Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News alongside Kaylee Liones, I'm Joe Matthew. We come to Arabit early this evening for an important conversation with Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. She joins US live now from Capitol Hill. Senator, it's good to see you. Welcome back to Bloomberg. You're calling on the Senate to exercise its authority to stop President Trump's tariff regime.
Here.
Earlier today, as I'm sure you know, the President promised to veto the bill from Senators Campwell and Grassly that would require congressional approval after sixty days. Now, John Thune says he doesn't think that bill has a future. So, Senator, what should be Congress's answer to the tariffs?
Well, let's back up just a little bit. As you've been reporting all day long, every light is flashing red in terms of the economy and that we really are on the precipice of sliding into a recession and maybe
taking it worldwide. Meanwhile, the Secretary of the Treasury is going on Tucker Carlson to talk about all of the workers that Trump and Doge have illegally fired and spend some tale about how all those people from the Veterans Administration or the NIH or the Social Security Administration can go work in these factories that will magically appear. You know, we need a Secretary of the Treasury who's in the
real world, and in the real world right now. He should be calling a meeting of FSOC, remember the Financial Stability Oversight Council, which is what we put in place after the crash in two thousand and eight. And this is the way that government. When the economy is doing what it's doing right now, the Secretary of the Treasury is supposed to pull everyone together and actually figure out a plan, call the plan, and then execute on the play. But that is not what our Secretary of the Treasury
is doing. So that puts us in a position where Congress needs to act and Congress can actually do it using the authority that Donald Trump himself is using. He's using something called i EBA. But the point is that if Congress says no, there is no emergency here, then Donald Trump loses his ability to put all of these tariffs in place. So we need to act. We need a Secretary of Treasury to do his job. The Democrats
in Congress are ready to act. But if the Secretary of Treasury won't act, then we need the Republicans to step up, join the Democrats and put a halt to these tariffs that are truly wrecking the worldwide economy.
Well, Senator, the President argues, it's going to help the US economy, that this is actually about bringing manufacturing back to the US, protecting American workers in lower trade deficits with other countries. Is there something fundamentally wrong with that objective or it simply the means that you take issue with.
The objective is exactly one that I have advanced for years. Of course, tariffs should be one of our tools in the toolbox of economic policy. And there are times, when appropriately executed, that we could use a terraff, for example, to arnshore a specific supply chain or to help build up manufacturing that we want to have here in the
United States. But you do that in a thoughtful, integrated way instead of a haphazard number around tariffs applied to everyone with no thought at all about whether or not those tariffs will actually have a negative impact on manufacturing that's currently going on, or any manufacturing that anybody might try to get underway. Instead of actually supporting manufacturing and
good jobs. The way Donald Trump has done this has been to scare off anybody from investing here in the United States in any kind of facility that takes years to be able to build and expand and get it going. He's forcing people to pull back. That is not good for American workers. It is not good for building jobs here in America. It is not good for on shoring our manufacturing. You need a thoughtful policy, and that is the opposite of what Donald Trump has offered.
You heard from Larry Fink today, Senator Blackstone CEO. Blackrock CEO says he believes that a recession is already underway. That the CEOs he talks to say the same thing. Do you agree? And should the Federal Reserve announce an emergency rate cut tonight?
Look, I am really worried about whether we are already in a recession or just right on the edge. All of the lights are flashing red. And Larry Think points this out, but he is not the only one. There are a lot of folks who are starting to say this and a lot of evidence in that direction. Where our focus should be right now is on preventing it from getting any worse, and we can do that. You know, this isn't some outside shock, This is not some war
in some distant land that's caused this problem. This is not that the markets are imploding because suddenly all of the bad mortgages are coming to light like in two thousand and eight. One person has started the dumbest trade war in the history of America. Congress has the power to rain that back in, and if Donald Trump and his team won't do it, then Congress should step up and do it before more damage is done.
Well, does one person also have the power to provide a check on that damage? To get back to Joe's question, Senator, even if the FED were to issue an emergency rate cut, would that be enough to stem all of the bleeding that you think could be happening in the US economy as a result of these policies.
Look, the FED share himself on Friday just said that he is concerned that this haphazard tariff announcement is going to drive up inflation and drive up unemployments simultaneously. I understand why the FED chair is really worried at this moment. The way the one person who can stop this problem is Donald Trump, and if he will roll back these tariffs, we can at least stop the damage from continuing to
bleed out through our economy and around the world. And if Trump won't do it, then we just need some Republicans in the House and the Senate to grow a backbone and do what they know is right. You know, I don't know anybody in Congress who's saying, man, this is a great idea, what a cool move. They are really worried about what's happening. They're hearing it from their own constituents at home. But they have the power to
fix it. So let's put the pressure on those Republicans to join with the Democrats and take away the authority from Donald Trump to be able to continue to roll out a tariff policy that has the potential now to put millions of people out of work, costs millions of people their savings, their retirement, and start shutting down businesses throughout this country.
Looking at a letter that you sent, in fact led Senators, signed by all eleven Democrats on the Banking Committee. It's to the Chairman Tim Scott, demanding a hearing on the impact of President Trump's trade war. I mentioned this because you're going to be involved in the hearing tomorrow Senate Finance Committee with the US Trade Representative Jamison Greer, who I can't imagine realize the timing of this hearing when your invitation first went out, Is that the person you
want to talk to? Who else would you bring before the Banking Committee if not the President himself?
You bet. I am ready to talk to mister Greer tomorrow about what we can do right now to stop the bleeding, what we can do to try to rescue this economy before it is hopelessly caught in a recession. I want to ask that of mister Jamison, and I'm going to ask him what it's going to take him to step up and tell the President to stop this tariff policy that is terrible for workers all across this country.
Well I wonder, then, Senator, how much authority you really think the US Trade Representative has or how much sway in impact the President's decisions. I could ask the same about the Secretary of the Treasury, of the Commerce Department of others for that matter.
Well, you know, I hope you're listening to your own question, and that is these are the very people that Donald Trump said were the best people to do policy in each of their chosen areas. Donald Trump's the one who chose his trade rep. Donald Trump is the one who chose his Secretary of the Treasury.
By Dolly.
They ought to be doing their jobs right now. Instead of having the Secretary of the Treasury go on Tucker Carlson and spin out fantasies, he ought to be calling together the rest of the economic advisors under the powers given him under Dog Frank, putting them together and putting a plan in place to rescue this economy. That's what the FSC, the Financial Stability Oversight Council, was deliberately built for, and that is the job that was give to the
Secretary of Treasury. Step up and do your job. And if Donald Trump has ed, Donald Trump should listen to his Secretary of Treasury. If his Secretary of Treasury will do his job, that is the question. And if none of them will do their jobs, Congress needs to do its job and take away this authority from Donald Trump. And I just want to be clear, We're running out of time on this. Every single day that goes by, every hour that people are saying, I'm not investing there
I'm laying off workers every single minute. It gets more and more dangerous for our economy and for the worldwide economy. It is time for the Secretary of the Treasury to do his job. It is time for the President to do his job, and it is time for Congress to do its job.
All right, Senator, we will leave it on that note. Thank you so much for joining us as the Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts joining us here on balance of power