Senate Democratic leaders hold their weekly press briefing.
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NewsTranscript
00:00And I am joined by Senators Cain, Wyden, and Klobuchar, and thank them for joining me today.
00:11So, soon the Senate will vote on a resolution from Senator Cain, Klobuchar, and Warner to undo Donald Trump's tariffs on Canadian goods.
00:23I proudly support this resolution because these tariffs are a tax increase on American families, plain and simple.
00:31And why? Why do they want to do this? Why do they want to raise the price list?
00:36The cost that American families pay is now estimated, if they do them all, at $5,000 a year.
00:42Simply to give a tax cut to Trump's billionaire friends paid for by average working American families.
00:53Donald Trump's tariffs, as we said, $5,000 a year. Some of the estimates are higher. That's a more conservative estimate.
01:02Families are going to pay more for groceries and gas, for a car.
01:08Families that sit around the table Friday night and worry about their future.
01:13Can they afford a new car? Can they take a vacation to see grandma?
01:19Are now holding back because these tariffs would take that money out of their pockets and put it in the hands of Trump's billionaire friends.
01:29And it's also going to hurt jobs.
01:326.5 million jobs would be impacted just by the Canada tariffs, according to the New York Times.
01:39And guess who will be particularly affected? People in red states. People in red states.
01:45It's going to hurt farmers, as Amy Klobuchar has pointed out. It's going to hurt small businesses.
01:50It hurts all businesses because business people, whether they're small businesses, large businesses, or everything in between, they want certainty.
01:59These tariffs, the chaos by which Trump says, on one day they're this, on the next day they're that, maybe this country, maybe that country, create the kind of chaos that businesses hate.
02:10And you don't have to listen to us. Listen to Republicans. Rand Paul. Tariffs are simply a tax.
02:17Senator Mullin put it plainly. Tariffs are a tax and it will be passed on to consumers.
02:25And guess what President Trump said? He said he couldn't care less if prices go up on American families.
02:32Well, Donald Trump may not care, but we do. And we're fighting him tooth and nail on these tariffs.
02:40Every single Senate Republican should support Tim's resolution and support American families.
02:47We know Trump is very worried about the resolution. Just recent, just in the last few hours, he tweeted his fearful decree to Congressional Republicans.
02:58He knows they might lose here in the Senate. So he's worried and he demanded all Senate Republicans to vote against this resolution, which would be a vote against American families.
03:10And that's what Donald Trump's asking him to do, because he doesn't care about American families and he said it himself.
03:16Let's call Trump's taxes for what they really are, tax hike on families.
03:22I hope the American people listen to Trump when he says American families want, he wants American families to pay more.
03:31I hope they're listening to what he says. I hope they understand he wants to increase their financial pain and he's good at doing it.
03:38The stock market's in turmoil. People are worried about their IRAs. Consumer confidence is down and expectations for the future are historically low.
03:48The odds of a recession have increased. Where are Senate Republicans? Where is their outrage?
03:57They should be demanding, as we are, to protect American families. Democrats certainly are, and so I'm proud to join this resolution.
04:05I just want to say, Tim Kaine has been just stellar, crystal clear in his pursuit of understanding this issue way in advance and his relentless pursuit, and that's why we are here today.
04:24Well, the reason I've been focused is I saw how bad this hurt Virginians in the Trump first term.
04:29When he did tariffs on Canada, an ally, tariffs on the EU, an ally, it hurt Virginians badly, the prices they paid, and it especially hurt our biggest industry sector, agriculture and forestry.
04:41So this isn't a prediction about something that might happen. We've been down the road.
04:46The only thing is this is at a much greater magnitude, a massive tax cut, the largest tax increase on American consumers in American history, if it goes through.
04:55And that's why I'm really happy to have Amy as the chief co-sponsor of this, and I am happy to have a Republican co-sponsor of Rand Paul and two other Republicans, Senators Collins and Murkowski, who have said positive things about the bill.
05:08We've got a chance on this. We've got a chance to actually win and reject these price increases.
05:13You're going to pay more for groceries because we bring in an awful lot of agricultural products from Canada.
05:19You're going to even pay more for building supplies.
05:21In time, the house has lost too much because we bring in lumber from Canada.
05:26Thirty-five percent of the aluminum and steel we build and the ships and subs we build in this country come in from Canada.
05:33We already can't get on our time, and our budget list will make it worse.
05:36Eighty percent of the fertilizer that our farmers use can potentially come from Canada.
05:42So this is going to sock everybody in. Why?
05:45Why? President Trump has tried to justify it by saying that there's a federal emergency in Canada.
05:51There is a federal emergency, and it's Mexico and China. It's not Canada.
05:56Tulsi Gabbard came to the Intel Committee last week to do her annual assessment delivery of the National Threat Assessment.
06:03And that threat assessment said nothing about Canada.
06:06It had a section about fentanyl and where the fentanyl problem was. It said nothing about Canada.
06:11Senator Hyder said, I notice you don't say anything about Canada here.
06:15And Tulsi Gabbard said, yes, because the fentanyl problem is from Mexico and China.
06:20So if it's an event to crash down, why are they doing it?
06:24They're doing it because they're looking for a pay-for for the tax cut.
06:27They don't want to deficit fund the tax cut bucket in 2017, so they've got to find a pay-for.
06:32And the pay-for is two things.
06:34All this massive cutting of the VA and firing veterans throughout the federal workforce, that's going to go into the bucket.
06:41That's the pay-for, and the other thing that's going into the bucket is tariff revenue.
06:45So everyday people will be paying more for groceries and building supplies so that the Republicans can do a big tax cut benefit for the people at the top.
06:54We've got a chance to stop it. A lot of people said they're concerned about tariffs.
06:59You can vote to stop it.
07:02And that's what I'm asking my colleagues to do. I'm really excited.
07:06In the back.
07:07Yeah, you want a tax cut?
07:11Well, I'll be real quick.
07:14First of all, these tariffs are an economic poison that is going to work its way through our communities and hammer our families.
07:31And the reality, you know, is it is time for Congress to get tougher on trade.
07:38There's been a debate for a number of years on this issue, but now is the time to make a strong start.
07:46And that's what Senator Kaine, Senator Warner, and Senator Klobuchar are doing.
07:50And frankly, I'm proud of the Senate Finance Committee.
07:53I will tell you, it is high time, and you are going to see other efforts in the future.
07:59As the leader said, the reality is none of this is going to hurt Donald Trump and his billionaire pals.
08:07To tell you the truth, I think they don't mind at all if the general economy hurts, just as long as the billionaires do well.
08:16The reality is the Trump tariffs are going to hit our families like a wrecking ball.
08:23And it is going to move across the land.
08:26And that's why we're going to pull out all the stops, those of us who believe in a smart trade policy,
08:32which is what Senator Kaine and Senator Warner and Senator Klobuchar are talking about.
08:36We're going to pull out all the stops between now and the vote to pass this key legislation.
08:40Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
08:42That concludes our number four, Minnesota Twins.
08:47Hopefully we'll be one.
08:49So I think what you've seen in these last few weeks is that when this administration is undermining the economy and bringing us down,
09:00when costs are going up and corruption is going up and chaos is going up,
09:04when they're undermining our national security, Democrats are on the offense.
09:09Ask Cory Booker right there. He's on the offense.
09:14He's making the case for the American people.
09:16Look at what happened last week when we find out that they threatened our national security.
09:21And the Intelligence Committee Democrats, led by Mark Warner, asked those tough questions.
09:27Look what we're doing here.
09:29We are leading in the courts with Democratic Attorney Generals.
09:34We are leading in Congress, and we are leading with our constituents by our side.
09:38So this tariff bill, I cannot tell you how important this is right now.
09:43In Minnesota, Canada, we can see Canada from our porch.
09:47Minnesota's trade with Canada is more than our combined trade with number two, number three, and number four below that.
09:54I just came back from a 14-county rural tour in our state.
09:58People just showed up.
10:00They weren't activists at town hall meetings or small things in small towns, and it's devastating them.
10:05Because the Canadians are pitched.
10:07As Senator Warner pointed out at our earlier press conference on this, Canadian tourism, tourism from Canada to the U.S. is down by 75 percent.
10:17You have once you undermine a market, and farmers or people in Canada think, you know what, I'm going to go buy from someone else because I can't trust this trading partner.
10:27It's not just that moment.
10:29It is long-lasting.
10:31In addition to the numbers that Senator Kaine mentioned, overall, these tariffs beyond Canada to all the other countries result in a national sales tax on Americans.
10:43For every American family, if you look at all of them, including Canada, $5,000 per year sales tax, increasing the cost of a new home by $20,000, increasing the cost of American-made cars by $3,000,
10:58eliminating up to 400,000 American jobs.
11:02So I thank Tim for his leadership.
11:04I thank Senator Schumer for moving this along, and Senator Wyden.
11:08We have to have this vote.
11:09And the fact that we can get some Republicans to stand up, I hope Cory Booker is showing them right now, we only need four of them to stand up, and we can stop this chaos.
11:21Yes.
11:27Yes, we have had many good discussions, including today, and you are going to find us focused relentlessly on what the Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the Republican Senate and House are doing to the American people.
11:42They're taking away benefits that they desperately need.
11:46Medicaid, going after Social Security, tariffs, as we talked about.
11:51They've raised their costs and many other things, all to give tax breaks to the billionaires.
11:56The American people hate that.
11:58The American people know that we're on their side.
12:02Trump isn't.
12:03And we are unified in that approach.
12:05Yes.
12:06Yes.
12:14Well, that will be up to them.
12:15We're having discussions on the budget resolution in our caucus.
12:19Republicans are saying that losing a current policy baseline is pretty much up to the chairman, Chairman Grant.
12:25It's settled.
12:26You're suggesting that the Parliamentarians are going to have a ruling to make here.
12:29Do you think the Senate is going to try to pass a Parliamentarian on this question?
12:33That would be going nuclear.
12:35And it shows that Republicans are so hell-bent on giving these tax breaks to the billionaires
12:42that they're willing to break any rules, norms, and things they promise they won't do.
12:47Thank you very much.