Charles E. Schumer

Not analysed yet

A requested analysis is usually ready within half an hour; come back to this page or reload it.

Mr. President, so let me comment on AI and Trump's comments on that. So the American people keep calling on their government to act on AI, which even its creators are saying is increasingly dangerous, but Donald Trump couldn't care less. Trump says that he has that issue covered, that ``the only control or `guardrails' that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT.'' Well, we don't have one so let's do something, Senators. We know Trump is not going to step up to the plate here. He puts his head in the sand. He says there is no problem when every expert says there is a dramatic and dangerous problem that we should deal with. A high IQ President wouldn't call Americans' well-founded AI concerns a ``hoax'' or a ``sick conspiracy.'' Those aren't the words of someone with a high IQ, Donald Trump. The only thing that is sick is Trump's indifference to the legitimate, valid, strong concerns of the American people. And this is what Trump always does: Americans voice their concerns about a pressing issue--Trump dismisses them out of hand. Americans express their outrage about skyrocketing costs from Trump's failed agenda--Trump calls affordability a made-up word. Families say they are getting crushed at the gas pump because of Trump's war in Iran. The President calls soaring fuel prices fake, even though they are above $4.30 a gallon. Again, where is your IQ, Mr. President? Where is your perception of the world? I don't know if it is delusion or deception, but it doesn't matter. Trump is completely out of touch with the American people, and Trump is dead wrong about AI. We don't even know how the administration is testing the safety of these powerful models before they are released to the public. Is Trump favoring one company over another because of financial interests or because of his mood of the day? He has done that time and time again. He has favored one company, one interest, over another because they suck up to him. They give him contributions, who knows what. But it is usually not on the merits, and it is often corrupt. What kind of rigor is really being employed to protect the safety and security of the American people? What are they doing? How are they doing it? Who are they favoring? These are all legitimate, important questions that must be answered. And that is why I called on the Trump administration to hold a classified briefing with the entire Senate immediately about the potential severe risks that unchecked AI development poses to our country. We all know about it. We need transparency into how the administration is testing powerful frontier AI models, something they have been concealing from the public since announcing the framework months ago. AI is something we can come together on in the Senate. I say that to my colleagues. Democrats and Republicans can come together. We deserve to know how this administration is handling this consequential issue facing the American people. If there is ever a time for Republicans to break from their blind allegiance to Trump, it is now. The world is in danger, and Republicans are on the sidelines sucking their thumbs. It is time to get off the bench. And it is worth remembering that bipartisanship has happened on AI before. If you can believe it, it has been 3 years, almost to the day, since I convened the bipartisan AI Insight Forums. We brought together not just industry titans but leaders from across sectors--academia, civil society, labor--to steer the Senate to much needed action. We convened these forums to get ahead of the very crisis we are finding ourselves in today to prevent AI from getting on an unsustainable path that endangers our security, undermines the public's trust, jeopardizes American leadership. And out of these forums came a bipartisan comprehensive roadmap. It was strong; it was bipartisan; and the roadmap was turned into a bipartisan package of bills that we came close to passing into law at the end of the last Congress until Republican leadership, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and an incoming Trump administration blocked it. We had a chance to do this. We nearly had it, and we had good bipartisan support. And Trump comes in, Musk comes in and says don't do it, and now look where we are. Ultimately, Republicans blocked our efforts to act at the end of last Congress, but, my Republican colleagues, we can come together again to take action. The American people are demanding it. We cannot let partisanship stand in the way of this, one of the most serious problems our country and the world has ever faced. Mr. President, on the Trump family's Russia corruption--there is so much of it--on the same day Trump decided to put pressure on Ukraine rather than Russia by blaming Ukraine--not his disastrous Iran war--for high gas prices, we continue to see evidence that the Trump family is in Putin's pocket. It came out yesterday that a Russian oligarch with close ties to Putin footed the bill for hundreds of thousands of dollars in wedding expenses for Donald Trump, Jr. Can you believe this? An oligarch of a country we oppose is paying for the wedding of the President's son. Have you ever heard anything like this--so corrupt, so venal, so endangering our national security? How can you, across the aisle, shrug your shoulders at this kind of outrageous, damaging, destructive behavior? And what did Donald Trump, Jr., say in his defense? Not in this case, baby. You are dealing with a Russian oligarch, not just a cousin who is giving you a gift. Well, I say to Donald Junior, who said ``sometimes a wedding gift is simply a wedding gift,'' sometimes, Donald Trump, Jr., a wedding gift is a bribe from a foreign autocrat. The oligarch dropped hundreds of thousands to put on a fireworks display, host an extravagant party, and rent out a private island for Donald Junior. But what we know he was really buying is not to have a good time at a wedding but access to the Trump family. The corruption could not get any more shameless. The Trump family has already profited $4 billion off the Presidency this term alone. Did the Trumps really need a few hundred thousand more dollars? Is that what it takes for them to sell out America to the Russians? The American people have had enough of Trump's corruption. Have Senate Republicans?