Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) grilled the White House’s top trade negotiator on the administration’s trade strategy during a hearing on Wednesday, asking the official “who’s in charge” as President Trump announced a pause on tariffs for most countries.
As news broke of Trump’s announcement during a House Ways and Means hearing, Horsford pressed U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer about the recent move.
“How long is the pause? How many days? How many weeks?” Horsford asked.
“I understand it’s 90 days, I haven't spoken to the president –” Greer began to say before Horsford responded.
“So, the trade representative hasn't spoken to the President of the United States about a global reordering of trade and yet he announced it on a tweet? WTF, who’s in charge?” Horsford said, before arguing, “It looks like your boss just pulled the rug out from under you and paused the tariffs, the taxes on the American people."
“There's no strategy you just found out three seconds ago, sitting here, we saw you,” he said, while also asking Greer why he hadn’t disclosed plans to pause the tariffs earlier in the testimony if he was aware beforehand of the president’s eventual announcement.
Greer said the president “is in charge” and that he doesn’t disclose his “conversations with the president.”
“These are real consequences for the American people and small businesses. I had a group of small businesses in my office earlier today talking about the impacts of these tariffs on aluminum and steel,” Horsford said.
“This is amateur hour, and it needs to stop. What does this even mean for your negotiating strategy? How are you in charge of negotiation if the president is tweeting about this from wherever the hell he is?”
Greer responded, “The president was elected, and he runs the trade policy, and I advise him and execute his trade policy.”
Horsford also took aim at Republicans’ attendance in the hearing room and accused Trump of blinking on China.
Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, pushed back on Horsford’s comments not long after and said there were “more Republicans in this chamber than there are Democrats currently in this committee room.”
“I appreciate the president did not blink on China, as was said earlier, and it needs to be correct in the record,” he said. “In fact, he increased China by 125 percent.”
Horsford then asked Smith for “a colloquy,” to which Smith declined.
“We don’t want to talk about the trade policy here in the trade committee? This is our jurisdiction,” Horsford said.
“Your time has expired and I’m more than happy to talk to you –” Smith responded, before Horsford said, “I asked if you would yield.”
“And I said no,” Smith said.
“Because you don’t want to defend the policy or the strategy,” Horsford added before Smith recognized another member to speak.
Horsford could be heard saying off camera, “Kick me out, what are you going to do?”
