Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News alongside Kaylee Liones, I'm
Speaker 1: Joe Matthew. We come to Arabit early this evening for
Speaker 1: an important conversation with Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
Speaker 1: She joins US live now from Capitol Hill. Senator, it's
Speaker 1: good to see you. Welcome back to Bloomberg. You're calling
Speaker 1: on the Senate to exercise its authority to stop President
Speaker 1: Trump's tariff regime.
Speaker 2: Here.
Speaker 1: Earlier today, as I'm sure you know, the President promised
Speaker 1: to veto the bill from Senators Campwell and Grassly that
Speaker 1: would require congressional approval after sixty days. Now, John Thune
Speaker 1: says he doesn't think that bill has a future. So, Senator,
Speaker 1: what should be Congress's answer to the tariffs?
Speaker 2: Well, let's back up just a little bit. As you've
Speaker 2: been reporting all day long, every light is flashing red
Speaker 2: in terms of the economy and that we really are
Speaker 2: on the precipice of sliding into a recession and maybe
Speaker 2: taking it worldwide. Meanwhile, the Secretary of the Treasury is
Speaker 2: going on Tucker Carlson to talk about all of the
Speaker 2: workers that Trump and Doge have illegally fired and spend
Speaker 2: some tale about how all those people from the Veterans
Speaker 2: Administration or the NIH or the Social Security Administration can
Speaker 2: go work in these factories that will magically appear. You know,
Speaker 2: we need a Secretary of the Treasury who's in the
Speaker 2: real world, and in the real world right now. He
Speaker 2: should be calling a meeting of FSOC, remember the Financial
Speaker 2: Stability Oversight Council, which is what we put in place
Speaker 2: after the crash in two thousand and eight. And this
Speaker 2: is the way that government. When the economy is doing
Speaker 2: what it's doing right now, the Secretary of the Treasury
Speaker 2: is supposed to pull everyone together and actually figure out
Speaker 2: a plan, call the plan, and then execute on the play.
Speaker 2: But that is not what our Secretary of the Treasury
Speaker 2: is doing. So that puts us in a position where
Speaker 2: Congress needs to act and Congress can actually do it
Speaker 2: using the authority that Donald Trump himself is using. He's
Speaker 2: using something called i EBA. But the point is that
Speaker 2: if Congress says no, there is no emergency here, then
Speaker 2: Donald Trump loses his ability to put all of these
Speaker 2: tariffs in place. So we need to act. We need
Speaker 2: a Secretary of Treasury to do his job. The Democrats
Speaker 2: in Congress are ready to act. But if the Secretary
Speaker 2: of Treasury won't act, then we need the Republicans to
Speaker 2: step up, join the Democrats and put a halt to
Speaker 2: these tariffs that are truly wrecking the worldwide economy.
Speaker 3: Well, Senator, the President argues, it's going to help the
Speaker 3: US economy, that this is actually about bringing manufacturing back
Speaker 3: to the US, protecting American workers in lower trade deficits
Speaker 3: with other countries. Is there something fundamentally wrong with that
Speaker 3: objective or it simply the means that you take issue with.
Speaker 2: The objective is exactly one that I have advanced for years.
Speaker 2: Of course, tariffs should be one of our tools in
Speaker 2: the toolbox of economic policy. And there are times, when
Speaker 2: appropriately executed, that we could use a terraff, for example,
Speaker 2: to arnshore a specific supply chain or to help build
Speaker 2: up manufacturing that we want to have here in the
Speaker 2: United States. But you do that in a thoughtful, integrated
Speaker 2: way instead of a haphazard number around tariffs applied to
Speaker 2: everyone with no thought at all about whether or not
Speaker 2: those tariffs will actually have a negative impact on manufacturing
Speaker 2: that's currently going on, or any manufacturing that anybody might
Speaker 2: try to get underway. Instead of actually supporting manufacturing and
Speaker 2: good jobs. The way Donald Trump has done this has
Speaker 2: been to scare off anybody from investing here in the
Speaker 2: United States in any kind of facility that takes years
Speaker 2: to be able to build and expand and get it going.
Speaker 2: He's forcing people to pull back. That is not good
Speaker 2: for American workers. It is not good for building jobs
Speaker 2: here in America. It is not good for on shoring
Speaker 2: our manufacturing. You need a thoughtful policy, and that is
Speaker 2: the opposite of what Donald Trump has offered.
Speaker 1: You heard from Larry Fink today, Senator Blackstone CEO. Blackrock
Speaker 1: CEO says he believes that a recession is already underway.
Speaker 1: That the CEOs he talks to say the same thing.
Speaker 1: Do you agree? And should the Federal Reserve announce an
Speaker 1: emergency rate cut tonight?
Speaker 2: Look, I am really worried about whether we are already
Speaker 2: in a recession or just right on the edge. All
Speaker 2: of the lights are flashing red. And Larry Think points
Speaker 2: this out, but he is not the only one. There
Speaker 2: are a lot of folks who are starting to say
Speaker 2: this and a lot of evidence in that direction. Where
Speaker 2: our focus should be right now is on preventing it
Speaker 2: from getting any worse, and we can do that. You know,
Speaker 2: this isn't some outside shock, This is not some war
Speaker 2: in some distant land that's caused this problem. This is
Speaker 2: not that the markets are imploding because suddenly all of
Speaker 2: the bad mortgages are coming to light like in two
Speaker 2: thousand and eight. One person has started the dumbest trade
Speaker 2: war in the history of America. Congress has the power
Speaker 2: to rain that back in, and if Donald Trump and
Speaker 2: his team won't do it, then Congress should step up
Speaker 2: and do it before more damage is done.
Speaker 3: Well, does one person also have the power to provide
Speaker 3: a check on that damage? To get back to Joe's question, Senator,
Speaker 3: even if the FED were to issue an emergency rate cut,
Speaker 3: would that be enough to stem all of the bleeding
Speaker 3: that you think could be happening in the US economy
Speaker 3: as a result of these policies.
Speaker 2: Look, the FED share himself on Friday just said that
Speaker 2: he is concerned that this haphazard tariff announcement is going
Speaker 2: to drive up inflation and drive up unemployments simultaneously. I
Speaker 2: understand why the FED chair is really worried at this moment.
Speaker 2: The way the one person who can stop this problem
Speaker 2: is Donald Trump, and if he will roll back these tariffs,
Speaker 2: we can at least stop the damage from continuing to
Speaker 2: bleed out through our economy and around the world. And
Speaker 2: if Trump won't do it, then we just need some
Speaker 2: Republicans in the House and the Senate to grow a
Speaker 2: backbone and do what they know is right. You know,
Speaker 2: I don't know anybody in Congress who's saying, man, this
Speaker 2: is a great idea, what a cool move. They are
Speaker 2: really worried about what's happening. They're hearing it from their
Speaker 2: own constituents at home. But they have the power to
Speaker 2: fix it. So let's put the pressure on those Republicans
Speaker 2: to join with the Democrats and take away the authority
Speaker 2: from Donald Trump to be able to continue to roll
Speaker 2: out a tariff policy that has the potential now to
Speaker 2: put millions of people out of work, costs millions of
Speaker 2: people their savings, their retirement, and start shutting down businesses
Speaker 2: throughout this country.
Speaker 1: Looking at a letter that you sent, in fact led Senators,
Speaker 1: signed by all eleven Democrats on the Banking Committee. It's
Speaker 1: to the Chairman Tim Scott, demanding a hearing on the
Speaker 1: impact of President Trump's trade war. I mentioned this because
Speaker 1: you're going to be involved in the hearing tomorrow Senate
Speaker 1: Finance Committee with the US Trade Representative Jamison Greer, who
Speaker 1: I can't imagine realize the timing of this hearing when
Speaker 1: your invitation first went out, Is that the person you
Speaker 1: want to talk to? Who else would you bring before
Speaker 1: the Banking Committee if not the President himself?
Speaker 2: You bet. I am ready to talk to mister Greer
Speaker 2: tomorrow about what we can do right now to stop
Speaker 2: the bleeding, what we can do to try to rescue
Speaker 2: this economy before it is hopelessly caught in a recession.
Speaker 2: I want to ask that of mister Jamison, and I'm
Speaker 2: going to ask him what it's going to take him
Speaker 2: to step up and tell the President to stop this
Speaker 2: tariff policy that is terrible for workers all across this country.
Speaker 3: Well I wonder, then, Senator, how much authority you really
Speaker 3: think the US Trade Representative has or how much sway
Speaker 3: in impact the President's decisions. I could ask the same
Speaker 3: about the Secretary of the Treasury, of the Commerce Department
Speaker 3: of others for that matter.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I hope you're listening to your own question,
Speaker 2: and that is these are the very people that Donald
Speaker 2: Trump said were the best people to do policy in
Speaker 2: each of their chosen areas. Donald Trump's the one who
Speaker 2: chose his trade rep. Donald Trump is the one who
Speaker 2: chose his Secretary of the Treasury.
Speaker 1: By Dolly.
Speaker 2: They ought to be doing their jobs right now. Instead
Speaker 2: of having the Secretary of the Treasury go on Tucker
Speaker 2: Carlson and spin out fantasies, he ought to be calling
Speaker 2: together the rest of the economic advisors under the powers
Speaker 2: given him under Dog Frank, putting them together and putting
Speaker 2: a plan in place to rescue this economy. That's what
Speaker 2: the FSC, the Financial Stability Oversight Council, was deliberately built for,
Speaker 2: and that is the job that was give to the
Speaker 2: Secretary of Treasury. Step up and do your job. And
Speaker 2: if Donald Trump has ed, Donald Trump should listen to
Speaker 2: his Secretary of Treasury. If his Secretary of Treasury will
Speaker 2: do his job, that is the question. And if none
Speaker 2: of them will do their jobs, Congress needs to do
Speaker 2: its job and take away this authority from Donald Trump.
Speaker 2: And I just want to be clear, We're running out
Speaker 2: of time on this. Every single day that goes by,
Speaker 2: every hour that people are saying, I'm not investing there
Speaker 2: I'm laying off workers every single minute. It gets more
Speaker 2: and more dangerous for our economy and for the worldwide economy.
Speaker 2: It is time for the Secretary of the Treasury to
Speaker 2: do his job. It is time for the President to
Speaker 2: do his job, and it is time for Congress to
Speaker 2: do its job.
Speaker 3: All right, Senator, we will leave it on that note.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for joining us as the Democratic
Speaker 3: Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts joining us here on balance
Speaker 3: of power