During Friday’s Senate Democratic press briefing, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) discussed President Trump's rollout of reciprocal tariffs.
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NewsTranscript
00:00All right, thank you for coming and I'm happy to be joined by my colleagues Senators Wyden,
00:20Klobuchar, Cortez Masto, and Ben Ray Lujan.
00:23It's great to be here with all of you.
00:26This week, Donald Trump made one of the dumbest decisions he's ever made as president, and
00:32that is saying a whole lot.
00:34Instead of fixing inflation, which he promised to do, Donald Trump unleashed a wave of tariffs
00:41that will make inflation much, much worse.
00:43It is estimated the average American family will pay $5,000 more a year because of these
00:52tariffs.
00:53It is believed that these tariffs will hurt our economy and families from one end of America
00:58to the other.
00:59Here's what the non-partisan chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, just said.
01:05It will increase inflation and slow growth.
01:10So I am introducing an amendment to the Senate budget resolution with Senator Klobuchar and
01:16many other Dems that says that the amendment will create, will make sure that any tariff
01:27put in place after January 20th, 2025 will be rescinded if they have increased the costs
01:33of groceries, medicines, or other secondary goods.
01:36We leave in place the tariffs only on China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.
01:43Now Trump promised to lower prices on day one.
01:46Remember that?
01:47Well, they've gone way up.
01:50And why is he doing these tariffs?
01:52Why would he do something like this?
01:54Because the Republican Party is in the vice grip of a group of very greedy billionaires.
02:01They have a billionaire bubble.
02:03And they say, yeah, all this money from tariffs could help make our taxes lower.
02:08It's a disgrace.
02:09It's an absolute disgrace.
02:12The amendment that we're doing calls for rescinding Trump's disastrous, chaotic tariffs that are
02:18hurting Americans.
02:19Everything's going to go up.
02:21Groceries, medicines, cars, gasoline, furniture, clothing, you name it, it's going to go up.
02:31Because this is across the board, across the world.
02:34And by the way, businesses hate this.
02:38Not just big businesses, small businesses.
02:41They need certainty.
02:42And when they hear about all these tariffs coming up, they don't hire any new people.
02:49They don't expand any services.
02:51They don't build a new plant.
02:54They say, uh-oh, these tariffs are coming, I better keep my money in my pocket, increasing
02:59the chance of a recession significantly.
03:02The major banks have just increased the chances that we'd have a recession where it's harder
03:06to get a job, keep a job, pay the bills, than under more normal circumstances.
03:12So we have here a pincer of pain.
03:14On the one hand, Trump and the Republicans are taking away vital services in health care
03:20and in housing and in food and in so many other things Americans need, and at the same
03:25time, with the other side of the pincer, they're squeezing them by creating higher prices.
03:33So all day long, Democrats are going to come to the floor to expose the sheer destruction
03:40of the Republican agenda.
03:42People are learning.
03:44They're learning that the Republicans are, that Donald Trump, Musk, Doge, and the Republicans
03:50are not on their side.
03:52They're learning that these people are doing things just for the billionaires.
03:59And they are learning that Donald Trump is not only breaking his promise to them, but
04:04he's betraying them.
04:06Senator White.
04:08Thank you, Leader.
04:10So here's where-
04:12Oh, I mentioned, forgot one point.
04:14It's one of my favorite ones.
04:16I left it out.
04:18The tariffs are so poorly planned that he's taxing penguins, not Putin.
04:28Because the tax is levied on the herd in McDonald Islands, where only penguins live.
04:34But he's leaving Russia alone.
04:36Thank you for that little addition.