“If the administration is going to give up the mantle of leader of the free world, it doesn’t mean that America has to. The U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives could step up into the void and express a view that is consistent with our role in supporting democracy around the world.”
Washington D.C. — U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) joined MSNBC’s Morning Joe to discuss Ukraine’s potential minerals deal with the United States, call out Senate Republicans for blocking a resolution condemning U.S. vote at the United Nations siding with Russia, and highlight the dangers of DOGE eliminating thousands of jobs in California and across the U.S.
View the full interview here.
Key Excerpts:
On the transactional minerals deal between the U.S. and Ukraine:
[…] There’s a meeting in the White House of the leader of the free world, and Donald Trump is also going to be there. Because, sadly, he’s not the leader of the free world. The administration is turning American foreign policy into a kind of protection racket. So, I’m deeply concerned about this. And the fact that in the run up to this meeting, the administration has so badly betrayed our Ukraine ally and our NATO allies — blaming Ukraine for the war, calling Zelenskyy a dictator and then demanding mineral rights to not even provide a security guarantee, but essentially to maintain good favor with the president.
And I just have never felt such shame about American policy before, and I don’t know how our allies trust us after this. In terms of what I can hope for out of this meeting, I can only hope the president doesn’t betray our ideals more than he has already, that Ukraine isn’t forced to give up something for nothing, that nothing the president says or does in this meeting is going to further undermine Ukraine’s position in any negotiation that goes on. I have to think that Zelenskyy is coming to this meeting in an effort to try to right the relationship by trying to give up something for the good will of the president. Because it certainly doesn’t appear like he’s getting much in this deal by way of a real security guarantee.
On Republicans in Congress turning their back on Ukraine:
[…] We’ve heard some rhetorical support for Ukraine, but Ruben Gallego and I took to the Senate floor yesterday on a resolution to condemn the opposition to the UN resolution that would have supported Ukraine and that passed without our support. And the Republicans objected to it coming up, not a single Republican would support it. Now, if the administration is going to give up the mantle of leader of the free world, it doesn’t mean that America has to. The U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives could step up into the void and express a view that is consistent with our role in supporting democracy around the world. That is not happening because they don’t want, as yet, to contradict this president. But this can’t go on. Not if we have any hope, frankly, of maintaining any trust with our allies.
On the harmful impacts of federal employee layoffs:
[…] If they’re able to go forward with this continuing agenda of slashing the government and slashing benefits, primarily to raise the money for this massive tax cut that will benefit large companies, lots of people are going to be hurt in really visceral ways. I think you’re going to see hospitals shut down. You’re going to see clinics go away. You’re going to see the results of the cuts to education in the form of less funding for special ed for classrooms around the country. Already, in some places, people are seeing a Trump surcharge on their bills.
[…]
But more importantly, the American people are really going to suffer. In L.A. where we’ve gone through these horrible wildfires, some of the firefighters that battled those blazes have got notices that they’re fired or they should quit. That’s quite a reward for a job courageously done, and some of the funding for FEMA and other agencies may go away that would be necessary for the rebuilding that’s just in one state and one part of one state, but the whole country is going to feel this.
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