-9999

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, on another matter, it really should go without saying, but no President should be accepting a $400 million gift from a foreign country. It is gross; it is reckless; it is corrupt; and the outrage and condemnation, especially on the Republican side, should be universal.

There is no excuse or justification for this. It is wrong. That is the end of the story. There is no legal justification. There is no commonsense justification.

Let's unpack this a little bit. Trump is planning to accept a $400 million luxury plane from Qatar, which he just so happens to be visiting this week on his first foreign trip of his term.

The stated purpose of that trip is to cut business deals, but it is very hard to drive a hard bargain when the people that you are negotiating with just gave you a $400 million gift. And it means that the other side will have a much easier time getting what it wants, even if American interests are harmed.

A law enforcement official called the gift a ``security nightmare'' because it would require basically the whole thing to be busted up, taken apart, and reconstituted. If that all sounds blatantly corrupt and incredibly wasteful, it is because it is.

I just want everyone to go through the thought experiment. Imagine if it were a President of the other party, imagine if this happened 25 years ago and you were reading about something in history, do you think that an American President should accept a $400 million gift?

Do you think that Air Force One--this icon, this symbol of American power abroad that has carried John F. Kennedy's body; where LBJ was sworn in; where George W. Bush was whisked away when the Twin Towers fell; where multiple Presidents of both parties and multiple generations have done extraordinary work around the world making sure that we are the indispensable Nation; that we are the leader of the free world--now sponsored by Qatar.

I remain flabbergasted that this thing is not going to pass. I remain completely aghast. This is the most blatant, obvious, ridiculous, gross corruption that I have ever seen in my entire life by dollar amount, by symbolism, by violating constitutional and statutory law, and also just violating like--I am not a lawyer. You don't have to be all fancy pants to understand how ridiculous it is that a foreign government is going to say: Hey, we will take care of Air Force One for you.

And so we have a simple resolution--and it is simple. I was going read it, but you know what, I will just summarize it. It basically says--and the way these things are structured, it is bunch of whereases: Whereas Air Force One is a symbol of the United States; Whereas Air Force One is one of the most recognizable symbols of the Office of the Presidency; and so on and so forth; therefore, be it resolved that we shouldn't do this, that the American President should not accept a $400 million gift from anybody.

And so, as if in legislative session, notwithstanding rule XXII, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 218, submitted earlier today; that there be up to 2 hours for debate on the resolution and that upon the use or yielding back of that time, the Senate vote on the adoption of the resolution; finally, that if the resolution is adopted, the preamble be agreed to and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source