to autism.” 

As former superintendent of Denver Public Schools, he was concerned as families “pick up” on the misinformation [RFK has promoted] in this atmosphere, saying there are new cases of disease across the country. 

“We fought a hard fight, but we weren’t successful,” he said. 

The nomination of Kathleen Sgamma to head up the Bureau of Land Management was discussed. Sgamma is an advocate for oil and gas extraction. Bennet has been a strong supporter of public lands and the CORE Act (Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy Act).  

He expressed concern about protecting public lands because of senators like Mike Lee (R-Utah) who believes at an “ideological” level, no lands should be public and pledged to not give up protecting public lands that, historically, have had broad bi-partisan support in the counties impacted. 

“I hope we’re not going to find the new administration following the lead of those who are anti-public land….That’s a fight we will win because the American public is with us,” Bennet said. 

He was asked about nominees like Sgamma and Kathleen McGregor (nominated to be Deputy Secretary of the Department of Interior) who might agree to open up previously exempted land to oil and gas extraction.  

Bennet said that - to him - that would be disqualifying specifically in places like the Thompson Divide. He said some places “would be appropriate” but the Thompson Divide was not one of those. “We’re not going to let these guys take away those protections.” 

Bennet was then asked if it would be disqualifying for him if Sgamma and Kathleen McGregor agree with Elon Musk’s call to slash the budget of the Department of Interior Department of everything “like wildland firefighters and national parks.” Bennet didn’t hesitate. “Yes, that would be disqualifying.” 

When asked about Trump possibly defying judicial orders related to freezing federal funding that Congress has appropriated, Bennet said, “It’s going to be really important to stay in touch with these guys. We’re in uncharted territories. They’re taking decisions onto themselves that are constitutionally made by Congress.  

“I hope very much the Senate and the House will stand up for our Constitutional prerogatives. Every senator should have a conviction that these institutions designed by our founders are here for a reason.  

“The American people are supposed to have a say. No president has ever been king in this country going back to the beginning because we’ve always acted consistent with the checks and balances. We cant’ take that for granted today.” 

He reiterated that Congress has passed the [funding bills] and the president doesn’t have the Constitutional ability to just make his own decisions about funding. Senate has passed them and Trump doesn’t have authority.” 

Did he have faith the Senate would act if Trump defied the courts? 

Bennet said he “couldn’t say that,” later stating he couldn’t say if his Republican colleagues were that concerned by Trump’s actions. He hopes they will stand up for that but he’s afraid the “president and his crew” will make senators less willing to uphold checks and balances and “once it starts to spiral, it spirals.”  

When asked about this administration’s potential involvement in the Colorado River and Rio Grande River Compacts, Bennet said, “I don’t see any indication that people in this administration even know that there is a Colorado River.” 

When asked if there were any legislative tools the Democrats could use to address some of the steps being taken by this administration, Bennet said no. He did say that, so far, judicial rulings that funds not be frozen or prohibiting Musk from accessing data in the Treasury Department have not been disturbed and he’s hoping it will continue that way.  

“But it’s important to watch what this administration does with the judicial branch because that’s next.” 

When asked about what he would say to farmers and ranchers in the San Luis Valley  concerned about the impact of tariffs on, for example, the continuation of the agreement reached with Mexico to export potatoes into new markets in that country, Bennet acknowledged how many years it took to get that agreement and said he was worried about “all” exports, even while we’re dealing with along with the impact from tariffs, the increased cost of labor and the rising cost of inputs.  

He asked farmers and ranchers to please stay in touch with his office. “We want to hear from you and how you’re doing. I’m very worried that if we don’t pay attention to this, we could lose farms and ranches in Colorado and across the country in droves.”  

In a follow-up question, when asked what he would say to constituents who are worried about what they’re seeing in Washington and feel powerless to do anything about it, Bennet said, “It is more important than ever that people pay attention to whether the journalism content they’re reading is actually journalism, that it’s actually edited and not just someone shooting their mouth off on social media.  

“Before we go out in the morning in Colorado, we care a lot about what the temperature is and we have ways to know that what we’re being told is accurate. We need that for everything we’ve been talking about today. 

“The role of the press in this is more important than it’s ever been in my lifetime. We need the muckraking we’ve seen in previous eras but that’s really hard at this moment because the business model of newspapers all over this country has been destroyed by the same tech bros sitting behind the president, celebrating that they haven’t paid taxes.  That’s all connected. We need to pay attention now more than ever because that’s the only way to save this democracy.”