TRANSCRIPT: On CNN News Central, Democratic Leader Schumer Discusses President Trump’s Joint Address To Congress

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke on CNN News Central this morning to discuss last night’s Joint Address to Congress by Donald Trump, which was little more than a diatribe of lies and mistruths told to the American people, and the Democratic response by Senator Elissa Slotkin which shared a unifying vision for the country:

John Berman: With us now is the Senate Minority leader Senator Chuck Schumer from New York. Senator thank you so much for being with us you heard the president talking about tariffs last night what was your takeaway what do you think will happen in the next few days or weeks

Leader Schumer: Well good morning, John, it's good to be on with you. Look, the number one issue that the American people want us to work on is costs: rising costs of food and of housing and of gas and of cars and of everything else. Tariffs will raise the costs - the kind of tariffs the president proposed on Canada, Mexico, China will raise the cost for the average American family by two thousand dollars so that is exactly the wrong prescription for what we need. It will raise the cost not just of a few things but of things across the board of food, of gasoline, cars, forty percent of the materials in our cars are made in Canada and cars are part of the Midwest economy that's so important, it's the economy in lots of places in the country and those costs are going to go way up. It's going to be even harder to make cars with these tariffs on Canada, so this is an outrageous policy that hurts the American people and you ask the American—people are asking why is he doing this? Well I’ll tell you why he's doing it: they want to give tax breaks to their billionaire buddies and they're trying to find ways to pay for it. One way is by cutting Medicaid, that's very unpopular, another way is calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme, that's very unpopular. And so they're looking for tariffs but it's even worse, and so I think this is something the American people will vehemently oppose and I think there are going to be a lot of Republican senators and congressmen, they've been grumbling under their breath, but who are going to have to come out against this plan which is unthought out, which doesn't look at the dire consequences to raising the cost of the American people all so they can give tax breaks to their billionaire buddies.

Berman: One bit of breaking news on the tariff front, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is doing an interview just a few minutes ago with Bloomberg where he seemed to back off. Yesterday, he claimed that President Trump may be willing to meet in the middle with Canada and Mexico may be retreating. Now this morning from that saying maybe some accommodation can be reached on autos alone but we'll have to wait and see how that develops a little bit more over the next few minutes.

Schumer: Well but John you know what this says and it's typical of all of Trump's speech—it is so unthought out. It's sloganeering, it's partisan, in many instances it was nasty. You know you've got more truth in Elissa Slotkin’s response in five minutes than you got in a hundred minutes of Donald Trump's long dialogue and so they don't think these things out so they say one thing one day and one thing the next day but he said he's sticking with tariffs and that's going to be bad for the pocketbooks of american families.

Berman: You called it nasty, it was like four minutes into the speech when Congressman Al Green was yelling at the podium and he was escorted out. What was going through your head as you heard the congressman yelling?

Schumer: Well look the bottom line is lots of people are frustrated but the best way to protest what Trump is doing is doing what we are doing and many senators and many congressmen are doing and that is organizing against these horrible policies of making - of calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme and then cutting, slashing -

Berman: Would you rather would you rather that -

Schumer: John here's what we're doing

Berman: Would you rather that he not yell?

Schumer: Here let me just say, the best answer in my judgment is to organize. So I put a call together last week with our activists I thought three, four hundred people would get on the phone, three thousand people got on the phone, and what we all decided was we're going to focus our energy on the six Republican congressmembers from New York because they hold the key to stopping these horrible policies. Because as you know in the House all you need is one or two, in the senate you need three or four. We don't have Republican senators in New York but in other states there are and the best way to organize and protest is to organize. Organizing is hard but it's effective and that's what we're doing.

Berman: Well let me ask a different way. Would you rather see Democrats more in line with what Senator Elissa Slotkin was saying, or more in line with what Congressman Al Green and people holding signs in the audience were doing last night?

Schumer: Look, I thought Elissa Slotkin—I chose her because she’s one of our rising stars from the Midwest, won a race, knows how to talk to average folks, to working families, and she did a great job. And I think, again, the American people got more truth in her five minutes of her speech than in all the lies, all the misconceptions, and all the things that were departing from reality when Donald Trump says he’s the greatest president after 30 days of chaos and hurting people since George Washington. Give me a break.

Berman: You, of course, were one of many Democratic senators who voted to confirm Marco Rubio as Secretary of State. We just got word this morning that Jim Sciutto and others are reporting that intelligence sharing was curtailed, at least in part, with Ukraine. CIA Director John Ratcliffe seemed to suggest that it had been curtailed—maybe now it won’t be. What’s your view of that? And do you regret your vote to confirm Marco Rubio as Secretary of State?

Schumer: Okay, so first let me say what you brought up just portrays one of the many, many huge problems with this administration. They don’t even… one day they say one thing, the next day they say the next thing. I don’t even know if the President knows what these folks are doing. So, they talk about cutting off intelligence, but we’re not. It’s a huge mistake to cut off intelligence. A huge, huge mistake. The Ukrainians need it. The collaboration between America and Ukraine has proven to be very, very effective. The one person who’s happy that we might cut off intelligence to Ukraine is Vladimir Putin, this bully, this dictator, who Donald Trump seems to be interested in finding friendship with, even treating Zelenskyy and the brave Ukrainians poorly. Again there are a good number of Republicans who agree with us, and I hope they will join with us. It’s on them to curtail the excesses, the horrible things that the Trump administration may be proposing—to abandon Ukraine.

Berman: Politico and others are reporting that you had a meeting last week with former Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg. Politico writes that Pete Buttigieg met with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer last week to discuss a possible Senate bid in Michigan, according to two people familiar with the meeting and granted anonymity to describe private conversations. How was the meeting?

Schumer: I’m not getting into any private meetings I have had.

Berman: Did a private meeting like that exist?

Schumer: I’m not getting into that.

Berman: Senator Chuck Schumer from New York, thank you very much.

###