GOP Sen. Eric Schmitt: Tulsi Gabbard fits Trump’s ‘reform agenda’
ABC News
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., said Sunday that he has no concerns about President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard to serve as director of national intelligence.
Gabbard, a vocal non-interventionist, has seen her credentials come under scrutiny, particularly in light of a regime change in Syria and her covert meeting with former strongman Bashar Assad in 2017, which occurred after he had used chemical weapons on protesters. She later said Assad was “not the enemy of the United States.”
“I know Tulsi Gabbard. She’s a patriot. She served our country honorably. She, I think, fits the reform agenda. President Trump ran on disrupting permanent Washington and having people who are going to view things differently,” Schmitt told “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos. “There’s a lot of reform, George, that needs to happen in those agencies. Tulsi Gabbard is somebody who I think can execute on that.”
“I don’t think it’s unusual for members of Congress to visit foreign countries and talk to foreign leaders,” he said of the former Democratic congresswoman. “President Trump, I think, believes in engaging in diplomacy, solving these things.”
Gabbard has begun meeting with senators on Capitol Hill to try to get the votes she’ll need from them for confirmation, though her chances have coincided with a wider debate over the U.S. role in Syria.
Trump has said the U.S. should stay out of events there, although there are 900 U.S. troops in the country to fight remaining ISIS pockets. Trump has not definitively said what he plans to do with those troops.
“I think that’s a longer discussion, and a discussion that President Trump had in his first term,” Schmitt said. “I do think we’re entering a new phase, though, of realism in this country. President Trump would be less interventionist, and we get back to our core national interests, principally defending the homeland, the Indo-Pacific and China.”
“Understanding what terrorism means around the world is important, but having these trip wires in other regions that pull us into wars, I think the American people have had enough of that,” he added when pressed on the risks of an ISIS resurgence if U.S. troops leave Syria.
Gabbard is just one of many Trump picks who will need to win confirmation.
Stephanopoulos also pressed Schmitt on Kash Patel, the president-elect’s choice to lead the FBI.
Patel is a top Trump loyalist who has railed against the “deep state” and pushed to eliminate the FBI’s intelligence gathering capabilities, leading some critics to say that he’d politicize the bureau in Trump’s favor.
Asked about Patel’s book “Government Gangsters,” in which he included a 60-person “enemies list,” Schmitt dismissed that as a “footnote” in the book and insisted that Patel does not have an “enemies list.” Schmitt said Patel would bring change to an agency that many Republicans have grown to distrust.
“That agency is in desperate need of reform. Kash Patel is very qualified, and I think he’s going to get the support in the Senate,” Schmitt said.
On Trump’s promise to pardon Jan. 6 rioters, Schmitt said the president-elect would look at pardons on an individual basis and decipher between violent and non-violent offenders, which he said is the “exact right approach.”
“I think you do separate violent acts from non-violent acts, but I think he’s been pretty clear he’s going to view these individually,” Schmitt said.
(WASHINGTON) Former President Donald Trump has drawn scrutiny in recent weeks for an escalation of rhetoric threatening political opponents with retribution if he’s elected to a second term. The comments have triggered alarm from some officials who served with him the first time around, such as former Chief of Staff John Kelly.
Earlier this month, Trump described Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi each as “an enemy from within.”
“These are bad people. We have a lot of bad people. But when you look at ‘Shifty Schiff’ and some of the others, yeah, they are, to me, the enemy from within,” Trump told Fox News on Oct. 20.
While Trump’s comments prompted a renewed focus on the issue of democracy, a Gallup poll earlier this month showed that the economy still ranks as the top issue of concern for voters.
However, a strong separation between issues of democracy and the economy is misguided, some academics who study the tie between political systems and economic performance told ABC News.
“People interested in making a large investment will be less likely to do it unless they can curry favor with the president himself,” Thomas Pepinsky, a professor of government and public policy at Cornell University, told ABC News. “There will be some who stand to benefit but the average American will lose.”
If Trump makes good on his threats to crack down on political adversaries, media outlets and some government agencies, he risks spooking investors, saddling businesses with uncertainty and driving away workers, experts said. That in turn could diminish economic growth, increase the likelihood of an economic downturn and harm the finances of everyday people, they added.
The impact may prove to be minimal in the short term but could grow substantially over time, some experts said, while also acknowledging the difficulty of predicting to what extent existing checks and balances might constrain Trump.
“If Trump suddenly threatens the rule of law, you won’t have an immediate recession,” Daron Acemoglu, a professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-author of the book “Why Nations Fail,” told ABC News.
“But you get a huge amount of uncertainty and that has economic implications,” Acemoglu added. “If companies favored by Trump can expect to get a special deal and others can’t compete, that’s a slippery slope.”
Stephen Moore, an economic advisor to Trump, rebuked the notion that democracy would weaken during a second Trump term. Instead, he added, the economy would perform well, just as it did over Trump’s first term.
“I’d be much more prone to look at his track record in office than speculation about how he might undermine democracy,” Moore told ABC News. “We had a booming economy.”
“If Trump wins, I think the markets will react in a very, very positive way,” Moore added.
In response to ABC News’ request for comment, the Trump campaign shared a statement from a representative of the Republican National Committee (RNC).
“Kamala is a continuation of Biden’s failed economic policies, and they’ve left our economy in shambles. Kamala Harris broke America’s economy, our national security, and world peace, but President Trump will fix it through his America first policies,” RNC spokesperson Anna Kelly told ABC News.
Trump has threatened to use the Department of Justice to prosecute political opponents, including Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris “should be impeached and prosecuted,” Trump said at a rally last month. He also has suggested rescinding the licenses of media outlets that he dislikes.
Trump continues to make false claims in denying the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and has repeatedly attempted to sow doubt regarding the validity of the impending one, should he lose.
The potential erosion of government and civic institutions under a Trump presidency could cause investors to second-guess whether they want to do business in the U.S., the experts said. Trump has hinted at taking away some of the independence of the Federal Reserve, which could introduce further uncertainty surrounding the nation’s interest rates. Meanwhile, the experts added, Trump may treat more favorably companies that stay in good standing with his administration, putting other entities at a disadvantage even if they’re more competitive.
“It would simply create a huge amount of uncertainty about which rules apply and who they apply to,” Steven Hahn, a professor of history at New York University and author of “Illiberal America: A History,” told ABC News. “It would just have enormous consequences for the economic life of the country.”
Uncertain U.S. politics have already negatively affected the nation’s financial foundation, according to some financial measures. Last year, the rating agency Fitch Ratings downgraded U.S. credit for the second time in the nation’s history, citing the ballooning U.S. debt load and a weakening of governance, as well as the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, as factors in their decision.
After studying more than 50 populist leaders going back to 1900, German researchers Manuel Funke, Moritz Schularick and Christoph Trebesch found that after a populist leader took office, a nation’s economy grew at a 10% slower pace over the ensuing 15 years than it would have otherwise, according to an article published in the American Economic Review in December.
A separate study in 2019 found that democratization boosted a nation’s gross domestic product by about 20% over the long run, according to researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Columbia University, among others.
“The evidence is pretty clear,” Vanessa Williamson, a senior fellow in governance studies at the left-leaning Brookings Institution, told ABC News. “Democracy is pretty good for an economy, and authoritarian regimes do worse than they otherwise would.”
There are exceptions, however. India, one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, has seen its ranking in the global Democracy Index fall since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office in 2014. The Chinese economy grew rapidly over the past three decades under authoritarian rule, though that economic expansion has slowed in recent years.
“Sometimes undemocratic countries have had amazing growth, but those examples are rare,” Williamson said.
What’s unknown, of course, is whether Trump, if elected, would implement his proposed agenda. Also unknown is to what extent such actions could or would be resisted by others, including Congress, the courts and other institutions.
“Even if Republicans win Congress, they won’t have 60 votes in the Senate,” Moore, the economic advisor to Trump, said, pointing to the threshold of support necessary to overcome a Senate filibuster.
Some experts also acknowledged that the economy performed fairly well under Trump during his first term, despite his administration taking steps that those experts perceived as testing democratic norms.
“Trump’s first term was chaotic, disorganized and bad for some institutions, but I fear his second term would be worse,” Acemoglu said.
In theory, the market itself could act as a check on Trump’s plans, experts said. A negative market response helped unseat then-UK Prime Minister Liz Truss In 2022.
Fiscal plans put forward by Truss caused the nation’s currency to plummet in value while bond yields spiked. Within weeks of her taking office, and amid heated criticism from both her opponents and members of her own party, Truss resigned.
A dramatic market reaction could limit Trump’s plans, but he could instead prioritize the consolidation of power, in turn diminishing the impact of a financial response, Pepinsky said.
“For most politicians, they change course if the market signals to them that something won’t work,” Pepinsky added. “Trump isn’t a normal politician.”
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — For a second day this week, Vice President Kamala Harris is focusing on a key voting bloc that is a critical base for the Democratic Party: Black men.
On Tuesday, Harris will participate in an audio town hall event with Charlemagne tha God, host for the popular “The Breakfast Club” podcast. Also on Tuesday, the vice president is meeting with Black entrepreneurs in Detroit.
Her events come a day after her campaign rolled out a comprehensive plan — just three weeks until the election — to help Black men “get ahead” economically, which includes providing one million fully forgivable loans to Black entrepreneurs and an effort to invest in Black male teachers.
In an interview on “Roland Martin Unfiltered,” also released on Monday, Harris argued that economic policies that consider “historical barriers” facing Black people benefit all Americans.
“If you have public policy, and I’m talking about economic public policy specifically at this point, but if you have public policy that recognizes historical barriers and what we need to do then to overcome,” Harris said. “First, speak truth about them and then overcome them, that in the process of doing that, not only are you directly dealing with the injustices and the legal and procedural barriers that have been focused on Black folks, but by eliminating those barriers, everyone actually benefits, right?”
The focus on Black voters comes after former President Barack Obama sternly chided Black men over “excuses” to not vote for Harris while speaking to a group of Black at a campaign field office in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood last week.
“You have [Trump], who has consistently shown disregard, not just for the communities, but for you as a person, and you’re thinking about sitting out?” Obama asked. “And you’re coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses?”
Harris is polling ahead of Trump with Black voters who are registered to vote, 82-13%, according to the latest ABC News/Ipsos poll. That compares with 87-12% in the 2020 exit poll (a slight 5 points lower for Harris; no better for Trump). Black men are at 76-18% (compared with 79-19% four years ago), the poll found.
These differences from 2020 aren’t statistically significant, and Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock said he agrees.
“I don’t buy this idea that there will be huge swaths of Black men voting for Donald Trump. That’s not going to happen. What I would urge folks to do is to show up, to understand that if you don’t vote, that is a vote for Donald Trump. That’s the concern.,” said Warnock on a Tuesday campaign call with reporters.
Part of the Harris campaign’s plan for Black men includes legalizing recreational marijuana nationwide. Such a move would “break down unjust legal barriers that hold Black men and other Americans back,” the campaign said in its release.
This takes the Biden administration’s current stance, which includes pardoning people convicted of marijuana possession, a step further. For Harris’ part, such a proposal is evidence of her evolving position. She has become more progressive since her time as attorney general of California when she was heavily criticized for aggressively prosecuting weed-related crimes.
Asked if she ever smoked by Charlamagne tha God back in 2019, Harris responded, “I have. And I inhaled — I did inhale. It was a long time ago. But, yes.”
She went on to clarify that she believes in legalizing the substance.
“I have had concerns, the full record, I have had concerns, which I think — first of all, let me just make this statement very clear, I believe we need to legalize marijuana,” she said. “Now, that being said — and this is not a ‘but,’ it is an ‘and’ — and we need to research, which is one of the reasons we need to legalize it. We need to move it on the schedule so that we can research the impact of weed on a developing brain. You know, that part of the brain that develops judgment, actually begins its growth at age 18 through age 24.”
Her answer garnered backlash due to her record prosecuting the substance, particularly given the racial disparities in punishment nationwide. Harris’ new proposal looks to correct those historical inequities.
But is it enough?
In addition to the new proposals, Harris has aggressively been campaigning in Black communities in the past week, stopping at several local Black-owned businesses and churches in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Michigan as well as appearing on several media programs with predominately Black audiences.
In September, Harris told a group of Black reporters in a moderated conversation hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists that she was “working to earn the vote, not assuming I’m going to have it because I am Black.”
Her campaign launched a “Black Men Huddle” organizing call on Monday, which featured remarks from campaign senior officials Tony West, Brian Nelson, Quentin Fulks and Rep. Cedric Richmond. Later, there was a weekly event focused on Black men supporting Harris featuring actor Don Cheadle.
“What the vice president is doing is giving us the tools to be able to go and have meaningful, impactful conversations when Black men turn back around to us and say, ‘Well, what’s in it for me,’ I think that we have policy and tools like this that we can say exactly that,” said Fulks.
Doc Rivers, who interviewed Harris for his “ALL the SMOKE” podcast on Monday, said he agreed with Obama’s comments last week and pushed for Black men to cast their ballots.
“I agree 100% with President Obama — it’s unacceptable not to vote. When you look back at what your parents and your grandparents had to do to get the right to vote, that’s unacceptable for me,” said Rivers. “But there are Black men who out there that feel hopeless, they don’t believe a vote helps them in either way, and I’m here to tell them they’re wrong.”
ABC News interviewed Black men in Pittsburgh’s predominately Black Homewood Brushton neighborhood last Friday about their impressions of Harris and what she needed to do to get their vote.
Aquail Bey, a student at The Community College of Allegheny County and president of its veterans club, said Harris needs to meet them where they are and genuinely speak with them.
“She’s doing a good job right now, but I think she should have — go to places where they are, you know, meet them on their own terms, you know. Go to the neighborhoods where they are, go to the barber shops … ” Bey said. “Wherever the Black men are, go to where they are, speak to them a way that they understand.”
Aaron Stuckey said people shouldn’t assume Black men aren’t getting behind Harris.
“Just poll us instead of assuming that that’s where we’re not going,” he said.
(WASHINGTON) — Vice President-elect JD Vance returned to Capitol Hill Thursday to accompany President-elect Donald Trump’s controversial pick to be secretary of the Department of Defense, Pete Hegseth, where they are meeting with Republican senators in hopes of helping his nomination process.
Hegseth met with Republican Sen. John Barrasso Thursday morning, after which Barasso called the former Fox News host a “strong nominee.”
“Pete pledged that the Pentagon will focus on strength and hard power — not the current administration’s woke political agenda,” Barrasso said.
Sen. Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee — which will manage the secretary of defense nomination and eventual hearing, met with Hegseth and Vance Thursday morning for about an hour.
After the meeting, Wicker said Hegseth would be in “pretty good shape” during his confirmation process.
Hegseth has also met with Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty.
Hegseth, an Army veteran, could face a challenging road to confirmation and is speaking with Republican senators to in hopes of helping his nomination process.
The woman who accused Hegseth of sexual assault in 2017 told police at the time that he took her phone and blocked her from leaving the room the night of the incident, according to a 22-page police report posted online overnight. Hegseth told police the encounter was consensual.
The woman told police she had drank “much more than normal” and could not remembers many details of the evening, but remembered saying “no” a lot during her encounter with Hegseth, according to the report.
Asked if the Hegseth allegations and police report came up in their conversation, Wicker said they didn’t get into specifics.
“We weren’t specific, but, ya know, since no charges were brought by the authorities, we have only press reports,” Wicker said.
Republican Sen. Joni Ernst said she believes an FBI background check into Hegseth would be “helpful” in knowing more about Trump’s pick.
Ernst, a combat veteran and member of the Senate Armed Services committee, also said “there’s a lot floating around out there, we need to actually be able to visit with him face to face, and I know the committee will do a thorough vetting.”
Hegseth has been involved in other controversies as well. He has said in interviews before being named that he advocated a “frontal assault” on the DOD, including firing what he called “woke” generals and eliminating the Pentagon’s diversity goals. He also argued that the United States “should not have women in combat roles.”
Hegseth’s Capitol Hill visit comes just one day after Vance and former Rep. Matt Gaetz, Trump’s nominee to be attorney general, met with senators to make his case for the role.
Both Gaetz and Hegseth are among a handful of people nominated by Trump to serve in his cabinet who many senators said they believe will face an uphill battle to be confirmed. Many senators said they should still go through the nomination process and have a chance to defend themselves.
“My intention is to vote for all the president’s nominees,” GOP Sen. Josh Hawley said of Gaetz on Wednesday. “I think for my colleagues who are — who have concerns about the attorney general nominee, my message would be, well, let’s have a hearing on this. You can ask whatever — if you’re a member of the committee, you can ask whatever question you want, give Gaetz the opportunity to answer questions, lay out his vision, answer concerns.”
