Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, this weekend President Trump will head to Argentina for the G20 summit, where he is expected to meet with President Xi of China to discuss our trading relationship.

Now, I have opposed the President on most things. That is hardly a secret. But we agree--we actually agree--on the issue of China. In fact, I agree more with President Trump's views on China than I did with either President Bush or Obama, and I have been supportive of the administration's aggressive course of action on China.

China must be made to understand that we are dead serious about changing its behavior on trade: to allow foreign companies to compete in its markets, to end illegal dumping of cheap goods into our markets, and, most importantly, to end the abusive practice of technology transfers and trade espionage that threatens our intellectual property and know-how. These things don't just threaten our intellectual property, an abstract concept. They threaten good-paying jobs--millions of them--and wealth, billions and trillions of dollars that China has stolen, literally and figuratively, through its unfair practices.

When we have a good product, you can't sell it in China unless you transfer the technology, but they sell tons of things here.

My father-in-law--my late father-in-law--a New York City cabdriver, sometimes said: We are not Uncle Sam; we are Uncle Sap.

Well, in the case of China, that has been the case for too long, and President Trump, to his credit, is beginning to reverse that. Yet despite an initial wave of tariffs, China has not offered meaningful concessions on any of the items I have mentioned.

Ambassador Lighthizer recently put out a report concluding that China is still rapaciously stealing American intellectual property. In fact, the number of Chinese state-sponsored cyber attacks has been rising. So we need to stay the course until China feels the heat.

That is why I was deeply disturbed--very disturbed--to read this morning in the New York Times that President Trump and his advisers--at least some of them--are already considering backing down on further action against China in order to reach an agreement at the G20.

Let me be clear to the President. Backing off on China for some quick handshake agreement without substantive--real, deep, substantive-- commitments, will be seen as a victory by no one. It will be seen as capitulation. It will be seen as weak to cave on tariffs this early before China starts to feel the real pressure and come to a real, deep, and long-lasting agreement that is worth having.

So, Mr. President, don't back down on China. American jobs and American wealth are at stake. You have headed out on a correct course, but you have to follow through. All too often this administration starts out doing something and then backs off. It cannot happen.

I am worried--deeply worried--because I love America and I want us to be No. 1 economically, as well as in every other way. I fear that Trump's eagerness to make a deal--any deal, just like he did with North Korea in Singapore--will be devastating to the long-term interests of the United States. Now that we are finally putting the screws to China, we cannot relent for the sake of a photo-op at the G20.

Yes, our actions will cause some pain, but in the long term, there is much more gain than pain. If we ever needed to do something, it is now. I don't agree with treating Canada or Europe the same as China. That is for sure. But China is a different, different breed of economic cat, and they are robbing us, stealing from us, doing everything they can to become No. 1 economically at our expense, not in a fair competitive way but in a way that is one-sided.

So today, I will be sending a letter to President Trump with some colleagues laying out this position, saying to the President: Please, don't back off on China. American jobs and American wealth depend on it. Yemen

Mr. President, later this morning, the Senate will receive a classified all-Senators briefing from Secretaries Pompeo and Mattis on the conflict in Yemen, Saudi Arabia's role in that conflict, and the recent murder of U.S. resident and Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi. This is an important and timely briefing, but there is a gaping hole.

I am concerned and disappointed that President Trump has reportedly forbidden CIA Director Haspel from attending today's briefing. Without her presence at the briefing, there will be no one from our intelligence community.

Director Haspel has heard the Turkish audiotape of the murder, and her Agency has also reportedly made conclusions about the role of various Saudi leaders. Members of this body have a right to hear from Director Haspel. No offense to Secretary Mattis and Secretary Pompeo, but it was the CIA that had jurisdiction to find out what exactly happened, and, according to press reports, they did. Now Congress is not going to get the briefing.

What is the White House trying to hide?

Well, we all know that President Trump seems to favor the Crown Prince to an extent that he will look the other way at the greatest of transgressions, but it is even a further step down the road of darkness, lack of sunlight to prevent the CIA from giving us their conclusions.

Members of this body have a right to hear from Director Haspel, and her absence today speaks volumes--volumes--about the White House's intention for congressional oversight in Saudi Arabia.

President Trump has gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid criticizing the Crown Prince and the Saudis for the Khashoggi murder, drawing grotesque moral equivalencies and controverting well-known facts to avoid placing blame. It seems so similar to what he has been doing with Putin and Russia, looking the other way for reasons that don't serve America's interests or security.

It has been a shameful abdication of moral leadership from the President. It must give comfort to autocrats everywhere: Go ahead. Behave despicably, and the United States, at minimum, will look the other way and may even pat you on the back.

We have strength for a lot of reasons. We have a strong military. We have a great economy. We have a wonderful people. But one of the reasons we have strength is that we have been the shining city on the hill. We have been the country that has guided doing the right thing in morality and has tried to spread that around the world.

Donald Trump is taking a giant step backwards, and that is not just an abstract concept or something that would be a nice thing to do. It hurts economically, militarily, and security-wise when we don't maintain being that shining city on the hill.

So Leader McConnell has rightly called the Saudi murder operation ``abhorrent.'' I hope he agrees with me that Director Haspel should be made available to Congress on this issue. I would ask him to join with me in asking her to come in the same kind of closed, SCIF, intelligence-protecting session.

Relatedly, possibly as early as this afternoon, we expect to have a vote in relation to the Lee-Sanders Yemen War Powers Resolution. Even though they are not here at the moment, I want to applaud the sponsors for their steadfast commitment to this important issue. I will support their resolution once again.

The conflict in Yemen, exacerbated by Saudi Arabia's intervention and its reckless tactics, must be brought to an end. The Yemeni people have endured unending suffering. The United States should once again be the moral leader and lead the diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict. Nomination of Thomas Farr

Mr. President, late this afternoon, the Senate will likely vote on whether to consider the nomination of Thomas Farr for the Eastern District of North Carolina. I have spoken repeatedly--last week, this week--on the floor about what an absolute disgrace it is to have his nomination before us. What a further disgrace it would be if our Republican colleagues march in lockstep approving this awful nomination.

Mr. Farr has been chief cook and bottle washer with North Carolina's invidious and despicable efforts to prevent people, particularly minorities, from voting.

Generations of Americans have agitated, protested, marched, and even died trying to expand the right to vote, regardless of race or gender. Our soldiers, when they are fighting overseas, some of them making the ultimate sacrifice, are defending democracy and the right to vote, among other things. For the Senate in 2018 to elevate a man to the Federal bench who has worked to limit the franchise and gain the electoral system would be a black mark on this body--a black mark on this body.

Adding insult to jury, this is a judicial district that is 27 percent African American. Two African Americans, both women, were nominated in the past. The Republican Senators from North Carolina blocked them with the blue slip, a practice that the leader has abolished with Chairman Grassley, which is a shame in itself. But now to elevate this man to the bench is an insult to African Americans and all Americans--all Americans.

It is amazing to me, utterly amazing--and you see a lot of things around here that you don't believe these days--that the Republican majority is moving forward with this nomination. I hope my colleagues on the Republican side, even at this late hour, take time to study his career. I believe they will find that he is unworthy of the Federal bench, and I hope at least a brave few will join with Democrats this afternoon to reject this awful, awful nomination.

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