Rep. Yassamin Ansari of Arizona said she would consider working with President Donald Trump on a pathway to citizenship for some migrants, but she does not trust his offer and called him a “pathological liar.”
Ansari made the remarks in an interview with MeidasTouch reporter Pablo Manriquez, who asked what she made of Trump “saying that he’s willing to work with Democrats, basically, to get some pathway to citizenship for some migrants.”
“Is that something that you’re willing to work with the White House on?” Manriquez asked.
“In theory, of course, but I just don’t believe anything Donald Trump says,” Ansari said. “He’s a pathological liar.”
Trump, in an interview that aired Sunday on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” said his deportation push had been too tough and had hurt Republicans in last week’s midterm elections. He said he would “love to do something on immigration” with Democrats, but he gave no specifics. Shortly after taping the interview, he named Stephen Miller, the architect of his immigration agenda, as his new chief of staff.
Ansari said Trump’s past promises give her little reason to believe him now.
“He also told the American people two years ago that he would bring down costs and forever wars, make life better for working Americans, and he did the exact opposite,” she said.
She said the midterm election, in which Democrats won control of both the House and the Senate, “was a massive rejection of his agenda.”
“So, you know, he’s saying that now,” Ansari said.
Ansari also said Trump “has dementia.” She offered no evidence for the claim. Trump, 80, has faced questions about his health and mental sharpness during his second term, and some congressional Democrats have pressed the White House to release more detailed results of his cognitive screenings. After Trump’s physical in May, White House physician Navy Capt. Sean Barbabella wrote that the president “remains in excellent health.”
“Donald Trump is not somebody I trust,” Ansari said.
“It sounds like the devil’s in the details,” Manriquez replied.
Manriquez then asked Ansari what she made of “this new class coming through now, this new freshman class of Democrats.”
“It’s amazing,” she said. “I mean, there’s so many of them. There’s like 80 some, I believe, new freshmen.”
More than 95 new members from both parties are expected to join the House in January, according to a Nov. 4 analysis by the law and lobbying firm Akin Gump, which said it could be the largest freshman class in 34 years.
“We had an amazing caucus meeting this morning,” Ansari said. She said she met “quite a few of them” and that “pretty much every single member of this class was elected running on a populist agenda, running on an agenda that promises to end forever wars, promises to invest in things like affordable health care and housing and child care.”
“So I’m really excited,” she said. “I think that, you know, having such a big change in the caucus is really going to bring a lot of energy.”
“And, you know, I’m excited to partner with them and work on so many issues that are going to be urgent on day one in January,” she added.
Ansari, 34, won reelection Nov. 3 to a second term representing Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District, which covers much of Phoenix. She served as president of the Democratic freshman class elected in 2024.
Asked how Democrats keep “the momentum going after this enormous blue wave election,” Ansari said the party must deliver.
“We have to get things done,” she said. “The only way to keep the momentum going is to get things done.”
“I think that Americans made their voices very clear, but now they expect results,” Ansari said. “They need us to lower the cost of living. They need us to end the war in Iran. They need us to get ICE out of our communities. They need us to stop funding foreign wars abroad.”
ICE is U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency that has carried out Trump’s deportation campaign.
“The list of priorities is long, and we need to be able to show results very quickly,” she said.
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