During remarks on the Senate floor Tuesday, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) blocked a bill that would require the Senate Legal Counsel to file a lawsuit to enforce the Emoluments Clause as President Trump appears poised to accept a $400 million gifted 747 plane from the Qatari Royal Family.
00:00Senator from Connecticut. Mr. President, a lot of Americans are watching this spectacle,
00:08a $400 million gift from Qatar, which President Trump has called a palace in the sky.
00:20It would be for his personal use now and then afterward when he is a private citizen.
00:30And they're wondering, isn't there a law that prevents it?
00:36Isn't there some statute that stops this corruption, a gift to the president from a foreign power that makes him beholden for his personal benefit and use?
00:52And the answer to the American people is, yes, there is a law. In fact, it's in the Constitution.
00:57It's a specific clause. It's called the Foreign Emoluments Clause that states, quote,
01:05no person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall, without the consent of Congress,
01:12accept of any present emolument office or title of any kind whatsoever from any king, prince, or foreign state.
01:21And the reason for this clause, which was written by the founders centuries ago, is so powerfully shown today.
01:36At the beginning of our nation, we were a small country, potentially influenced by big foreign powers, England, France.
01:46Founders were concerned that our presidents or other officials could be bought, could be influenced, could be pressured by those foreign powers.
01:58So they specifically wrote into the statutes a measure that protected our small nation then.
02:06It applies equally now.
02:09In fact, now, it's even more a protection of our national security.
02:17This plane is emblematic of a core metastasizing corruption,
02:26an economic cancer that has infected the White House.
02:30But it is also emblematic of a national security threat from nations who would buy our president.
02:40Maybe not signed, sealed, and delivered, but exert undue influence.
02:48And in fact, the national security threat is even greater from this plane,
02:52which would have to be taken apart at huge expense to American taxpayers,
02:57literally taken apart down to its shell.
03:01As a member of the Armed Services Committee,
03:04I can tell you, Mr. President,
03:06that there are foreign powers all over the world
03:09who would like nothing better than a Qatar plane
03:12to be carrying the president of the United States,
03:15potentially bugged, infiltrated,
03:18by systems that could be hacked by them,
03:23not just by Qatar or other Mideast nations.
03:27It is a threat to our national security
03:30to have the president of the United States riding in this plane
03:34unless it is, in effect, taken apart
03:37and put back together
03:39with the systems and the safeguards
03:42that are included on Air Force One.
03:47This blatantly corrupt act shows that the president is just in it for himself.
03:58In fact, that kind of equipping of the plane
04:01will take billions of dollars of taxpayer money
04:04and years of work
04:06to bring this aircraft up to the requirements,
04:10the minimal requirements,
04:11of Air Force One,
04:14ready in time for the president to use it
04:17after he leaves office.
04:20And President Trump won't even pay the transfer fees.
04:23The reports that the United States Air Force
04:27will pay all the costs related to retrofitting
04:31and transferring this plane to the United States,
04:34even to the presidential library,
04:36show the blatant corruption here.
04:41Accepting the plane is bad enough.
04:42But foisting on taxpayers
04:46the expense of retrofitting it
04:49and updating it
04:51and then transferring it to his foundation
04:54is an insult to every American.
04:58And my colleagues on the other side of the aisle
