Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions says that a “movement” has taken hold of the nation, which rejects the globalist worldview that has dictated our trade and immigration policies for decades.
“There’s a movement out there,” Sessions told Stephen K. Bannon on Breitbart News Daily, referring to this year’s election.
On Friday’s program, Sessions slammed the “radical” and “religious” free traders whose policies, Sessions argues, has gutted the nation’s once-great manufacturing core, as well as our immigration policies, which Sessions described as a “disgrace to a great nation.”
Sessions said that the American people want leaders who will stand up for American sovereignty and “defend our interests”—particularly with regards to trade with China and other nations. Sessions said, “What we need to do is tell China: ‘You need our markets, but you’re going to open your markets to our products. You’re not going to manipulate your currency. You’re not going to steal our technological innovative ideas and abilities and if you do, it’s going to cost you, big boy. You’re in the big leagues now. You’ve got to play by the rules. The day [where] you can do what you want to is over.’”
Sessions explained that leaders around the globe are watching the nation’s elections unfold and are recognizing a growing sentiment amongst the American public: namely, that the American people think “we need to protect our people and our interests first” rather than continuing to enact globalist policies which give other nations “advantage over the United States economically.”
Breitbart News’ executive chairman and host of Breitbart News Daily Stephen K. Bannon asked Sessions about the vocal reaction world leaders have had in response to the political revolution taking hold of the Republican Party. Bannon said:
Why is this whole discussion of trade and immigration have China, have the Pope in the Vatican, have the Economist Magazine with their cover today, have the former presidents of Mexico—who used to be allies of the United States—why does it have everyone on edge, telling us what we have to do?
“I think we have created a sense of entitlement to the whole world that they can sell into our markets and they may be getting a little afraid because– as Romney said in his Republican debates– they need us more than we need them,” Sessions explained. “We can buy products from all over the world or actually make them at home. They’re the ones that need our markets to sell their products, bring home American dollars, create jobs in their country and lay off workers in the United States.”
Sessions proceeded to warn listeners that “we should guard against” trade deals that would allow other nations to “constrict” our power and our sovereignty. “We must not pass President Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership creating a Pacific Union among 12 countries,” Sessions said:
Many of them [i.e. nations in the TPP] are hostile to us, and all of them are mercantilist seeking advantage over the United States economically,” Sessions said. “We need to defend our interests and that is not liberal. It is not liberal, Steve. To say we want a trade agreement that defends us and is fair and does not give advantage to our competitors, but that’s kind of what you hear from these radical free traders, these religious free traders. No trade agreement is bad to them– none of them– you should vote for every one of them… And that’s the mistake that we’ve been undertaking and these countries need to know that if they don’t allow our products to be sold in their country or they devalue their currency or take other manipulative acts that we can shut off the market and that is not a radical thing at all… This trade agreement particularly… with a nascent European Union-like agreement part of it where 12 nations meet each has one vote. Vietnam has one vote, the Sultan of Brunei has one vote, the United States has one vote. And if you go back to early America we always [wanted] treaties with France and Germany and the big powers, and they didn’t want treaties with us because we bind them with a treaty. All these smaller nations want to bind the United States. They want treaties with the United States that can constrict us, but we’re the greatest military power, the greatest economic power, and we need to protect our people and our interests first to be very careful we we’re not letting these smaller countries be able to impinge on us. I’ve compared it to Gulliver and the Lilliputian with so many strings tied on, pretty soon the giant can’t move. And I really think we should guard against that. There’s no need for us to go that far.
Sessions recently released a short questionnaire for Republican candidates that consists of five straightforward questions that touch on the topics of trade, immigration and crime. Thus far, Donald Trump is the only candidate to answer Sessions questions. Sessions said that Trump– who opposes the TPP and has pledged to enforce the nation’s immigration laws– “answered to my satisfaction.”
Ted Cruz– who previously voted to fast-track TPP before reversing his vote, and who previously argued for expanding the controversial H-1B program before he reversed his position on that as well– has yet to fill out Sessions test.
Similarly, Marco Rubio– who has repeatedly endorsed Obama’s trade agenda, describing it as a “pillar” of his hoped-for Presidency, and who supports expanding immigration levels beyond all known historical precedent– has likewise not responded to Sessions’ candidate questionnaire. Moreover, while Trump has made cracking down on currency manipulation a central platform of his presidential campaign, both Cruz and Rubio have voted against taking corrective measures to prevent the illicit trading practice. Hear the interview:
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