Tammy Duckworth Stumps Trump's Singapore Ambassador Nom, Calls Him 'Unqualified' To His Face

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At today's Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) grilled Anjani Sinha, nominee to be Ambassador to Singapore.

Transcript

00:00state of Illinois given the pressing business of the NDA. Great. Senator Duckworth. Thank you.

00:06Dr. Sinha, you say you know how important the United States Singapore relationship is and I

00:10think you know that it's important to me as are all of our relationship with the ASEAN nations.

00:15This is not a role you can just pick up on a whim or because you think it will be glamorous or

00:19because Singapore is a great place to live. Our diplomats are dedicated. They're hard workers

00:24who represent the United States every day on the front lines anticipating crises and providing

00:28invaluable expertise to help prevent conflicts from exploding into catastrophes. I am not opposed

00:32to political appointees and in fact my colleague across the aisle the senator from Tennessee did an

00:38incredible job as an appointee to a critical United States ally the country of Japan and I really

00:44enjoyed working with him when he was ambassador there but frankly I don't think you are particularly

00:49qualified for this role and I'm concerned about how your lack of understanding may even inadvertently

00:55cause friction on our critical relationship. Will you even be able to effectively lead our mission

00:59in Singapore? I have my doubts so my questions are going to be to allow you to assuage my doubts and

01:05win my vote. Dr. Sinha, I need to know that you understand some basic facts about Singapore and its

01:10critical relationship with the United States. For example, in 2024 did the United States have a trade

01:16deficit with Singapore? Yes or no? It did not. How large was the US's trade surplus with Singapore in 2024?

01:24Uh, 80 billion dollars. 18 billion dollars. 2.8. You're off by a huge factor.

01:34United States had a 2.8 billion trade surplus with Singapore in 2024. If confirmed, how would you

01:40explain our friendship in Singapore to the president? How would you explain to our friends in Singapore

01:46the president's threats to slap tariffs as high as 25% on their country given that the United States has

01:51nearly 3 billion trade surplus with Singapore? Thank you for your question, Senator. We are not walking

01:58away for any dialogue between the two countries and two leaders. If confirmed, I will make a personal

02:06relation with the government of Singapore and I will make sure the dialogue continues and we settle the

02:14issues of trade together. Do you support increasing a tariff on Singapore? Seeing as how, um, we don't have

02:20a, they, they, we, they buy more of our stuff than we buy of theirs. So, Senator, you want to put a tariff on

02:26them? Thank you for your question, Senator. You know that, uh, we have, uh, president has only done 10% of trade, uh,

02:37uh, increase with the Singapore and he's open to dialogue even for that. Do you agree? Do you agree with that 10%

02:45increase with Singapore? It seems how we don't have, they don't have a surplus with us? Well, I, I,

02:52Yes or no? Do you support the president's plan to put a 10% tariff on Singapore, goods produced in Singapore?

02:59I mean, um, uh, uh, Senator, thank you for your question, but I, I believe in president's, uh, decision

03:07of a free trade with any nations in the world and he's resetting the, uh, the trade numbers with each

03:18country and he's open for discussion and dialogue with each countries. So you would like to have free

03:23trade with Singapore? That's what you would push for as ambassador? Well, we always had free

03:28trade with the Singapore since 2004. So why, so do you support the 10% increase, tariff increase?

03:34It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, the dialogue is not at close. The door is not closed. Let's go on

03:41to the next thing. What year is Singapore next scheduled to be the ASEAN chair? Uh, this year is

03:47Malaysia. I didn't ask you about this year. When is Singapore going to be the ASEAN chair? I don't know when,

03:55but this year... 2027. Please describe what holding the ASEAN chair will entail for Singapore and how

04:00you would support Singapore in your role as U.S. ambassador, if confirmed. What are some of the

04:04critical things that Singapore will have to do as a chair of ASEAN? I mean, I agree with you that you

04:10had made a statement that all the ASEAN members should be, uh, treated like a almost like... Answer my

04:18question. What does holding the ASEAN chairmanship entail for Singapore? Can you name one thing?

04:26A role that they will have to play as ASEAN chair? What will... Well, there, you know that, that

04:30there, uh, this is a, this, the ASEAN chair is not only one country, there are 10 countries involved. No, the ASEAN chair is one country.

04:39One country, but there are 10 countries involved as an ASEAN group. You're not answering my question.

04:44You're not answering my question, sir. Can you name one thing that will be of critical importance to

04:51Singapore as ASEAN chair? A role. There are many things. Can you name one thing?

04:56Defense, economics... Those are very broad. Name, name an issue. Trade.

05:05I don't think... No. Okay, let's, let's do something. In what way does the United States Navy work with

05:11Singapore? And how do you envision strengthening the U.S. Navy's work with Singapore? And are there

05:15any facilities that come to mind that are central to our relationship with Singapore? We, uh, thank you

05:20for your question, but we have a naval presence in Singapore. And we, our, uh, our military, they always

05:28do exercise with the Singapore. The, they come here, the army of Singapore, they come here for the training

05:35as well. So we have a close ties with the Singapore in defense. Can you name a specific thing? Please,

05:43I'm trying to help you here, but you've not even done your homework, sir. You want to be ambassador to

05:48Singapore, one of the most important alliance friends we have in the Indo-Pacific, a key place that

05:54we're going to be fighting against our greatest adversary in the region, the PRC. Singapore may feature

06:00incredible culture, but that should not be treated as a glamour posting. This nation is too important to the United

06:05States, to ASEAN, to the entire region. And frankly, I think the mission is important to U.S. interests

06:11and national security, and it should actually be a foreign service officer. But I have even larger

06:15concerns with the political pick, when that political pick is somebody as unqualified as you. I've opposed

06:20a liberal political picks for Singapore from Democrats. So this is not a, this is not a partisan issue.

06:26I, I, I just feel that you are not taking this seriously, and you think this is a glamour posting that

06:30you're going to live a nice life in Singapore, but what we need is someone who's going to actually do the work.

06:34I, I'm out of time. I have a couple additional questions related to management that I'll submit

06:39for the record, but I want to reinforce again for you right now, you are not currently prepared

06:43for this posting, period, and you need to shape up and do some homework.

06:49Senator Coons.

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