‘I Don’t Buy It’: GOP Sen. Tillis DOUBTS Trump’s Claim Iran Stopped Killings| Warns Against Yes Men

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Senator Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) delivers sharp criticism over President Trump’s foreign policy and internal decisions on Bloomberg’s Balance of Power. Tillis expresses skepticism about Trump’s claim that killings in Iran have stopped, calls out mixed messages on Greenland and U.S. Arctic strategy, and voices frustration over advisors giving poor counsel. He also weighs in on the Justice Department’s investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and questions whether Congress should assert greater war powers oversight.     #ThomTillis #TrumpCriticism #IranPolicy #GreenlandDebate #PowellInvestigation #WarPowersResolution #BloombergBalanceOfPower #USPolitics #SenateDebate #TrumpAdvisers #FedIndependence #USForeignPolicy #TillisOnTrump #GreenlandComments #JeromePowell #DOJInvestigation #PoliticalNews #BreakingPolitics  ~HT.96~

Transcript

00:00My last communication that night with the president, it's not verbatim, but pretty close,

00:05I told the president, I said, Mr. President, if I prove anything else to you in the next year and a

00:11half, I hope that I can prove to you that I care about your legacy and you have people around you

00:19who don't. There are people who are surfing his wave until they go to the next one. They're young

00:25people that have never served in office and don't understand the consequences of looking around

00:31corners and protecting this president. There are people that are more concerned with their next

00:35job and the next presidential campaign that they may be able to get on than making sure that this

00:40president is as successful as possible. So I decided by just making a decision not for run for

00:47re-election, I can speak truth to a president that I hope goes down in history as the most successful

00:53Republican president in the history of this country. He has that potential if he starts to

00:58recognize advice that he's getting, but I think is bad advice and won't age well. And I'll get to a

01:04few. I'm going to keep my temperature down. I told everybody this isn't cranky, Tom. This is Tom

01:11trying to explain a very serious subject. Ladies and gentlemen, the thought of the United States

01:18taking the position that we would take Greenland, an independent territory within the kingdom of

01:26Denmark, is absurd. Somebody needs to tell the president that the people of Greenland up until this,

01:34these current times, were actually very, very pro-American and very, very pro-American presidents.

01:40We had as many as 17 military installations in Greenland at our height, and frankly, I'll bet that

01:47the, you know, once we get through this tension that we have today, that they would be willing to

01:51accept us. So we've got the power projection capability in Greenland, and we haven't necessarily

01:57put a 75-year alliance in NATO and dissolving it in the mix. That's the smart, sustainable way to

02:07achieve the president's goal of securing the Arctic. The not smart, unachievable way is whoever told the

02:15president that this was a viable path. It doesn't make sense. I'll give you another example. Over the

02:22weekend, the president and the question yesterday had to do with Chair Powell. And I made the statement

02:30that I felt like, now that the Fed chair is potentially under indictment, I will not support

02:37any vote for any Fed board member until this matter is decided. Why? Well, because the whole argument

02:47about Fed independence comes into question, right? If all of a sudden, the Justice Department,

02:53apparently, according to the president, unknown to him, he reported it was a surprise to him,

02:58since then, he's been briefed. And he's standing by the Justice Department on this indictment.

03:04But ladies and gentlemen, unless there is a really compelling reason, unless the prosecution succeeds,

03:11and I think it's unlikely, virtually impossible, that Chair Powell will be found guilty of anything,

03:17this is all about the testimony in a banking committee hearing. That's all it is. And if they succeed,

03:26then they really have created a device that really will put the Fed's independence in question

03:34and could cause serious problems for us in the future. I think one of the reasons why the financial

03:42markets did not react precipitously in a negative way with the revelation of Chair Powell is because

03:51many people stood up in Congress and said, this seems to be crossing a line. I believe if the

03:57financial markets thought that it was almost certain that Jay Powell was going to resign or

04:02be prosecuted, I believe we'd have had a very different reaction. So this is another example of

04:07where, look, Jay Powell, I think, has made decisions that I disagreed with, similar to decisions that have

04:13been made by conservative justices that I disagree with, but I think they did it for the right reasons.

04:18And so it's just another example of where, in this case, according to the President's public

04:24comments, he was surprised about the indictment. It's another example of who in there thought this

04:30was a good idea. Now, because it's a current investigation, we'll just have to wait and figure

04:37it out after it's either been, they proceed with an indictment or they decide to dismiss it.

04:43And then the final thing, Mr. President, I'm in a position now, without question, to say that

04:51anyone who thinks that President Trump adopting Elizabeth Warren's idea on capping credit card

05:00interest rates, it is literally what the President said over the past week. It's not

05:08the conservative that I thought they were. Anybody that thinks this is a good idea will not speak

05:14truth to this President to say, you can't do that. If you want to unbank or underbank people,

05:22then not allow interest rates to be set based on the risk. And you'll see what will happen.

05:28I told Senator Warren on the floor yesterday, I said, good on you. Senator Warren and I have a good

05:33relationship. We don't hardly ever vote on the same stuff. But I said, good on you. You've convinced

05:38the President of the United States to actually embrace something you've been pitching for as long

05:42as I've been here. I also told her, she said, does that mean you're going to set the policy? I said,

05:46no, I'm going to work hard to kill it. But I really, I like good execution, even when it's not policy I

05:51like. And that was good execution. You convinced the President to embrace your policy. And then finally,

05:58the Credit Card Competition Act. It's another example, ladies and gentlemen, other countries

06:04have tried it and it's failed. The industry is trying to work to come up with a compromise that

06:10is working. But once again, somebody in the President's orbit thought capping interest rates

06:16was a good idea and told them. I don't expect the President to be an expert and the consequences of

06:21that. Somebody thought during the Credit Card Competition Act after it's been unsuccessful here because

06:27Republicans have thought it is a good idea. It's still a bad idea. So to the President,

06:33Mr. President, I'm going to live up to my promise. I'm going to do everything I can to point out

06:39advice that you're being given by people who are not thinking about your legacy. They're not thinking

06:44about good policy. And from time to time, they are fading far out of the realm of what I consider to

06:50be good, conservative, free market ideology. Thank you, Mr. President.

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