Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Trump Administration’s Reckless Foreign Policy And Lack of Transparency While They Ignore The Issue Of Skyrocketing Costs At Home

Washington, D.C. - Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) today spoke on the Senate floor criticizing Donald Trump and his administration for prioritizing their interventionist foreign policy goals and lack of transparency with the public and in Senate briefings, while neglecting issues such as rising costs and affordability that are affecting Americans at home. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

I just got back from an all-Senators briefing with senior administration officials about what is going on in Venezuela.

Again, another briefing. Again, no answers.

As before, we walked out of the room with far more questions than answers. And its not just the senators and the congressmen in the SCIF--the classified room--that deserves answers, it’s the American people who deserve answers. The American people want to know: how much is this going to cost us, at a time when we are seeing our costs rise for things like housing and groceries and healthcare? They want to know what kind of troops, how many troops are going to be needed there.

It's clear that the leadership succession plan that the administration envisions now that Maduro, the awful person, is gone, the people replacing him are just as untrustworthy, corrupt as he is. How is President Trump going to work with these people as underlings? So, the public deserves answers in this crucial moment because the American people are asking what is going on in Venezuela and why is this president, who campaigned on America first, now spending all his time and energy on escapades overseas?

Across America, people are asking: what the hell is going on in Venezuela? What is going to happen next? The public is totally in the dark.

We need to know how long US involvement in Venezuela is going to last— Trump has said it’s going to take some time. What does that mean? Iraq was more than a decade. How many troops are we talking about, how much money, and what guardrails are in place? The American people want to know: is there a place where you say no more? Nobody knows. On something as risky and as different as this, differently bad as this, people need real answers. That's how our system is set up. But this administration is totally, totally opaque, and frankly, dishonest with the American people when it comes to Venezuela.

We discussed so many things in the room and in the room, there was a bipartisan sense of concern with America simply plunging into other countries. I did not get adequate answers. Are we planning to go into Greenland? Are we planning on going into Colombia? Mexico? The answers were very unsatisfying.

So, this escapade is fraught with huge peril that history has taught us we should avoid. There is chaos in the streets of Caracas right now; organized gangs are patrolling the streets and oppressing the rights of citizens.

At any moment, the interim government's grip on power could deteriorate. The Vice President, the former Vice President under Maduro, who is now President, is totally unreliable and is corrupt and hates America. That’s who we are relying on, what kind of plan is this? And again, it’s not enough for senators to walk into a classified briefing and hear the administration’s sales pitch. The public has to hear it and I’m certain that the public, once they hear all this, are going to be as angry, as skeptical, as unconvinced as we are.

My Republican colleagues: don’t you have an obligation to hold hearings, public hearings, public hearings and bring Secretaries Hegseth and Rubio before you, and ask these tough questions, not in the closed quarters of a SCIF, where no one is allowed to repeat what they say, but in public? Where are our Chairs of the relevant committees? Not to hold a hearing on something as momentous and as potentially destructive as this? Where are our Republican colleagues?

We need administration officials to come testify and answer the tough questions in public. That’s what this republic is all about, that’s why we have three branches of government. That’s why the Founding Fathers said the war power, as important a decision as going to war is, should be in the hands of the Congress, a public institution, not in the hands of just an executive. And yet right now, it’s in the hands of an executive because our Republican colleagues are supine. They just aren’t demanding hearings. Aren’t demanding that the President come cleans in terms of talking to the American people.

And looming over all of this, the American people are asking, “what the heck does this have to do with America first?”

How does spending years and potentially billions of taxpayer dollars in Venezuela help families pay their rent, their mortgages, their grocery bills, their electric bills, their health care bills? It has nothing to do with it. In fact, it takes money away, it takes attention away, it diverts attention away from the number one thing the American people care about, affordability, the costs of living, being able to pay the bills of things you very much need.

Bombing Caracas and bragging about oil fields are not going to lower people’s rents. And even in this cockamamie plan they have, the money would go back to Venezuela. The American people are saying, “this is America first? Spending all this time, effort, and dollars getting rid of Maduro and then sending all this oil money back to Venezuela, when America needs help?”

Threatening Greenland is not going to make groceries cheaper. Military threats against NATO are not going to help families pay the bills. The American people did not sign up for this kind of military adventurism when they voted for Donald Trump. And Republicans who go along will be betraying the American people.

Donald Trump doesn’t realize any of this. Why? He is more focused on his Big Oil buddies and on personal vanity projects, like renaming the Kennedy Center and choosing which marble armrests to install.

Just listen to what Donald Trump said yesterday at the Kennedy Center to House Republicans—once again he showed everyone he is trapped in the billionaire’s bubble.

Donald Trump told Republicans “I wish you could explain to me what the hell is going on with the mind of the public,” because he can’t understand why people are souring on his agenda. He can't understand that when you can't pay the groceries or your car breaks down and you can't afford to get it fixed and you can't get to work, that that troubles people? He can't understand that? He doesn’t have a clue! He talks to his limited circle of rich friends. They don't have to worry about the things 95% of Americans worry about. He's in a bubble. When presidents are in a bubble, it's the American people who get hurt.

He cannot wrap his mind around the fact that his very own policies have made life worse for ordinary people. But the average citizen knows it, that’s why his numbers are plummeting.

Again, yesterday morning he slammed "affordability" as a buzzword, said nobody knows what it means. Well, he doesn't know what it means because he's got enough money to pay for all the things he needs.

Donald Trump—affordability is not a buzzword. It is not a con job. And it’s not a mystery concept to most people.

Affordability means you can afford to make trips to the doctor when you or your child is sick.

It means you can go to the grocery store and not have to worry, “well can I buy eggs, or milk, or cheese? I can’t afford all of them.”

It means you can pay the rent. Pay your mortgage.

What affordability doesn’t mean is sending helicopters over Caracas and saying we have the right to attack NATO allies. It doesn’t mean bailing out Argentine farmers. It doesn’t mean giving away critical chips to China, so that they will use them against us.

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