Executive Session
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, on Friday morning there was yet another shooting in a school in America. Another community was torn apart by senseless violence. It was another week when parents must bury their children. We are still learning the tragic details of what happened in Santa Fe, but the basic reality in America remains unchanged: Far too many people are dying from gun violence.
What we need now more than ever is real, substantive debate on gun violence in America--a real debate about universal background checks, a real debate about protective orders, and a real debate on regulating assault weapons, which are often the weapon of choice in the most deadly mass shootings.
In the wake of Parkland, it looked like President Trump would finally get religion on this issue. He promised a serious debate on gun violence, but as soon as the NRA and their special interest cronies closed ranks around him, he backed off. That seems to be the pattern of this administration. The President says something one day, and then some powerful interest says: Don't do it, and he backs right off. That is not the kind of strength he wishes to show, and he sure hasn't shown it on this issue.
After this most recent tragedy in Santa Fe, we have heard no new calls for commonsense gun safety from the White House, but this Chamber can still act. I implore my friends across the aisle to take up this debate. We owe it to the people of Santa Fe, TX, to the people of Parkland, FL, and to every other community that lives at the mercy of the gaping loopholes in our gun laws.
Trade with China
Mr. President, on the matter of ongoing trade negotiations with China, as I have said many times, when it comes to being tough on China's trading practices, I am closer to President Trump than to either President Obama or President Bush. I think the President recognized that fact in a tweet this morning.
When President Trump threatened tariffs and investment restrictions in the face of China's blatant theft and extortion of our intellectual property, I gave the President a pat on the back. Our companies need to be able to sell our goods and services in China without having to turn over intellectual property.
I have mentioned this before, but here is one example that pains me, and it is so typical. GE employs thousands in Schenectady. They have intellectual property and know-how to make turbines spin very fast and not overheat, but China wouldn't let them sell them. So what did they do? The Chinese blackmailed them, and GE went along. There is a 51-49 company that now makes those turbines in China. That is great for the heads of GE, great for their board, and great for the stock for a few years. But after that, once China--now in this 51-49 company--has learned how to make these turbines themselves, we are gone. More good- paying jobs could be lost in upstate New York, as they have been throughout America.
President Trump's actions at first helped bring China to the table, but now President Trump and his team have to stick with it, be strong, and negotiate a strong, concrete agreement. The worst thing to do would be to sell out for a one-time, temporary purchase of goods without addressing the real issue: the theft of intellectual property and know- how, which costs us millions of American jobs.
Unfortunately, it seems too strong a possibility that President Trump is headed down the road of not being strong. The President said this morning: ``China has agreed to buy massive amounts of ADDITIONAL Farm/ Agricultural products.'' Secretary Mnuchin, hardly a tower of strength on this issue, has said that the administration would ``follow this up'' on this vague commitment and that $150 billion in proposed tariffs would be put ``on hold.''
It is deeply disappointing that thus far President Trump has won no concessions on intellectual property and has locked in no new market access. In reality, there were not even specific commitments of U.S. good purchases, not that such a commitment would undo the damage China continues to do to us in its other activities.
If nothing else changes, this deal is a win-win for China. They avoid tough actions on intellectual property and give us some temporary and relatively small relief by buying some goods. China's trade negotiators must be laughing themselves all the way back to Beijing. They know what they are doing. They are playing us for fools. A temporary purchase of some goods, while China continues to steal our family jewels, the things that have made America great, the intellectual property, the know-how in the highest end industries--it makes no sense. China is pushing the President around, and he seems to accept it.
Worse still, the President's team is still talking about giving relief to China's state-backed telecommunications giant, ZTE, a company that violated our sanctions laws and is considered a national security threat. It is totally backward. The way to win real concessions from China is to stay tough, not to bluster and then back off at the first sign of friction.
So I say to President Trump, who knows I genuinely want him to succeed with China: Stay strong. Don't back off sanctions on ZTE. You have to pursue the course, or China will continue to enjoy the upper hand.
Congress also has a say on this issue. I was gratified to see that last week, Democrats and Republicans, in a House Appropriations subcommittee, approved a measure that would block the President from weakening sanctions on ZTE. Senate Democrats will also consider additional measures, if necessary, to block relief for ZTE, and we hope our Republican colleagues will join us in that effort.
The United States cannot let China continue to steal America's lifeblood, our intellectual property, and flout international trade laws. If President Trump doesn't get tough with them now, China will know he is willing to back down at the first sign of resistance. It will be a sad day for America--for America's workers, for our future wealth, and for our future prosperity. It will help make China replace us as No. 1. It is crucial. Russia Investigation
Finally, Mr. President, on the probe into Putin's interference in our elections, in a series of tweets yesterday, President Trump demanded that the Justice Department start a counterinvestigation of the Russia investigation itself. That he would issue such an absurd and abusive demand based on no evidence shows just how little regard the President has for the rule of law.
President Trump seems to have the terribly misguided view that the Department of Justice is there to protect his political interests and prosecute his enemies. It is not. The Department of Justice is required to follow the law, not the political bidding of the President's, particularly when they are investigating him.
The President's demand is a blatant abuse of Executive power, an ill- informed, sloppy attempt to discredit a duly-constituted investigation led by the special counsel. As we speak, the President is reportedly meeting with Justice Department officials to press his case, even after they have already called on the inspector general to look into this matter. The President's behavior is the kind of grossly autocratic behavior we would expect in a banana republic, not a mature democracy. By now, we should all recognize that President Trump's latest demand is just another example of a relentless campaign to distract from the serious wrongdoing being uncovered by the Russia probe.
This weekend, it was reported that members of President Trump's inner circle met with emissaries and companies from several other foreign countries during the campaign to discuss manipulation of American voters in order to sway the election. This is exactly what our Founding Fathers feared--attempts by foreign capitals to influence American elections. As a reaction, the President does what he always does when faced with alarming news about the conduct of his campaign and the people in it: He kicks up dust. He tries to distract. He issues a flurry of tweets pointing people in every direction. That is all this demand for a counterinvestigation is--another distraction.
With sadness and some reluctance, I must add that a good deal of the blame for the President's undemocratic behavior lies with congressional Republicans who have engaged in a scorched-earth campaign to discredit the Justice Department broadly and the special investigation specifically. Representative Nunes has been at the center of much of this campaign, but the circle of blame is widening. Paul Ryan is not doing his duty when he just stands aside and lets Nunes and his cohorts do what they are doing.
Members of the majority here in the Senate have recently demanded that the DOJ hand over copious amounts of information and documents-- including potential evidence--about an ongoing criminal investigation. Any prosecutor would tell you that is not how criminal investigations operate. It is hard to view these requests as anything but a coordinated campaign with the White House to interfere with or impede Mr. Mueller's investigation. Frankly, these kinds of actions are enabling and encouraging the President to test the bounds of the rule of law in this country. When the President sees Republicans in Congress go after the special counsel investigation, he feels even more emboldened, and that is a shame for our country, broadly defined in history.
There is a disturbing trend emerging. Chairman Nunes and the Republicans on the Hill concoct a plan to tear down the chain of command of the Mueller investigation. They feed it to the rightwing press, which churns out innuendo-laden and often factually inaccurate story after story. The President tweets, and the fringe conspiracy theories of far-right Republicans in Congress land themselves on the front pages of mainstream media outlets, all in the service of the President's despicable attempt to distract and deflect from the legitimate probe into Russia's interference in our elections.
Republican, Democrat, Independent--it shouldn't matter--all Americans should want Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein and Special Counsel Mueller to continue the Russia probe and follow the facts to their conclusion without interference and without intimidation.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source