On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer appeared on CNN’s “The Source” and made the laughable claim that he is considering “taking” tariff authority from President Donald Trump. When asked whether Democrats should have reclaimed congressional tariffs when they were the majority under the Biden administration, Schumer replied, “Congress has always had the power to deal with tariffs, and we’ve always had these fights in the past on some of the tariff issues as well. But now that Trump is going so overboard, Congress can, has every legal authority to take those powers back, and that’s what we aim to do.”
CNN host Brianna Keilar inquired, “On the tariff issue, you’ve been in the Senate for more than a quarter-century, and, in that time, Congress has been really willing to delegate tariff power to the president. Should Democrats have reclaimed that power when they had last — the majority? You saw what Trump did in his first term with tariffs.
Schumer replied, “Well, yeah, but we were able to beat back a lot of what Trump did on tariffs. And nothing is as extensive as this is, over 180 countries affected. Hey, this has been so carelessly done that they’re even taxing — they’re putting tariffs on penguins. There are two islands near Australia –.”
Keilar butts in, “I hear what you’re saying, the tariffs are extraordinary now compared to what they were in his first term. But what he did in his first term was also pretty extraordinary. Should Democrats have protected against this?”
Schumer answered, “Congress has always had the power to deal with tariffs, and we’ve always had these fights in the past on some of the tariff issues as well. But now that Trump is going so overboard, Congress can, has every legal authority to take those powers back, and that’s what we aim to do. And we hope our colleagues in the Republican Party, knowing how bad this is, instead of just trembling in their boots because they’re afraid of Trump, join with us and side with the American people.”
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