Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who joins us live
Speaker 2: from Capitol Hill.
Speaker 1: Senator, it's great to have you back.
Speaker 2: So here we are with our first economic contraction since
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: Are we already in a recession?
Speaker 3: Well, some economists think we're already in a recession, and
Speaker 3: the overwhelming majority say, if we're not already, we are
Speaker 3: certainly sliding into one. The damage done by the chaos
Speaker 3: around the Trump tariffs has really delivered a body blow
Speaker 3: to our economy. And of course we've seen it in
Speaker 3: the stock market, we've seen it in the bond market.
Speaker 3: But look where we really are on this is that
Speaker 3: families are struggling and they're delivering that message. Remember how
Speaker 3: Donald Trump won, He said he would lower costs on
Speaker 3: day one, those were his words. On day one he
Speaker 3: gets elected, he immediately says that is one of the
Speaker 3: main reasons he won. We are one hundred days in,
Speaker 3: and what has happened. The economy has shrunk and the
Speaker 3: price and groceries is up for families all across this country.
Speaker 3: That's a bad economic outlook.
Speaker 4: Well, when we consider that outlook, then Senator knowing we
Speaker 4: are a week away from the Federal Reserve's next rate decision,
Speaker 4: if they choose not to cut next week, to wait
Speaker 4: till June or July or even after that, would President
Speaker 4: Trump be right that Chairman Power risks being too late.
Speaker 3: The problem now is the crisis that Donald Trump has created.
Speaker 3: Chairman Powell said as soon as Donald Trump started announcing
Speaker 3: these red light green light tariffs that we were going
Speaker 3: to have tariffs across the board on virtually every nation,
Speaker 3: on virtually every product. That the consequence of that would
Speaker 3: be to do two things. One is to drive up prices,
Speaker 3: in other words, an increase in inflation, and two to
Speaker 3: drive up unemployment. And you all know what that means.
Speaker 3: That's stagflation, and it neuters the Fed's only tool, and
Speaker 3: that is changing the interest rates, because if they increase
Speaker 3: the interest traits, that will help push down inflation, but
Speaker 3: it will drive up unemployment. And of course the reverse
Speaker 3: is true. If they lower interest rates, they run the
Speaker 3: risk of setting inflation a flame. At this point, so
Speaker 3: Donald Trump has created a crisis, and now the tool
Speaker 3: that the Fed would use becomes much less effective for
Speaker 3: the FED to actually be able to use it.
Speaker 1: This is Donald.
Speaker 3: Trump's problem, and he has created it and now compounded it.
Speaker 2: Well, we want to get to your reaction, Congressional reaction,
Speaker 2: democratic reaction to the terif policies, Senator, because shortly after
Speaker 2: this interview, you're going to force a vote that our
Speaker 2: audience should know about.
Speaker 1: Over the president's tariff authority. Here.
Speaker 2: I know you have a couple of Republicans on board,
Speaker 2: but this appears to.
Speaker 1: Be going nowhere in the House, and I.
Speaker 2: Wonder is there anything that Democrats can do beyond a
Speaker 2: symbolic gesture to become a check on the president's policy here.
Speaker 3: So let's just remember, just so everyone understands, why is
Speaker 3: it that the President of the United States can wake
Speaker 3: up in the morning and announce one tariff policy and
Speaker 3: by mid afternoon being a second one, and by evening
Speaker 3: be in a third one. It's all because there is
Speaker 3: a statutory provision that says in an emergency, the president
Speaker 3: can impose sanctions, but Congress can say, hey, there's no emergency.
Speaker 3: So we get to roll that back. And that's what
Speaker 3: Senator Widen and I have now proposed. This is the
Speaker 3: bill that will be on the floor later today to
Speaker 3: just roll back Donald Trump's authority to move in and
Speaker 3: say tariff's up, tariff's down, exception for you, hire tariffs
Speaker 3: for you over there. The significance of this is, look,
Speaker 3: all the Democrats support it. That's not an issue. It's
Speaker 3: really to put the Republicans on the record. You understand
Speaker 3: what kind of damage this tariff red light green light
Speaker 3: is creating. Republicans, so you have the opportunity right here
Speaker 3: to take a stand and say we're actually going to
Speaker 3: put some curves on what Donald Trump does. They can
Speaker 3: vote for the resolution, or they can continue to say nope,
Speaker 3: the only power in Washington is with Donald Trump. They
Speaker 3: can bend a need to Donald Trump and say to
Speaker 3: all Americans who are suffering because of higher prices than
Speaker 3: a shrinking economy, and to all of the world that
Speaker 3: says the United States is not a reliable trading partner.
Speaker 3: We have the opportunity, if the Republicans will join us
Speaker 3: to put some curves on Donald Trump and to reverse
Speaker 3: the damage he's doing. We'll find out if the Republicans
Speaker 3: are only here to take a mee to Donald Trump
Speaker 3: or if they actually are willing to stand up for
Speaker 3: the American people.
Speaker 4: Well, last we spoke with you Senator, you argue that
Speaker 4: it was not just about Republicans in Congress, but about
Speaker 4: others in the Trump administration, including the Treasury Secretary Scott Besson,
Speaker 4: who should be taking action here. We know that Besson
Speaker 4: is testifying in the House Financial Services Committee next week.
Speaker 4: Do you expect him to appear before the Banking Committee?
Speaker 4: And what will he need to answer for if he
Speaker 4: does so.
Speaker 3: Look, Secretary Besson is going to have to explain he's
Speaker 3: out here as the number one apologist for Donald Trump.
Speaker 3: And some of the things I want to know from
Speaker 3: Secretary Beson is what is he doing going in front
Speaker 3: of a closed door group of well healed stock traders
Speaker 3: and people who are active in the market and giving
Speaker 3: advance information about where tariff policy is headed. I just
Speaker 3: want to make sure that Secretary Besson understands he doesn't
Speaker 3: just work for a handful of Wall Street investors and
Speaker 3: how to make them Richard. He's actually here to work
Speaker 3: for the American people and to provide stability in the
Speaker 3: stock market. And part of that is to reassure people
Speaker 3: that it is not corruption, that it is not a
Speaker 3: rigged game. I'd like to hear from Secretary bessend about that,
Speaker 3: and in fact, I've already sent him a letter about that,
Speaker 3: but I'd like to get him in a hearing and
Speaker 3: just be able to ask him a little more about that.
Speaker 2: Sounds like you want to talk to Jeff Bezos as well,
Speaker 2: and you did send a letter. Well, I do, but
Speaker 2: to him this morning, Senator, you're calling on mister Bezos
Speaker 2: to disclose information about his conversation with President Trump following
Speaker 2: reports that Amazon was going to itemize the cost of
Speaker 2: tariffs on products for consumers. Of course, Amazon is not
Speaker 2: doing that. The White House called that idea of hostile
Speaker 2: and political So here we are, Senators, should publicly traded
Speaker 2: companies in the United States assume that Donald Trump is
Speaker 2: the de facto chairman of their boards.
Speaker 3: Like the way you have put it, that certainly is
Speaker 3: how he wants to behave. But listen to that underlying message.
Speaker 3: What Donald Trump is saying is if the American people
Speaker 3: can see clearly what his tariffs are costing them, that
Speaker 3: creates a real problem for Donald Trump and for the
Speaker 3: Republicans in Congress. So his solution is not to do
Speaker 3: something more sensible on tariffs. His solution is to try
Speaker 3: to end access to the information and to persuade Jeff
Speaker 3: Bezos that he needs to erase that information. And yes,
Speaker 3: I want to hear about that conversation. In fact, I
Speaker 3: want to hear about all of the conversations that Donald
Speaker 3: Trump has with his million dollar donors and what it
Speaker 3: is he is both promising and threatening as he tries
Speaker 3: to create even more chaos and corruption in our economy.
Speaker 4: Senator, I'd like to ask you about something else. As
Speaker 4: he's working on making deals with trading partners, or at
Speaker 4: least his administration is, they're also working on a deal
Speaker 4: with Ukraine, suggesting a minerals deal specifically, could be signed
Speaker 4: as early as this afternoon if Ukraine is willing. Should
Speaker 4: that be taking the form of a formal treaty? Should
Speaker 4: the Senate have a chance to weigh in on that?
Speaker 3: Yes, the Senate should have an opportunity to weigh in. Look,
Speaker 3: the Senate has and the House long supported Ukraine. It's
Speaker 3: Donald Trump who has persuaded a handful of extremists that
Speaker 3: somehow this country needs to be on the side of
Speaker 3: the aggressor, on the side of Russia. That is fundamentally wrong.
Speaker 3: The Ukrainians are fighting on the front lines for democracy
Speaker 3: and understand this. If Vladimir Putin can get away with
Speaker 3: an invasion of Ukraine, it's not like he will be
Speaker 3: full and he will stop there. He's going to continue
Speaker 3: to come after more and more of his neighbors. That
Speaker 3: is a threat to all of Europe, but it is
Speaker 3: also ultimately a threat to the United States of America.
Speaker 3: I know that Donald Trump seems to have some kind
Speaker 3: of love relationship with Vladimir Putin, although lately they seem
Speaker 3: to have had a spat. But at the end of
Speaker 3: the day, the interests of the United States are with
Speaker 3: Europe and with Ukraine. We need to be once again
Speaker 3: a dependable ally. That's what matters most.
Speaker 4: All right, Senator, we know you have that vote to
Speaker 4: get to you that we were just discussing, but we
Speaker 4: appreciate you joining us. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts,
Speaker 4: the rnging member of the Banking Committee. We appreciate your time.