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As promised joining me now is Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
She's the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee She also sits in the Senate Finance Committee.
She knows how to talk about and explain these issues better than anyone I know we're in Professor Warren's class right now a little bit So let me start there because I really a lot of people are just digesting this around the country and you know today Trump said that maybe some of the tariffs could be permanent We don't know that to be the case, but just help us understand what the impact of that could be So understand it this way Donald Trump has done Massive tariffs and this comes from someone who actually believes that tariffs are an important tool in our economic toolbox There are good times to use it.
We want to onshore a supply chain that we want to protect We want to make more pharmaceuticals here.
We want to make more cars here But you do this very carefully and you do it in combination with things you're doing domestically to support So that work actually gets done not Donald Trump comes in and basically starts the dumbest trade war in the history of this country and Then when the markets respond when people respond by saying, oh my god, this changes everything I do And now we have economists out there debating.
Are we already in a recession?
We have Goldman Sachs Jamie Dimon saying yeah, I think we're already there You are quoting some of the folks the head of the Fed on Friday saying prices are going to go up and Unemployment can go up at the same time, which is the worst of all worlds.
So that's all the big noise But the way this hits families one household at a time This is going to be about potentially millions of people losing their jobs It's going to be about millions of people losing their savings many of people losing their retirement security And at the same time taking on even higher costs for everything they buy so that's going to push us in potentially to foreclosures or People being pushed out of their apartments You know, I remember this from 2008 and how long it took us to dig our way out and to this day There are families.
There are communities that still haven't recovered Recessions can be all those fancy charts and graphs But at the end of the day people feel them one person at a time and they can be devastated I was thinking of you today and was so grateful You were able to come on because one of the and I just read this but Mark Cuban posted this today He said if the new tariffs stay in place for multiple years and are enforced and inflationary and Doge continues to cut and fire Which is also having an impact on the economy.
We will be in a far worse situation than 2008 I mean, I think I first met you when you were one of the loudest and boldest voices during that period of time Do you feel that way too?
You know, I am very worried and I'm worried because these tariffs are coming in exactly like Cuban points out At a time when the economy has already absorbed one body blow after another Look at all the people around the country that have already been fired by Doge or who are afraid That when they show up tomorrow for work, they're going to be thrown out Look at all the cuts for example to our medical research and scientific research So all those contracts are being pulled back cuts that are going into our public schools, which means little towns Across Massachusetts and big cities saying wait a minute.
We're not going to be able to hold our budgets together here So who do we lay off?
How do we manage to keep these pieces going all of this occurring at the same moment that?
Donald Trump just comes in and Declares that he's gonna turn over the economy on top of small businesses That are already pushed tight to the edge on top of lots of people already losing their jobs Okay by now I hope you've seen the massive historic crowds that turned out across the country this weekend to protest Donald Trump in Cities like Boston, New York, Los Angeles and DC all those places.
You can see him on the screen The turnout was enormous some crowds even rivaling or surpassing the size of the Women's March in 2017 But what really stood out this time at least to me were the protests happening in parts of the country that are a bit redder Take a look at Salt Lake City, Utah That's thousands of people at the steps of the state capitol on April 5th When you need a drone to capture a full crowd protesting a Republican president in Utah That's a big deal in Columbus, Ohio JD Vance's home state hundreds came out in the pouring rain in Every major swing state some of which many of which Donald Trump won, North Carolina, Georgia, Maine, Arizona Fired up crowds turned out in big big numbers and it didn't stop there Tulsa, Oklahoma Billings, Montana Sioux Falls, South Dakota people showed up with a clear urgent message hands off our country Honestly pick a state any state Google hands off and you'll find that even the reddest corners of the reddest states Turned out in force and Senator Elizabeth Warren is back with me So you were in Tennessee this weekend was just not what most people would envision What was it like there in your when you were visiting and what do you think of these crowds?
I think the crowds are fabulous.
I think people are tuned in and they really care People were there to tell their stories to talk about what's happening to them But they were also there to say what can we do?
Yeah, what do we need to do?
We got this because they were determined they were ready to fight back boy They were on their feet about tax cuts for billionaires About taking away support for Social Security and the cuts in the Social Security Administration They were there to talk about don't take away health care from little babies through Medicaid Don't take away the promises we made to our veterans with Veterans Administration And I'll tell you one that really got him on their feet and that was don't cut help to our public schools Whoa, people were fired up.
That's so injured.
I'm I'm happy.
I'm it's horrible What's happening?
Yes schools, but I'm happy to hear that people are so tuned in.
Oh, they were ready We were just talking I think sometimes after an election where your party loses you people feel hopeless.
They feel powerless They are not hope they shouldn't be hopeless They are not powerless, but these are a reminder out there of the power of people and Republicans Are watching them right?
That's exactly right.
There are a lot of reminders.
So one of the things we talked about I said Call your senator call your rep and I said I'm before you tell me Oh, I've done that and it didn't do any good.
All I have to say to you is Wednesday It was Wednesday when we saw the first crack in the Republican senators and Trump wall and that was when those Republicans crossed the aisle on the tariff question And I said and the second thing you got to do is you gotta go out there and Organize and before you tell me organizing doesn't work.
I'll say to you Tuesday because it was Tuesday in Wisconsin where good old Elon Musk had shown up with his 25 million dollars in cheese hat and Evidently made the election go even stronger for Democrats by doing that and that was because people organized And now the heart of it is tell your stories Get out there and tell your stories the Republicans want to give tax breaks to billionaires and they want to pay for it on the backs of your kids and your grandma and Your friend down the street who has a disability and your neighbors You've got to tell these stories because remember 2017 You remember?
We didn't have control Democrats did not have control of the house the Republicans did Republicans had control of the Senate and Donald Trump was in the White House and they were determined to kill health care For tens of millions of people that bill passed the house easily They all went off and celebrated it came to the Senate and it was people who told stories Who brought their babies who depend on that health care who brought in seniors who depend on that health care Told their personal stories in Washington and all across the country and you remember that night It came down.
We don't have any more Democrats.
No, it came down to one vote and it was when Good old John McCain Had listened to those stories and voted no and saved health care for tens of millions of Americans That's the power of what we do together You