00:00Senator, thank you so much for joining us. We do want to speak with you about the nomination
00:03and confirmation hearing of Kevin Worscht, but we have to begin with Iran and what appears to be now
00:08an indefinite extension of the ceasefire as well, according to President Trump, is an indefinite
00:13maintenance of this U.S. naval blockade and of our military position in the Middle East. For how long
00:19will even the United States Senate and Republican control deem this sustainable? Well, what we're
00:25really seeing here is an indefinite war, a war with no obvious end. And Donald Trump has demonstrated
00:32over and over and over. He's got no plan. He's got no exit ramp. He has signed on the American
00:39people
00:39just to go indefinitely. And so far, Republicans in the United States Senate have voted one, two,
00:48three, four times to let him just continue to roll this war out. Well, we're coming up on the 60
00:57days
00:58that the War Powers Act technically gives a president to use the military in a way he deems
01:04justified. If we are in an indefinite ceasefire, is that clock still ticking? What do you expect
01:10happens when that time expires? We are at war. Understand a military blockade, which is what we
01:15have, is an act of war. And that's not just a matter of interpretation. It's actually recognized
01:22all around the world. It's in the laws of war. We are at war. And the only way, evidently, that
01:29we're
01:29going to be able to stop this is to get the Republicans to grow a backbone and be willing to
01:35exercise our
01:37constitutional responsibility to pull the president back in. He does not have the right, either legally
01:46or morally, to go to war on his own. And so far, the Republicans let him do this. But maybe
01:55they will
01:55hit this magic 60 days and say, now it is time. After 13 American service members have been killed,
02:05after about a billion dollars a day has been spent and after Donald Trump has embarrassed our nation on the
02:14international stage repeatedly. Does it cost a billion dollars a day to maintain our position right now,
02:21even if there's not kinetic action that the military is engaged in? You know what the first clue about how
02:25expensive
02:25it is? In the hearing yesterday, Russ Vogt refused to say how much it cost. If it costs less than
02:32a
02:32billion dollars a day, the guy who has the green eye shade and the pencil and is supposed to be
02:37doing
02:37the numbers morning, noon and night would have told us. But yesterday, he wouldn't even give a range
02:43on what it costs. So I guarantee it's costing a lot of money. And it's money we could have spent
02:52on people who can't afford their health care, money we could have spent on little babies who could be in
03:00child care,
03:00money we could have spent to lower the cost of housing. It's money we could have spent to rebuild our
03:06infrastructure. It's money we could have spent to lower the national debt all right here at home. But Donald Trump,
03:13who promised two things, one, that he would not start a war somewhere else, and two, that he would
03:21lower costs on day one, has gone back on both of those promises.
03:26Well, the president, of course, heralds what he describes as the many wars that he has stopped
03:31and ended. So when we think about the potential end to this, I know you said you see the only
03:35way out
03:35of this is your Republican colleagues growing a backbone, I think is what you just said. But what about
03:40the potential for real diplomacy to have a breakthrough? I wonder if you see right now,
03:46especially with the naval blockade, is the U.S. having gained some leverage to make sure that the
03:49outcome is favorable to the United States and less so for Iran? Let's be clear. The real leverage that
03:55has been gained here is that Donald Trump started this war when the Strait of Hormuz was open. And so
04:02all of those ships carrying oil, carrying the ingredients for fertilizer and plastics,
04:08all of that was flowing and that was keeping prices at least somewhat stable around the world.
04:15Now what we've got is Iran has figured out that it has the capacity to pinch off the Strait of
04:24Hormuz
04:24and inflict enormous pain on the United States and on the worldwide economy. Iran right now seems
04:34to be looking at what's unfolded over the last two months and believes that its leverage looks stronger
04:42than ever. That's what Donald Trump has accomplished here. He has spent American lives. He has spent
04:50American treasure and he has spent America's reputation. And no one can give any indication
04:58how the good folks of the United States of America are any better off. Well, as you talk about the
05:05economic damage done by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, that is obviously a challenge that the next Fed
05:10chair, assuming one can be confirmed, will be inheriting as we consider a supply shock and the potential
05:16inflationary impacts. Obviously, President Trump wants to see easier policy. And you pointed to that in the
05:22confirmation hearing for Kevin Warsh today. He says that he will maintain independence, that he did not
05:27commit to the president to lower interest rates, that the president didn't ask him to do so. And I wonder,
05:32knowing you have concerns about Kevin Warsh, if your concerns are really so much about the nominee
05:37as the person who nominated him, President Trump. Obviously, before, we have not had to worry about the
05:44independence of the Fed. That just hasn't been a serious issue. Because presidents, Democrats and
05:51Republicans have mostly respected the independence of the Fed. And let me just make a little side point
05:57here about why independence of the Fed is so important. There are two ways to make economic
06:02decisions. One of them is just based on your best assessment of the numbers, where we are on inflation,
06:08where we are on unemployment, what kind of other things are going on around the world. And that's
06:15what the Fed is supposed to do. The second way to do it is based on politics. We're six months
06:19out from
06:20an election. The economy is in real trouble. Prices are up. Families are really feeling the squeeze and
06:27very, very concerned about high prices. It's possible for political reasons to make decisions about
06:36monetary policy to goose that economy running into the election. And the problem is that in the long
06:45run, that's terrible for the economy. It can, for example, drive up inflation even higher so that
06:53families are paying more and more and more for mortgages and for credit cards and for car loans.
07:00What I want to see, what Democrats want to see, is an independent Fed that's still making decisions
07:06based on the numbers. What Donald Trump has said quite openly is he wants to make the political
07:12decisions that aren't good for the American economy, but are good for Donald Trump. Today's hearing was
07:19all about that issue. And Kevin Walsh had one job to prove. And that is, even though Donald Trump,
07:27who nominated him, wants to control him, it's Kevin Walsh's job to show that he has the courage and the
07:35independence to stand up and say no to Donald Trump. So many questions aimed in that direction.
07:46He told me at a private meeting he would be a tough guy. So I said, prove it out here
07:51in public.
07:52Did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election? And he would not answer that question.
07:56He would not answer that question. And he would not answer any question that might, in the tiniest,
08:02littlest, smallest way, disagree with Donald Trump. He proved to all who were watching that Kevin
08:11Walsh will be a great sock puppet for Donald Trump. He, of course, says he won't. He also didn't answer
08:17your question regarding the divestiture of his ample assets, shall we say. We have seen wealthy people
08:24take jobs in public service, have to disclose and divest assets before. So what specifically is it
08:29that Kevin Walsh holds that you're so worried about? Well, that's the whole problem. Literally,
08:36no other nominee in the Trump administration has refused to disclose their assets. And believe me,
08:41there have been some pretty hairy assets that have been disclosed. But Kevin Walsh says out of his
08:48$250 million of assets, $100 million is just, he's just not going to tell us, not going to tell us
08:56what's there. I asked him today. I said, well, can you at least tell us that you're not invested in
09:04Chinese-owned businesses? You're not invested in money laundering companies? You're not invested
09:10in the vehicles that Jeffrey Epstein was using to launder money. Can you at least tell us that much?
09:18And he said, no, not telling anything. And this will be, if he goes through like this,
09:26literally the first person who's come through the banking committee for which the Office of Ethics
09:33says he is out of compliance. He is not in compliance. I'd also like to ask you about
09:39someone who will be coming before the banking committee. As the White House just sent over
09:43to the United States Senate today, the nomination for the next chair of the Council of Economic
09:47Advisors, Christopher Phelan. Do you know enough about him at this point to say whether or not you're
09:52likely to support? Not yet. But what I'd like to start out with is full disclosure of all assets.
09:58You know, I really want to say on this, the things we never thought we'd have to fight about
10:04are things that Donald Trump now puts into question. I never thought we'd have to be
10:09fighting over whether or not the Fed chair is supposed to be independent. But Donald Trump says,
10:14nobody is going to be Fed chair who's not going to be his sock puppet. Indeed, Donald Trump said
10:21directly, we've got the quotes, that he had asked Kevin Warsh whether or not Warsh would
10:28lower interest rates. Totally inappropriate, but they had done it. Kevin Warsh got up there today
10:34under oath and said, Trump didn't ask me that. Somebody's not telling the truth here.
10:41And so now we're in a world where Donald Trump wants these Republicans to push this guy on through
10:49at the very moment that Donald Trump is trying to take over the Fed. And we've got a nominee here
10:56who
10:58somebody is not telling the truth, either Donald Trump or his nominee. Just quickly on the idea of
11:03independence of monetary policy decision making. It is not the Fed chair's decision alone. He is a member
11:08of the federal open market committee. Do you not trust the other members of that committee to be able
11:12to act as a check on the chair? So I want to do this both ways. It matters independence for
11:18every
11:18one of the Fed governors. Look, remember, Donald Trump hasn't just gone after Jerome Powell, the chair.
11:24He's gone after Lisa Cook as well. And we're waiting for a Supreme Court decision.
11:28That's exactly right. So it is important that every one of the governors be independent. The Fed chair
11:35carries extra weight and therefore should be extra independent or more jealously guard the independence
11:43of the Fed. My big concern is that Donald Trump has made clear all along that he not only wants
11:53to
11:53control, he's willing to use some pretty powerful tools. A criminal investigation of the sitting Fed chair
12:01because he claims that there's been criminal mischief in the renovations of the Fed's building. I want to
12:11point out also in today's hearing that it was a Republican, Tom Tillis, who said there is no criminal
12:20activity here. But he didn't say the other half of that sentence. And that is that any effort to go
12:26after
12:27the federal chair on this bogus criminal charge is nothing more than Donald Trump weaponizing every
12:37tool of government to dominate and control the Fed. And that should be alarming to everybody in this
12:44country. Senator, thank you so much for joining us.
12:47Thank you very much.
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