On CNN's "State of the Union," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) slammed President Trump's first 100 days in office.
Category
đ
NewsTranscript
00:00Chuck Schumer of New York.
00:02Senator, thank you so much for being here.
00:04We do have a lot to get to.
00:05I do want to start with developments with regard to Russia and Ukraine.
00:10The president met one-on-one with President Zelensky.
00:14Both sides called that meeting productive.
00:16Afterwards, President Trump criticized Vladimir Putin's attacks on Ukraine and said, quote,
00:22maybe he doesn't want to stop the war.
00:24He's just tapping me along and has to be dealt with differently.
00:28As the Democratic leader in the Senate, you're a member of the so-called Gang of Eight.
00:33You see intelligence about how the war is going.
00:35Are you supportive of these negotiations?
00:41Well, look, my great fear, Dana, is that Trump will just cave into Putin.
00:47That's been the overall indications all along.
00:50And of course, the bottom line is very simple, that if we cave to Putin,
00:56if Trump caves into Putin, it's bad in three very bad ways.
01:02Number one, to just abandon Ukraine after all the sacrifice that they made,
01:07after so much loss of life, and with the rallying of the whole West against Putin,
01:14it would just be a moral tragedy to undercut Zelensky,
01:18which I believe Trump is headed in that direction.
01:20Second, it asunders our, tears asunder our alliances with Europe.
01:27The Europeans have stood up for us.
01:29The whole West has stood up for us.
01:31They put in money.
01:32They've used all kinds of diplomatic and economic tools to back us.
01:37And how is Europe going to trust us ever again if Trump backs out?
01:41But third, and maybe worst of all, it's a sign that the United States is weak.
01:46It sends a signal to every dictator in China, in North Korea, in Iran,
01:51that if you stand up and bully Trump, you're going to get your way.
01:54So I am very worried about where he is headed.
01:58I think that he is in a position where he feels he can sell out Zelensky.
02:04He's sort of saying yes one day, no the next day.
02:08But overall, the trend is very, very bad.
02:12Let's turn to what's happening here at home.
02:14The ACLU says the Trump administration deported three U.S. citizen children with their families,
02:21including one suffering from metastatic cancer.
02:24A judge overseeing one of the cases expressed his, quote,
02:28strong suspicion that the government just deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful process.
02:33If that's the case, and the federal government deported U.S. citizens with no due process,
02:38what can you, as one of the top elected officials in the country, do about it?
02:45Well, first, what he's doing here is just outrageous and against every iota of what Americans believe.
02:55And this is not the only instance.
02:57There are reportedly other instances where U.S. citizen children were deported without any due process.
03:03Due process is a hallmark of what our country is all about, rule of law.
03:09And ICE and Trump seem to break it in every single way.
03:13He believes he's a king.
03:14He is not.
03:15And the American people are totally against what he is doing in this regard.
03:21The polling that you showed today and the data from the other New York Times and Washington Post shows the same thing.
03:27We are highlighting this in every way we can because the more the American people know, the better.
03:34That's why Chris Van Hollen went to El Salvador last week.
03:39That is why Democrats are talking about this in town hall meetings across the country.
03:45And the more the American people know, the less they're going to like what Trump does.
03:51Your colleague from Georgia, Senator John Ossoff, told voters at a town hall that he strongly agrees that President Trump should be impeached.
04:00Do you agree with him?
04:01Would that be a priority if Democrats were to take back Congress?
04:05Well, look, right now, President Trump is violating rule of law in every way.
04:13And we're fighting him every single day in every way.
04:17And our goal is to show the American people over and over again, whether it's the economy, whether it's tariffs, whether it's Russia and overseas, and whether it's rule of law, how bad he is.
04:29And, you know, it's two years is too far away to predict.
04:34Our job is day to day to day to show who Trump is, what he is doing.
04:38And it's having an effect.
04:39But you're not ruling out.
04:41American people are realizing.
04:42You're not saying no.
04:44Look, it's too far away to even, it's too far away to even judge.
04:47Of how he is dealing with tariffs and inflation in particular, he told us explicitly, explicitly, Senator, what he would do during his campaign.
05:01He said very specifically what he would do on tariffs and other issues relating to the economy.
05:07And voters still chose him over Democrats.
05:09How do you explain that?
05:10Look, the bottom line is that no one realized the chaos.
05:19It's not tariffs themselves.
05:21I've been tough on China, and there are certain tariffs against China that are appropriate.
05:25But what he did was totally chaotic.
05:27He turned the whole world against us.
05:29Instead of focusing on China and getting the world to join us because they don't like what China does, he imposed tariffs across the board on nation after nation after nation.
05:40And now they're being allied with China.
05:42In addition, he never told the American people the kinds of tariffs he were imposing across the board, and some of them very, very high, would raise their costs.
05:51It's estimated it will raise the American costs.
05:53The American families would have to pay about $4,000 more a year.
05:58The price of food and clothing and gasoline, buying a new car, all would go up dramatically.
06:05And so he never leveled with the American people, and no one ever imagined it would be as chaotic and as poorly planned.
06:12One person says one thing one day, another person says another thing the next day.
06:16And another thing that's another terrible effect that's having, Dana, on this is that businesses, I've been all around my state.
06:25I've been in six different districts of Republicans talking to them, talking to the people about tariffs.
06:32And small businesses, medium-sized businesses and large businesses are frozen, even, you know, because they don't know what Trump will do next.
06:40And that's heading us into a recession.
06:42And what does a recession mean to the average family?
06:44You could lose your job, harder to get a new job, costs go up.
06:48So the American people are furious.
06:51The promises Trump made are far different than how it's been effectuated, and that's why his 100 days are a disaster.
06:58Let me turn to your party, the Democratic Party, and where you are right now in the quest to try to overtake Republicans, certainly in the short term, in the midterms.
07:09Republicans have been facing a lot of heat at town halls, but also Democrats have been as well.
07:16And there's a lot of frustration towards members of your party, not just from voters, but we're even hearing it from members of your own caucus.
07:24I want you to listen to your colleague, Colorado Senator Michael Bennett, what he said this week.
07:30I am furious with the Democratic Party because, in my view, our inability to offer a compelling vision and articulate it to the American people has resulted in Donald Trump being elected not just once, but twice.
07:46We need to come to grips with that, and we need to ask ourselves why that is.
07:51What do you think?
07:55Well, look, no, we're doing very well.
07:57We are totally united in focusing on Trump on a single message when, for instance, on tariffs, how chaotic they are and how they have to be focused, on rule of law, how he's not obeying it.
08:10We're showing that to the American people.
08:11But also on this upcoming reconciliation bill, where we Democrats have a single message that Trump is trying to make the middle class pay for tax cuts for billionaires.
08:22Our whole party, every member of our caucus is united on that issue.
08:26Americans hate it, and we are going after them day after day.
08:30I was, as I mentioned, I went to six Republican districts during just our recent Easter Passover break and talking to the voters, Republican districts, about what Trump is doing and how their congressmen ought not be embracing him.
08:47And then four of them signed a letter saying, well, they don't want to cut Medicaid.
08:50And so we are really united and focused and strong.
08:54The contrast that we are making between who the Democratic Party is, the party for working people, and who the Republican Party is, the party for billionaires and especially privileged people, is having a real effect.
09:06And that's why he's doing so poorly in these first hundred days.
09:09I think we're on our front foot, and every day we are fighting Trump on multiple fronts.
09:15So there's the message, sir, and then there's the messenger.
09:18And when your very longtime friend, former roommate and colleague, Senator Dick Durbin, announced his retirement this week after three decades in the Senate, he said, quote, it's time to pass the torch.
09:32We've heard that from other retiring Democrats, Gary Peters, Tina Smith, Gene Shaheen.
09:36They've all said it's time to let the next generation of leaders take over.
09:41Now, you indicated this week that you're going to stay put, Senate Democratic leader, for the foreseeable future.
09:47Why don't you think it's time to pass the torch?
09:50This week that you're going to stay put, Senate Democratic leader, for the foreseeable future.
09:56Why don't you think it's time to pass the torch?
09:58Look, I am focused on winning, as I have always been, and we are, and as leader of the caucus, we are united.
10:10Now, we have a lot of talent in the caucus, and my job is sort of an orchestra leader to get us play on the same theme, as you said, where you, as I've said, we're united on message, but to highlight all the talent in the caucus in different ways.
10:23And we've seen that, you know, with Cory Booker, with so many others.
10:28And so, yes, I am staying put, and I'm fighting the fight every day, as is our caucus, in a united and successful way, as you've seen by your poll and other polls.
10:40We're showing America how bad Trump is and showing that Republicans who embrace Trump do so at their peril.
10:47I want to turn to a book that you have recently written and is out.
10:52It is entitled Anti-Semitism in America, a Warning.
10:56You talk about anti-Semitism on the right, but you also address anti-Semitism within your own party.
11:03Here's part of what you wrote.
11:04Quote, I worry also about the larger American left, which may look the other way and be too complacent or forgiving about those who exhibit anti-Semitism in their ranks.
11:14You say that's one of the biggest reasons you wrote this book.
11:20Well, I wrote the book to warn about anti-Semitism overall in America, on the left and on the right.
11:28Connor Cruz O'Brien, the great Irish poet, said,
11:31anti-Semitism is a light sleeper.
11:33And when there are times of trouble, as there are now, anti-Semitism raises its head.
11:38On the right, it's despicable and awful.
11:40I've experienced it myself when on the January 6th takeover.
11:45I was within 30 feet of these hooligans, and one of them said, there's the big Jew, let's get them.
11:50But we've also seen it on the left, not in the Democratic Party, but on the left.
11:55And we have seen things that we never used to see before.
11:58For instance, someone getting on a subway and saying, all the effing Zionists get off the subway.
12:07Jewish delis, which have nothing to do with Israel, having stones thrown through their windows.
12:13The head of the Brooklyn Museum, who's Jewish, but the Brooklyn Museum has nothing to do with Israel,
12:19a few blocks away from here where we're sitting, had red paint all over her.
12:22And I believe we have to alert America to anti-Semitism and teach them.
12:28That's why I wrote the book.
12:29The best antidote is for people to know the truth.
12:32Here's a terrifying fact, that 25, 20 percent of people under 30 don't believe the Holocaust was a myth,
12:39and another 50 percent have never heard of it.
12:42We need an education.
12:43And my goal is to have this book read in the high schools and colleges across America,
12:48because I think it would just shatter the myths that are out there,
12:53which have always been below the surface and are popping up on both the left and the right much too much.
12:58I want to read something else you wrote in your book.
13:00You wrote, at Harvard, my alma mater, more than 30 organizations signed a statement
13:05calling the Israeli regime entirely responsible for the attack.
13:09And the months since October 7th have brought too many examples, far too many, of overt anti-Semitism.
13:16American Jews being harassed, attacked, and villainized simply for being Jewish.
13:22President Trump, as you well know, says he's cracking down on Harvard and other universities
13:27because of their response, or lack thereof, to those anti-Semitic incidents that you're describing.
13:35How do you think he's doing with that?
13:38Right.
13:39Well, first, Harvard did not do enough to curb anti-Semitism.
13:43I've been vocal about that.
13:44But let me just say this.
13:47What Trump is doing goes way beyond anti-Semitism.
13:51He is going after these universities like he's going after judges,
13:55like he's going after law firms, like he's going after the media.
14:02Because he just doesn't, he's not, he doesn't believe in democracy.
14:06He thinks he's king, as he said.
14:08And he did this at Harvard.
14:10So a bunch of us Jewish senators just sent a letter to the administration saying detail the specific incidents of anti-Semitism
14:20and why cutting money off to cancer research or to Alzheimer's research has anything to do with anti-Semitism.
14:28It doesn't.
14:29He is using anti-Semitism and it's appropriate to go after specific incidents of anti-Semitism as a pretext to hurt these great universities.
14:38It's going to hurt every American.
14:40It's going to hurt the kids at the universities who've had nothing to do with protesting.
14:43But it's also going to hurt the kind of medical research and other kinds of great research that is done at Harvard and other universities.
14:50So we sent him a very strong letter just the other day asking eight very strong questions about why this isn't just a pretext.