Jimmy Gomez Asked If He’s In Talks With House GOP About ‘Forcing A Vote’ On Trump’s Global Tariffs

6 days ago

At a House Dads Caucus press briefing on Tuesday, Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) was asked about talks with House GOP leaders such as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to block President Trump's tariffs.

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Transcript

00:00Thanks, Mr. Gomez. Speaker Johnson has made clear as recently as yesterday that

00:05he supports Trump's policy, he trusts him to play this out over the course of the long

00:11game, and with that in mind, he's not going to put anything on the floor that would restore

00:15Congress's authority over trade and tariffs.

00:19There are Republicans, however, who support your position in the House and the Senate.

00:23I'm wondering if you were in discussions with any of them about forcing a vote via

00:27this truck petition or some other gimmick, we've seen those get 218 signatures recently.

00:34Yeah, I think there are discussions, but one of the things we want to do is continue the

00:38pressure, because a lot of them are still not feeling the pressure from the constituents

00:42that they need to feel in order to vote their conscience and their districts against the

00:48Trump administration.

00:50So we're going to keep forcing this as an issue, and I think there are plans to have a

00:56vote on this, but it has to kind of percolate for a little bit, and as long as Trump keeps

01:02these tariffs in place, I think it's going to be, we're going to get more and more support.

01:07He announced an additional 50% tariffs on China if they don't respond by tomorrow.

01:15Well there are some tariffs that have already been in place since his first term, and that

01:19Biden increased a little bit.

01:21You're going to see those probably go up to 200%, think about it, 200% tariffs on some

01:27good.

01:28So this is going to be, it's going to get really ugly and messy.

01:31And in my interpretation being on, to the committees I'm on, China has been preparing for this

01:39trade war since the last Trump administration.

01:42They're not, and also, nations don't make decisions solely based on economics, they base

01:48it also on national pride.

01:50So people don't like to be bullied.

01:52Even our neighbors from the north don't like to be bullied.

01:54So we're going to keep up the pressure on the Republicans to get more, because right

02:00now, I'm pretty sure if one of them speaks up, it's for political purposes, and they'll

02:05get slapped back into place by Trump or Elon Musk pretty quickly.

02:11So there's a safety in numbers, so it can't be one or two, it has to be at least a dozen

02:17for them to hold strong.

02:19Do you want to add something?

02:23So Representative Gomez and I serve on Ways and Means, which has jurisdiction over trade.

02:28And it is not in a recent event that Congress ceded its authority to the administration

02:34on trade.

02:35It's something that's been happening across time, but it's something we need to bring

02:38back.

02:39Our biggest challenge is that for the Republicans, they seem to believe that they serve at the

02:44pleasure of the President, that as long as they have Trump's trust, they have their

02:48office, forgetting that we serve at the pleasure of our constituents.

02:51The people who sent us here representing each of our districts.

02:54And as they look at the impact that these tariffs are having back at home, whether it is a rural

03:02community, farmers who depend on access to global markets to make ends meet, to cover their costs

03:10and achieve a little bit of a profit, or it's in urban communities where you're going to see factories

03:16shut down or already seeing layoffs in places like Stellantis announced a 900-person layoff.

03:24The pain is real, and it's only going to get worse.

03:27You look at the products sitting on this table, every one of them is going to be more expensive.

03:32My coffee subscription, I got the email yesterday, went up not a little bit, went up 18 percent.

03:38All right?

03:39So people – someone mentioned that if you take away a parent's coffee, they're going to be cranky.

03:45I think everyone's going to be cranky as they see those prices rise.

03:50Until that pressure is applied to the representatives, saying this is not what we voted for, the election

03:57last November was about lowering costs, making it easier for families to make ends meet and get ahead.

04:02And what the president is doing is making it harder for families to feed their children, to provide their health care,

04:08to put the roof over their head.

04:09Until we see that pressure, I don't think we're going to see Speaker Johnson do anything that the president doesn't tell him to do.

04:17It's unfortunate.

04:18We'll continue to apply that pressure.

04:20We need Congress to retake its authority, authority defined in the Constitution,

04:25and put us on a track that grows our economy, creates opportunities for the workers of the nation,

04:30but does in a way that gives us a chance to access markets around the world.

Jimmy Gomez Asked If He’s In Talks With House GOP About ‘Forcing A Vote’ On Trump’s Global Tariffs

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