Press Release: 11/9/2026
Watch: Pressley on MS NOW: "This is our Moment, and we have a Mandate From the People to Match Their Energy"
Pressley Calls on Democrats to Pursue Bold Agenda and Aggressive Oversight to Match the Mandate Voters Delivered on Election Night
“This decisive mandate from the American people [is] for the Democrats to not only demonstrate that we’re the adults in the room and know how to govern, but to prove that we are the fighters in the room.”
WASHINGTON – In an interview today on MS NOW, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, called on Democrats to meet the moment and use their new majority to govern boldly and aggressively pursue accountability for the corruption, cruelty, and economic harm inflicted by the Trump administration over the past two years.
Following Democrats’ decisive victories on Election Night, Rep. Pressley emphasized that voters delivered a resounding mandate not simply for Democrats to govern, but to fight for working families, expose corruption, and hold the Trump administration accountable for everything from its mass deportation agenda and deadly abuses in ICE custody to reckless tariffs, skyrocketing costs, and harmful DOGE cuts, which have disproportionately harmed Black workers and pushed Black women out of the workforce.
A transcript of the Congresswoman’s interview with MS NOW anchor Jacob Soboroff is below and the full video is available here.
Transcript: Pressley on MS NOW: “This Is Our Moment, And We Have A Mandate From The People To Match Their Energy”
MS NOW
November 8, 2026
JACOB SOBOROFF: Joining me now, Democratic Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts. She is a member of the House Oversight Committee. Congresswoman, it’s great to see you.
REP. PRESSLEY: Good to be with you.
JACOB SOBOROFF: Thank you so much. What does what does going after the grift on day one look like to you, and who do you think should lawyer up?
REP. PRESSLEY: Well, first, let me just say I’m so grateful to this decisive mandate from the American people for the Democrats to not only demonstrate that we’re the adults in the room and know how to govern, but to prove that we are the fighters in the room.
That’s what the American people are looking for. That’s what they deserve, and that’s what this decisive midterm mandate is really demanding.
I’ve been on the Committee on Oversight since 2018 under the great Chair Elijah Cummings, may he rest in peace. Ranking Member Garcia, soon to be Chair Garcia, continues that that tradition of “the role of this committee is to be in the efficient and effective pursuit of the truth.” That’s what Elijah Cummings would always say.
And we know that sunlight is the best disinfectant, and we intend to bring it.
The unconstitutional, cruel, lawless, rogue actions of this administration across the board. Whether you’re talking about the racist, rogue, and dangerous actions of ICE, whether you’re talking about the fact that everything has become harder for everyone who calls this country home, except for people who call the White House home and are, you know, friends to Donald Trump as they’ve enriched themselves and their and their corruption.
You know, or whether you’re talking about the so-called actions of the Department of Government Efficiency, which took a sledgehammer to the infrastructure of our federal government and unlawfully pushed out many federal workers with a disparate burden on the Black worker, on black women in particular.
Whether you’re talking about the dismantling of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility initiatives.
So we have the receipts, Jacob. The receipts are what the American people are experiencing every day.
This hostile fascist administration has been flooding the zone at every level of government and governing with contempt, and even weaponizing their agencies to go after their political enemies, most of whom are Black women who they’ve criminalized simply for doing their job. From Tish James to Lisa Cook to La Monica McIver to Ilhan Omar.
They have been flooding the zone, and this is our time. This is our moment, and we have a mandate from the people to match their energy.
So, although I am quite happy about the election results, I mean that’s really an understatement. I’m sort of in the mindset of Kobe Bryant. I don’t know if you’re a basketball fan, but remember in 200[9], Lakers versus Magic. Lakers were up two games, right? And they said, “Why aren’t you smiling?” And he said, “Because the job’s not finished. The job isn’t finished.
JACOB SOBOROFF: The job is not finished.” I remember, you know, I sat in that hearing room with you and Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez and Congressman Raskin during the first Trump term as you conducted some of those oversight hearings, and I watched them myself as part of my reporting for this network, and the first Trump administration pushed back at almost every turn, tried to stonewall. Do you expect them to comply with these subpoenas? And if they don’t, what will oversight do?
REP. PRESSLEY: Yeah, thank you for talking about a lack of compliance because I’m not sure if I mentioned also their active obstruction of justice for the Epstein survivors they have stonewalled, obstructed, deflected at every turn. But we fully intend under the leadership of Chairman Garcia to use the full weight of our subpoena power.
And let me just say this, Jacob, we may not win every fight, but we have a responsibility to the electorate, to the communities and the people that we serve, at least to go after it. We may not win every fight, but we have to fight, and that’s exactly what I expect this committee to do. That’s what I expect all of our committees.
JACOB SOBOROFF: I want to show you a little bit of what the Attorney General said this morning on Fox. Todd Blanche, he was pushing back predictably against the Democrats’ comments about corruption in the White House. Let’s listen real quick.
TODD BLANCHE: I want to I want to be careful when we talk about government corruption. If there is government corruption, the people that are responsible will be prosecuted by this Department of Justice. But that’s different than a lot of the rhetoric that we’re hearing out there from Democrats about what they view, what they term as corruption, that actually is not corruption, but just an American success story.
JACOB SOBOROFF: It seems pretty preposterous, Congresswoman, to make this about the differences in the definition about corruption.
REP. PRESSLEY: Yeah, I don’t, you know, care what these folks have to say. If their lips are moving, they’re lying. They are completely disconnected from reality. They govern with contempt. They are clueless about the struggles of everyday working people. That’s why their president refers to affordability as a hoax. That’s why they trump up allegations of voter fraud. They were never afraid of voter fraud. They were afraid of black people voting. They were afraid of black women voting. And we did it to the tune of 94%.
So their president is the one that was trying to bribe voters in order to keep a majority. So they are desperate. We’ve got them on the ropes, we have the receipts to prove it. We’ll use the rule of law to continue to make that case and ultimately to hold them accountable. And the list is long. The list is long.
I have constituents who died in ICE custody simply for a toothache, an infection that went untreated, and their body went into sepsis and they died. So it’s not even just what happened to Emmanuel Damas or what happened to Alex Pretti or Renee Good.
It’s the black women pushed out of the workforce, which is a crisis for black women, families, and futures. And the black workers’ unemployment is at 7%.
Small business owners are struggling because of these reckless tariffs.
People are choosing between, you know, getting to work and groceries because of the cost of gas, because of this unauthorized war.
There’s a long sheet. There is a long sheet, but we are we are going to take them to task, and we are going to hold them accountable for what I consider really to be crimes against humanity: starving hungry children, denying people essential health care.
The list is long, but I have stopped wondering how low can they go, and have always been focused on how hard can we fight, and this is the moment to demonstrate that to the American people.
JACOB SOBOROFF: Thank you so much for being here, Democratic Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley from Massachusetts. It’s good to see you.
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