Rep. Wasserman Schultz Slams Trump for ‘Ridiculous Carnival Barker Threats’ to Buy Greenland and Seize Panama Canal

BOLDUAN: “Kevin Marino Cabrera, former Miami-Cade county commissioner, now — well, maybe former — his choice to be ambassador to Panama. What do you think of this selection?”
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: “You know, I don’t know much about the commissioner. I did represent Miami-Dade County for 18 years. And I’ll tell you, it’s just another example of Trump selecting an individual who has a scant resume other than being someone who worships Donald Trump. We have a free trade agreement with Panama. We have a decades and generations long relationship. And you know what, what Donald Trump and Speaker Johnson and the Republicans across our government are doing is demonstrating that the incoming chaos Congress and this administration is going to be of, by, and for the billionaires and corporations. And that’s what they’re telegraphing very clearly.”
BOLDUAN: “Donald Trump is making clear in his focus on Panama that it’s about Chinas growing influence is his, what he says is the point. One of his, one top Trump appointee put it this way. I’ll read it for you. ‘It’s designed to make clear that decades of U.S. commerce financing China’s growth and strategic footprint in the Americas is over.’ You may not like his style or approach to diplomacy, but if he does successfully, I don’t know, push China back or scare them off with regard to influence in the Americas, could this threat be worth angering Panama’s government, in your view?”
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: “It is utterly preposterous to suggest that we are going to send our military in to Panama to, quote, take back the Panama Canal. As I said, we have a treaty with Panama. We have a free trade agreement with Panama. We are no more going to take back the Panama Canal then Panama is going to come in and try to take the Mississippi River from us. We have to have rational, balanced diplomacy. And listen, the Belt and Road Initiative that China has engaged in is something that I have traveled the globe with my colleagues and met with military leaders. It is real, it is a real issue. But what we need to do is make sure that we strengthen our relationships with our, with our allies and treaty partners like Panama, not make ridiculous carnival barker threats like buying Greenland, which isn’t for sale, and we’re not going to acquire, and invading Panama to take back the canal. There’s been a drought in Panama, and so it has been — it has slowed passage of ships. But what Donald Trump is really trying to do here is try to get better fees for passage for his corporate and billionaire allies. That’s what this boils down to, and it’s preposterous.”
BOLDUAN: “You talked about the, I think you called it chaos Congress. One thing that we know that Congress will not be staring down, at least immediately when you all return, is a government shutdown. ‘The Washington Post’ is reporting on how Speaker Johnson was able to pull it off in the end after the bipartisan agreement, then not, then — you know, we all know the formations of how we got to where we got. Let me read what ‘The Washington Post’ says that Speaker Johnson did. He says he ‘proposed a handshake deal with fiscal hawks in his party to try next year to slash mandatory spending programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans’ health care, and food stamps by at least $2.5 trillion while raising the debt cap by $1.5 trillion.’ And this is according to the three people familiar with the details. If that is the case and where the focus is going to be when they when you all get back, what’s that going to mean for next year?”
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: “Listen, Kate, that’s not hyperbole. There was a screenshot that was taken inside the Republican conference meeting where that deal was proposed. And as someone who represents the state with the largest percentage of Medicare beneficiaries, I will tell you that that sends chills down the spines of millions of seniors across this country. We are — the Republicans have been salivating to turn Medicare into a voucher system, to privatize Social Security. I can’t tell you the number of times that I have talked with panicked seniors in my district who, when I asked them if they think that they could manage their own retirement security in a privatized Social Security system, where they’re given the money and you just have to let them fend for themselves on how they’re going to have enough to be able to live on, it’s frightening. And the Republicans are proving again, and we’ve got, again, a carnival barker coming in who doesn’t understand what our retirement programs that have been paid into for generations, over 80 years, and 70, 60 years for Medicare, and our seniors are owed a safe and secure retirement and health care that they don’t have to worry about dying as a result of not having that kind of coverage. That’s what Trump and his cronies in the chaos Congress that’s coming are guaranteeing.”
BOLDUAN: “Well, and it also can put the right flank of the party even at odds with Donald Trump himself, who has said that in the past that he wants to protect these programs and campaigned on that. So, again, we will see. But we will but we will see as the —“
SCHULTZ: “He’s very much a part of their —“
BOLDUAN: “We know that definitely —“
SCHULTZ: “Donald Trump is —“
BOLDUAN: “— he and Elon Musk were part of the negotiations, slash torpedoing of negotiations for sure when it comes to the government shutdown. But that means that you all have got about a three-month reprieve, and then you’re back up against another wall as that government, as the government funding bill only takes you through mid- March. So back at it again.”