Afternoon all. Excited to share a timely new interview with New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the highest ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. With Trump’s approach to the world very much in the news these days - the military strikes in the Pacific and Caribbean, his Asia trip, the terrible tariffs, I asked Senator Shaheen, one of our most thoughtful foreign policy and national leaders, to come by and help us make it sense of it all A video recording and transcript of our comprehensive discussion can be found above.
There are two moments from our conversation that I am still thinking about as I write. What follows is a rough transcript of the first:
Simon Rosenberg - if I could just get you to reflect perhaps, but not dive right into the timely stuff for a minute, but just to reflect on how intent Donald Trump seems to be to unravel the global system that has made us the most prosperous and powerful nation in the history of the world. And it seems to be his actual singular driving goal of his global engagement. And I’m just wondering, given your perch, how you talk about this with your constituents, with others, given what we’re now witnessing coming from Trump and his team.
Senator Shaheen: Well, as you point out, we’ve had an international rules-based order really since the end of World War II.
And it’s been, by and large, a foreign policy framework that Republicans and Democrats came together around. And it’s tended to be very bipartisan over the years.
And it’s interesting and troubling to me the extent to which President Trump seems to deliberately want to undermine that and and the best example that I have is where there has been real bipartisan consensus has been around the threat from China, the concern that China is not just our biggest economic threat but also the biggest military threat. And that’s a policy that President Trump has seemed to embrace but if you look more clearly and focus in on the policies that President Trump has promoted since he got into office, it undermines our ability to compete with China.
And that’s very troubling.
One example of that is the elimination of foreign assistance.
Well, what we’ve seen in the wake of dismantling of USAID and about 95%, over 90% of our foreign assistance programs, has been that China has stepped in and is picking up, in some countries, picking up those programs directly where we have stopped supporting them.
And they are presenting themselves as the partner that people can depend on, suggesting that the United States is not the country that our former allies can depend on.
The other issue at international bodies, for example, where the United States has had a leading role and where it’s been important for us to be at the table, whether it’s at the UN or NATO, of course, where the president has been on point with our NATO allies most of the time.
But so many of our international bodies that deal with technology issues and communication issues that he has withdrawn United States support and has left the playing field to the Chinese.
Well, if we’re not there, we can’t defend America’s interests.
And again, it’s undermined our ability to compete with China. So we are seeing in so many ways that this president, the tariff battle and the trade war.
Now, hopefully he will be successful in his meeting with President Xi, and they will negotiate something that will actually provide some relief for American companies.
But the likelihood is that rather than doing that, what he’s going to do is just revert to where we were before he started this tariff war with China.
So in so many ways, the policies that have defended America, that have kept us secure, are being undermined by this president and his foreign policy.
The second is about Trump’s justification for the actions he is taking in Latin America:
Senator Shaheen: And I think that’s the real question that I have that has not been answered.
So the president has just taken this authority.
Does that mean he’s going to get us into a war?
He’s talking about putting the CIA in Venezuela.
He’s talking about taking action on land in either Colombia or Venezuela.
It’s not clear.
And what does that mean for Americans and for the potential to escalate into real open conflict?
And I think that is a major concern. And to use the excuse that he’s going after the people who are providing fentanyl into the United States. It’s just not accurate.
I mean, fentanyl’s horrible.
Most of the two thirds of the drug deaths in New Hampshire are the result of fentanyl.
But that fentanyl is coming from China as precursors and it’s going into Mexico.
And that’s how it’s getting to the United States.
By and large, it’s not coming from Colombia and Venezuela. Colombia produces cocaine, which is bad enough in and of itself.
But let’s be straight with the American people about what’s going on here.
And that clearly is not happening.
Senator Shaheen also talks about what has become our successful effort to roll back Trump’s tariffs. She has been a leader of that effort in the Senate, and as she mentions, was one of 36 Senators to sign on to the House Democrats’ amicus brief arguing against the tariffs in advance of the Supreme Court’s consideration of the case next week. Here’s her quote from that release:
“President Trump’s abuse of emergency powers to levy tariffs on everyday goods is an unlawful overreach that hits American families in their wallets and undermines Congress’s constitutional authority,” said Senator Shaheen, Ranking Member of the Senate Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “President Trump has circumvented Congress in imposing the biggest tax increase in modern American history at huge costs to families and businesses. This bipartisan brief makes clear that no president—Republican or Democrat—can sidestep that responsibility. The Supreme Court should affirm what every lower court has already found: these tariffs are illegal, and the American people should not have to pay the price for President Trump’s reckless and self-defeating trade policy.”
Enjoy this conversation with one of our most important foreign policy and national security leaders, and keep working hard all. We have an awful lot of work ahead of us to get to the other side of all this - Simon
Senator Jeanne Shaheen Official Biography (link)
Senator Shaheen is committed to serving the citizens of New Hampshire and is known for her common-sense leadership, hard work and dedication to improving the lives of the middle class. She has served in the Senate since 2009 and is a member of the Senate Committees on Armed Services, Foreign Relations, Appropriations, Small Business and Entrepreneurship and the Select Committee on Ethics.
Senator Shaheen is committed to serving the citizens of New Hampshire and is known for her common-sense leadership, hard work and dedication to improving the lives of the middle class. She has served in the Senate since 2009 and is a member of the Senate Committees on Armed Services, Foreign Relations, Appropriations, Small Business and Entrepreneurship and the Select Committee on Ethics.
Senator Shaheen is committed to serving the citizens of New Hampshire and is known for her common-sense leadership, hard work and dedication to improving the lives of the middle class. She has served in the Senate since 2009 and is a member of the Senate Committees on Armed Services, Foreign Relations, Appropriations, Small Business and Entrepreneurship and the Select Committee on Ethics.
Senator Shaheen is committed to serving the citizens of New Hampshire and is known for her common-sense leadership, hard work and dedication to improving the lives of the middle class. She has served in the Senate since 2009 and is a member of the Senate Committees on Armed Services, Foreign Relations, Appropriations, Small Business and Entrepreneurship and the Select Committee on Ethics.
As a former small business owner, Senator Shaheen knows how tough it can be for entrepreneurs, who often operate on razor thin profit margins. On the Small Business Committee, she’s expanded small businesses’ access to credit and markets. Her annual Experience New Hampshire event in Washington, D.C., gives New Hampshire businesses a forum to showcase their products and services to policymakers and government officials. Shaheen continues to lead efforts in the Senate to protect New Hampshire businesses from having to unfairly collect internet sales taxes for other states.
The opioid epidemic is the worst public health crisis in New Hampshire’s history, and Senator Shaheen has made fighting this crisis her number one priority in Congress. Through her leadership on the Appropriations committee, Senator Shaheen worked to deliver a seven fold increase in resources to help Granite Staters suffering from substance use disorders receive desperately needed treatment. She works across the aisle to provide tools that treatment providers, law enforcement and first responders need to deliver lifesaving services.
Shaheen helped pass the Affordable Care Act, and has defended the law from partisan attacks, ensuring that tens of thousands of Granite Staters can keep their health care. The law drastically expanded the availability of drug treatment in New Hampshire through Medicaid Expansion, a vital tool to address the opioid crisis, and provided protections to people with pre-existing conditions. She continues to lead efforts in the Senate to advance common-sense health care legislation that would expand access to care and lower the costs of both treatment and prescription drugs.
As top ranking woman of the Armed Services committee and the Ranking Member of the Foreign Relations committee, Senator Shaheen advocates for a strong foreign policy that confronts our enemies, strengthens key alliances, and bolsters New Hampshire’s role in our national defense. Shaheen’s strong stance against Vladimir Putin’s aggression, led to her being sanctioned by the Kremlin and denied a visa to travel to Russia. Shaheen is a leader on protecting our democratic institutions from foreign intrusion, enhancing our cyber defenses, and working with our allies to improve trade and security cooperation. She has been a consistent advocate for the critical role the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Pease Air National Guard Base and New Hampshire’s defense-related companies, serve in protecting our nation.
Senator Shaheen is a champion for women here at home and around the globe. In 2018, she worked to broaden the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) in order to better investigate and prosecute violent crimes against women. In 2016, President Obama signed into law the Shaheen-authored Sexual Assault Survivors’ Rights Act, a federal bill of rights for sexual assault survivors. Jeanne Shaheen has also been a consistent supporter of Planned Parenthood and the critical health services it provides to thousands of Granite Staters. She has led bipartisan efforts in Congress to permanently repeal the Trump administration’s expanded Global Gag Rule, which undermines the availability of family planning and other health care services in developing countries, and got legislation signed into law that gives women a seat at the table to better facilitate lasting conflict resolution around the world.
New Hampshire is the only state in the nation without a full service VA hospital. To expand health services for veterans, Shaheen worked with members of both parties to pass VA reforms enabling Granite State veterans to receive quality health care outside the VA system and closer to home.
Senator Shaheen has made streamlining government and fiscal responsibility a hallmark of her career in the Senate, identifying many areas of waste and inefficiency. She has introduced bipartisan legislation to reform the congressional budget process, eliminate duplicative programs, and phase out unneeded and costly tax breaks for sugar growers and mining companies. She has also led efforts to eliminate exorbitant subsidies for powerful special interests like pharmaceutical and oil companies.
Shaheen recognizes the severity of the environmental and economic threat that climate change poses to New Hampshire and the world. She supports smart energy policies that will curb carbon pollution and preserve New Hampshire’s way of life. As a champion for energy efficiency, Shaheen created programs while Governor that saved New Hampshire families and businesses over $1 billion. In the Senate, Shaheen has worked across the aisle in Congress to pass national energy efficiency legislation which was signed into law by President Obama. Further, Shaheen has established a goal of more than 50 percent clean and carbon-free electricity by 2030.
Senator Shaheen has a reputation for outstanding constituent services. She and her staff have successfully helped thousands of constituents navigate bureaucracy, avoid foreclosure, secure military commendations, receive delayed Social Security and Medicare assistance and access VA benefits, among many other services.
Shaheen served as Governor of New Hampshire from 1997 to 2003. During her time in the statehouse, she helped create nearly 67,000 new jobs while keeping New Hampshire’s tax burden the lowest in the country. (Learn more about Jeanne Shaheen’s three terms as Governor.) With bipartisan support, she expanded public kindergarten to thousands of families and made higher education more affordable with a tax free college savings program.
Between her time as Governor and election to the U.S. Senate, Shaheen served as the Director of Harvard University’s Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government.
Shaheen was born in Saint Charles, Missouri. Her father worked his way up to a management position in a shoe factory and her mother worked as a secretary in their local church. After attending public schools, Shaheen received a bachelor’s degree from Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania and a master’s degree from the University of Mississippi. She and her husband, Bill, live in Madbury and have three daughters, Stefany, Stacey and Molly, and seven grandchildren.
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