Friday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-MA) said President Donald Trump’s decision to put tariffs on steel and aluminum from Europe, Mexico, and Canada was “nuts.”
Kennedy said, “The president has a point when it comes to the issue of trying to up dade NAFTA to make sure everybody is getting fair deal out of it. That being said, alienating our two biggest partners in Canada and Mexico is no way to go about doing it.”
He continued, “This is another example of where this administration comes up with an awful lot of bluster and no plan at all about how to execute on it.”
He added, “On a number of levels this doesn’t make sense. It’s not that easy to unwind. I hope the administration has a clue about what the next steps are here. A couple other points, when the president talks about an opioid epidemic across the country, you have to recognize that over 90 percent of the heroin used on our streets comes from Mexico. If you’re serious about addressing an opioid epidemic across America, you have to work very closely with Mexican authorities to make sure we’re doing all that’s necessary to make sure that crop doesn’t exist and doesn’t come across our borders.”
”Trying to create a trade war with Mexico at the same time as trying to work with them to crack down on heroin and fentanyl is nuts, ” he continued. ”So I worry that while this sounds good for a quick press release or bluster about being tough, when you turn back around on a number of other issues, where you need Mexico, again on opioids, where you need both on trying to stand up to China, the real adversary in this is not when it comes to trade is not Canada and Mexico and Europe, it’s China. I think the president’s geography has been a bit off.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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