Schumer Floor Remarks on President Trump’s First Actions In Office

“The folks who can really help rein in the President are the members of his own party, who have a special responsibility to do so. I urge my friends on the other side of the aisle to help us hold the President and his White House accountable for the truth.” 

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor calling on President Trump to keep the campaign promises he made to the American people. Below are his remarks:

Mr. President, I’d like to briefly discuss five topics this afternoon.

The President's remarks this weekend and the lack of Republican reaction to them, his executive order on Friday about mortgage rates, the continuing nominations process here, the president's withdrawal from TPP and the Republican alternative to the Affordable Care Act that was announced this morning.

First, the need for Republicans to speak out when President Trump engages in the kind of rhetoric he engaged in this weekend.

The first days of a new Administration are traditionally a time for an incoming President to call for unity and to try to bring the country together. Instead, the President Trump kicked off a bizarre first weekend in office that alternated between braggadocio and furor.

The President quarreled over the size of the inaugural crowds, bragged about his election victory in a speech at CIA headquarters…with a wall commemorating fallen American intelligence operatives behind him…and then sent his Press Secretary out to hold an emergency briefing to present “alternative facts,” as one of President Trump’s advisors described them yesterday, about the size of the crowds again.

Whatever your politics, in order to debate, argue, compromise, and get things done for the American people, we have to be able to agree on a baseline of facts. Facts aren’t partisan. They don’t have “alternatives.” The alternative to fact is fiction.

If this Presidency is going to be based on ignoring the facts on the ground -- we’re going to have huge problems.

It's not that important when you're talking about the size of people who attended an inauguration, but what about the facts if Russia is doing something that's very bad? Or something terrible is happening to our economy or something else? If the Presidency looks away from the real facts, we've got trouble. You cannot govern a country like that.

If the White House is ignoring facts on the ground and is willing to make up “alternative facts” about crowd size, what else are they willing to stretch the truth about? National security? What Vladimir Putin is really up to? The implications are terrifying.

Mr. President, a White House that presents “alternative facts” needs to be called out for doing so – by BOTH parties.

The folks who can really help rein in the President in are the members of his own party, who have a special responsibility to do so.

But they have been totally silent when President Trump has been saying and doing things that they know are wrong. They should be speaking out for the good of the country.

So I urge my friends on the other side of the aisle to help us hold the President and his White House accountable for the truth. Otherwise, this country is going to have a lot of trouble. Whether you're a Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative, you cannot ignore the facts and govern and move the country forward.

Second, I want to again address the President’s executive action on Friday that would make it harder for Americans to afford mortgages.

President Trump said in his inaugural address that “for too long, a small group in our nation’s Capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost.” He promised to combat that trend.

But an hour later, in one of his first acts as President, President Trump made it harder for Americans to afford a mortgage by reversing a recent decision by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to reduce annual insurance premiums that many borrowers pay – saving new homeowners an average of $500 per year.

These are young families just starting out. They want part of the American Dream -- a home. And there is no need to raise their mortgage rates, which is what was done one hour after those populist words were delivered on the steps of the Capitol.

Yes, it only took an hour for those populist words delivered on the steps of the Capitol to ring hollow. Actions always speak louder than words.

So Mr. President, I’ll just say this: if Dr. Carson wants to earn my support for his nomination to head the HUD Department, he ought to pledge to reverse the President’s decision and reinstate this policy that makes mortgages more affordable for working Americans.

Third, on nominations.

The evidence continues to mount that our Republican friends is trying to ram through the President’s cabinet nominations without a fair and complete vetting process.

Totally different, I would say to my good friend, the Majority Leader, than what happened when President Obama took office.

As I’ve said, our constitutional duty for “advice and consent” does not mean ramming through the nominees.

Here are three recent instances:

• Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson did not adequately respond to our Questions for the Record and a number of Senate Democrats still await more complete responses.
• Secretary of Education nominee Betsy DeVos refused to return to the HELP committee now that her ethics paperwork is in – even though her ethics agreement gave her the ability to retain interests in companies that will be directly affected by Dept. of Education policies.
• And Rep. Price, nominee for HHS, refused to meet with several members on the committee.

Mr. President, Democrats are not stalling nominations just for the sake of it. This is not for sport. It’s not a political game.

Mr. President, this is not how nominations should go. Now, I know with a swamp cabinet -- bankers, billionaires, more wealth, more potential conflicts of interest, more positions way far over from what the American people want -- I know why our Republican colleagues want to rush these nominees through. But let me reiterate: they will have tremendous power over the lives of average Americans. A few extra days to examine and explore what they believe, to make sure that they don't have conflicts of interest? Who wouldn't be for that? Unless they don't want the facts to come out. So we're not stalling nominations. This isn't sport. This is serious stuff.

We have genuine concerns about the qualifications and ethical standards of these nominees, so we will continue to seek an open and transparent and thorough vetting process for the President’s cabinet.

They deserve a few days of careful vetting. It should not be all rushed in a day, hurried debate, hurry through in the dark of night, no way. We're going to use whatever abilities we have here to make sure that doesn't happen

Fourth, on the executive action today that the President will be withdrawing the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

And as you know, my views on trade are probably closer to President Trump's than they were to President Obama's or President Bush's. I think our trade laws have hurt working people. I opposed NAFTA and TPP, but, Mr. President, the fact that the President announced with fanfare that he will be withdrawing the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership is not news. The Trans-Pacific Partnership was dead long before President Trump took office.

That's why Leader McConnell didn't bring it up to the floor in the lame-duck session. It just didn't have the votes, and it was even further away from getting the votes in the Senate. It was over.

We await real action on trade, one of the President’s signature campaign issues.

President Trump said that on his first day he’d label China a currency manipulator. That hasn’t happened.

Even though China is propping their currency up at the moment, you can be sure that they’ll continue manipulating their currency when it’s in their best interest to do so.

I worked with nominee for Attorney General Jeff Sessions and many others to try and get both President Bush and President Obama to label China a currency manipulator. It didn't happen, unfortunately. But here President Trump has promised that he was going to do it on his first day in office, and it hasn't happened.

If President Trump wanted to send a shot across the bow that he was going to get serious on trade, addressing the currency manipulation issue would have been a lot more effective than a meaningless and redundant executive order on TPP.

And while we’re on the subject of trade, I’d remind the President of the two simple rules he laid out in his inaugural address -- “Buy American and Hire American” – two rules that his current businesses do not follow.

Trump shirts and ties are made in China. Trump furniture is made in Turkey.                                       

While he’s importuning on others to “make it in America,” he should start by demanding it of his own business.

How can he expect others to do something that he's not doing? He wants the automobile makers to make cars in America. So do I. Then he ought to stop making his ties in China and his furniture in Turkey. He ought to set a good example.                               

Until he totally and completely divests himself from his business, which is the right thing to do, he ought to start following the rules himself that he laid out for the country.

And finally, Mr. President, this morning two of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, the Senator from Maine and the Senator from Louisiana, introduced a proposal purporting to be a Republican alternative to the Affordable Care Act.

While I sympathize with my two colleagues, whom I respect a great deal, and who understand that repeal without replace would be devastating to our country…their proposal would create chaos, not affordable care, for millions of Americans.

It’s much like the vague executive order issued by the President on Friday that my friend from Maine called “confusing.”

Their proposal today illustrates the dilemma both they and Republicans are in. It is nearly impossible to keep the benefits of the Affordable Care Act without keeping the whole thing.

But there’s an easier way out of the pickle our Republicans friends have created for themselves.

Republicans can and should drop their disruptive repeal plans and work with Democrats to improve, not gut, the Affordable Care Act and healthcare system for all Americans.