Afternoon all. Excited to send along a timely and deeply informative interview I just completed with Senator Tim Kaine. A video and transcript are above.
I asked the Senator to come by and reflect on the remarkably successful effort he led last week to repeal Donald Trump’s terrible tariffs. In three separate votes four Republican Senators voted with the Democrats to repeal the tariffs on Brazil, on Canada and Trump’s global reciprocal tariffs. It was a stunning rebuke of Trump on arguably his most important domestic initiative, the most significant break so far we’ve seen this year from Congressional Republicans - all coming just days before the Supreme Court hears arguments about the legality of the tariffs.
Here’s what Senator Kaine had to say about the significance of these tariff votes (rough transcript):
these [tariff] votes were about Congress being Congress. Congressional oversight of the executive is a muscle that’s atrophied through lack of use.
And it’s not just during the Trump Administration.
I think there have been a series of things really for generations where Congress has handed its power to the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. I want a president to fully inhabit the article two powers but the nation needs a congress to fully inhabit the article one power.
So my working assumption when the Trump presidency started knowing I’d have two republican houses I have to exercise this muscle of oversight as much as I can in order to strengthen it because we may need Congress to save this democracy.
And that will more likely be in the Senate than in the House.
And because we don’t have enough Democratic votes, we’ve got to have some Republicans who are willing to stand up for democracy and against an overreaching authoritarian President.
And so this was very much a vote about tariffs, but it was also a vote about exercising this muscle of congressional oversight of an authoritarian executive.
And it’s good to see that that muscle is getting stronger.
I then asked the Senator about the Administration’s announcement on Friday they did not believe the Congressional War Powers Act applied to their military strikes in the Caribbean and the Pacific. Here is what he said:
the fact that they’re analogizing this to al-Qaeda, you know, say what you want about the war on terror. It was authorized by a vote of Congress. It was not a presidential unilateral action.
And yet the White House is trying to argue that these boat strikes in the Caribbean are not war that require congressional action because, let’s see, we struck them from far away so that U.S. troops weren’t endangered; or they’re kind of one-offs that are over and then start again two days later and are over.
These are laughable rationale.
If another nation attacked U.S. ships repeatedly we would call it war.
In fact, we did when the Barbary Coast pirates attacked U.S. ships in the Mediterranean when Thomas Jefferson was president we viewed that as war.
That’s always been viewed as war. And if it’s not war, what is it?
Is it like batting practice or something?
I mean, it’s war and you’re killing people.
And Donald Trump has created a secret list of groups, and he won’t disclose to me and other members of my committee who’s on that secret list and has claimed unilateral power to strike folks he alleges are on that list, though we have no way of knowing whether the ships he’s striking actually all have narcotics on them or not.
And now he’s claiming that he has the ability also to wage war against and within sovereign territory Venezuela.
Although, as you know, he’s gone back and forth about whether, in fact, he’s going to do that. And he may have already changed his mind and decided that Nigeria needed to be the nation that we invade.
Bottom line is we shouldn’t be doing any of this without a debate and vote of Congress.
I have a war powers resolution that says nowhere within or against Venezuela that will likely come up for a Senate vote this week or next.
And Adam Schiff has the companion resolution about no boat strikes in international waters without a vote of Congress.
So more to come, soon!
I realize we are all busy now with the elections but get to this wonderful interview with one of our most thoughtful and effective leaders in the Senate when you can. He closes out our discussion by talking about his weekend campaigning with Abigail Spanberger and Virginia Dems. Here is what he said:
we feel really good.
I think Virginia believes we have the ability to choose a really good governing path with Abigail, but also send a message that we’re the leadoff hitter in this battle for democracy, and we’re going to deliver a really, really positive, hopeful message tomorrow.
If you haven’t gotten to this morning’s post, Trump Limps And Stumbles Into What Is Going To Be A Very Consequential Week, it has my latest thinking on what we are going to see tomorrow and in the coming battles over the budget in Congress. Yes lets do everything we can in these last 24 hours to send a “really positive, hopeful message tomorrow”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Finally, a huge thank you to all of you who’ve helped make case against these tariffs to your Senators and House Members this year. Having the Senate vote THREE times to repeal the tariffs last week was a big, big win, and here we take and celebrate the wins when they come - Simon
