During remarks on the Senate floor Tuesday, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) spoke about a bill that would condemn President Trump for accepting a $400 million 747 plane from the Qatari Royal Family.
00:00On another matter, it really should go without saying, but no president should be accepting
00:10a $400 million gift from a foreign country.
00:13It is gross, it is reckless, it is corrupt, and the outrage and condemnation, especially
00:18on the Republican side, should be universal.
00:21There is no excuse or justification for this.
00:24It is wrong, and that is the end of the story.
00:26There is no legal justification, there is no common sense justification.
00:31Let's unpack this a bit.
00:33Trump is planning to accept a $400 million luxury plane from Qatar, which he just so happens
00:38to be visiting this week on his first foreign trip of his term.
00:42The stated purpose of that trip is to cut business deals, but it's very hard to drive a hard bargain
00:49when the people that you're negotiating with just gave you a $400 million gift.
00:55And it means that the other side will have a much easier time getting what it wants, even
01:00if American interests are harmed.
01:03A law enforcement official called the gift a, quote, security nightmare because it would
01:07require basically the whole thing to be busted up, taken apart, and reconstituted.
01:13If that all sounds blatantly corrupt and incredibly wasteful, it is because it is.
01:18And I just want everyone to go through the thought experiment.
01:22Imagine if it were a president of the other party.
01:27Imagine if this happened 25 years ago and you were reading about something in history.
01:32Do you think that an American president should accept a $400 million gift?
01:37Do you think that Air Force One, this icon, this symbol of American power abroad, that has carried
01:49John F. Kennedy's body, where LBJ was sworn in, where George W. Bush was whisked away when
02:03the Twin Towers fell, where multiple presidents of both parties and multiple generations have
02:10done extraordinary work around the world making sure that we are the indispensable nation, that
02:15we are the leader of the free world, now sponsored by Qatar.
02:19I remain flabbergasted that this thing is not going to pass.
02:27I remain completely aghast.
02:30This is the most blatant, obvious, ridiculous, gross corruption that I've ever seen in my entire life.
02:38By dollar amount, by symbolism, by violating constitutional and statutory law, and also just
02:46violating like a, you don't have to be, I'm not a lawyer, you don't have to be all fancy
02:51pants to understand how ridiculous it is that a foreign government is going to say, hey, we'll
02:56take care of Air Force One for you.
02:58And so we have a simple resolution, and it is simple, and I was going to read it, but
03:06you know what, I'll just summarize it.
03:07It basically says, and the way these things are structured, it's a bunch of whereases,
03:12whereas Air Force One is a symbol of the United States, where Air Force One is one of the most
03:17recognizing symbols of the office of the presidency, and so on and so forth, therefore, be it resolved
03:23that we shouldn't do this, that the American president should not accept a $400 million
03:30gift from anybody.
03:36And so, as if in legislative session and notwithstanding Rule 22, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate
03:44proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 218, submitted earlier today, that there be up to
03:49two hours for debate on the resolution, and that upon the use or yielding back of that time,
03:53the Senate vote on the adoption of the resolution.
03:56Finally, that if the resolution is adopted, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions
04:00to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.
04:05Is there an objection?
04:06Mr. President.
04:06The Senator from Alabama.
04:08Preserving the right to object.
04:10As usual, my Democratic colleagues are losing their mind over the situation.
04:18But let's just talk about the facts.
04:20First of all, this is not a done deal.
04:24It's not happened yet.
04:26It's all talk.
04:27But if reports are accurate, the government of Qatar is considering gifting the United States
04:32Department of Defense an American-made Boeing 747.
04:37I'll repeat that, an American-made Boeing 747 plane for temporary use as Air Force One.
04:45It is not for the President's personal use, and he will not be using it after he leaves office.
04:52It is customary and totally normal for foreign countries to give our government gifts.
04:58The DOJ has already said that this does not violate any law.
05:05So why are my colleagues and the woke media having a full-blown meltdown over this situation?
05:12Perhaps it's because in the past 72 hours, President Trump has delivered so many wins, you can't count them all.
05:19On Sunday, he negotiated a deal with China, dropping tariffs 50%.
05:22On Monday, he secured the release of the last remaining American hostage in Hamas.
05:29Aiden Alexander has been through hell the past 584 days, and it took President Trump to bring him home.
05:36Today, President Trump just announced hundreds of billions of dollars in new investments from the Middle East.
05:42And on Thursday, he is forcing a face-to-face meeting between Putin and Zelensky to end this brutal war in Ukraine.
05:50You'd think the media would be celebrating all these wins, along with my colleagues, but as usual, the Trump derangement syndrome is getting in the way.
05:58I'm convinced that the media and some of my colleagues would rather President Trump lose on everything and our country lose on everything than be successful.
06:07Whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, we are all Americans.
06:11Sometimes I think we forget that.
06:12And we should all be able to celebrate any time a president delivers a win for the American taxpayers.
06:21And by the way, we are $37 trillion in debt.
06:27If another country wants to give us a free plane, saving the taxpayers of this country $400 million.
06:33The only thing we should say is thank you.
06:38Democrats are rudderless right now.
06:40They're looking for something to hang their hat on.
06:42They see that President Trump has done more than four months than President Biden did in four years.
06:47So they want to make a plane gift from Qatar the next so-called perfect phone call to my Democratic colleagues,
06:56instead of wasting their time, objecting every time President Trump breathes,
07:00maybe you should get outside of D.C. and go connect with the American people.
07:04I can promise you, they don't give a rip about an airplane.
07:09They care about their lives and this economy and the things that have been destroyed for the past four years
07:15that President Trump is trying to put back together.
07:18For these reasons, Mr. President, I object.
07:21The objection is heard.
07:26So that we are going to talk about the first thing,
