[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 165 (Thursday, November 17, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Page S6444]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         PRESIDENT-ELECT TRUMP

  Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, last week Hillary Clinton got about 1 
million more votes than Donald Trump; yet here we are--Donald Trump won 
the Presidency. Across the Nation, everyone is wondering what happens 
next.
  It has been barely a week, but we have already seen disgusting ideas 
emerging from Trump Tower: Put a White supremacist in the White House; 
float a plan to register all Muslim Americans; draw up plans to round 
up millions of human beings and rip families apart across this Nation. 
It is sickening, and we will fight back. But, hey, at least he promised 
to shake up our corrupt political system, right? I mean, after all, 
when President-Elect Trump announced his campaign, he called out the 
politicians who were ``controlled fully by the lobbyists, by the 
donors, and by the special interests.'' When he accepted his party's 
nomination at the Republican National Convention, he said, ``When 
innocent people suffer, because our political system [ . . . ] has sold 
out to some corporate lobbyist for cash--I am not able to look the 
other way.'' He promised that he would ``not be controlled by the 
donors, special interests, and lobbyists who have corrupted our 
politics and politicians for far too long'' and that he would ``drain 
the swamp'' in Washington, DC. Those are his words, repeated loud and 
repeated long during the campaign.
  President-Elect Trump has now named most of his transition team. So 
how is he doing on his rock-solid, double-down promise to get rid of 
the special interests and the lobbyists? Big surprise. Trump is not 
``draining the swamp.'' Nope. He is inviting the biggest, ugliest swamp 
monsters in the front door, and he is turning them loose on our 
government and on our economy. In just 1 week, the President-elect has 
elevated a slew of Wall Street bankers, industry insiders, and special 
interest lobbyists to run the show on his transition team. Let's run 
through just a few examples.
  The guy in charge of staffing the Federal Communications Commission 
was on Verizon's payroll and has produced studies aimed at knee-capping 
the net neutrality rules.
  The guy in charge of picking the team that will decide energy policy 
in a Trump administration is a lobbyist for the oil and gas industry.
  The guy picked to staff up the Department of Agriculture is a 
``veteran food and agriculture lobbyist'' whose firm has raked in 
millions representing the food industry.
  The guy leading the transition for the Environmental Protection 
Agency has been paid by the oil industry and denies that climate change 
is real.
  The guy heading up the transition team for the Social Security 
Administration is--you guessed it--a former lobbyist who spent much of 
his career working to cut and privatize the Social Security system.
  The guy--and, by the way, we may have noticed a pattern here: almost 
all guys--working on transportation and infrastructure is a founding 
partner at a law firm that lobbies for the National Asphalt Paving 
Association.
  The guy in charge of economic issues for the Trump transition team 
served for 6 years as chief economist at Bear Stearns--the Wall Street 
firm that helped crash our economy in 2008, and he now runs a 
consulting firm for Wall Street clients.
  Trump's very first decision is to hand over the keys of government to 
the worst kind of DC insiders and special interests. It seems like all 
those promises to stand up for working people were just a giant con.
  As the outrage has now spread, we have heard reports that Vice 
President-Elect Mike Pence has decided to remove all lobbyists from the 
transition team. Yeah, I will believe it when I see it. If we learned 
anything from this campaign, it is that Team Trump will make up things 
if it seems convenient. Last night we already heard another version of 
his story. It seems that lobbyists can come on board, but only if they 
drop their formal lobby registration when they join the team. Swamp 
monsters today, swamp monsters wearing clean shirts and ties for the 
transition team tomorrow, and swamp monsters once the transition is 
over. Putting a clean shirt on a swamp monster doesn't change anything. 
They have already had ample opportunity to stuff transition plans with 
ideas that will be good for their well-connected clients, and they will 
be disastrous for everyone else.
  Besides, even if the lobbyists finish up early and leave, the Trump 
transition team is still full of industry insiders seeking special 
deals for themselves and for their companies. This isn't subtle, and 
you don't have to take my word for it. Here is how Politico put it this 
morning: ``A populist candidate who railed against shady financial 
interests on the campaign trail is now putting together an 
administration that looks like an investment banker's dream.'' In the 
same article, one historian said, ``You would have to go back to the 
1920s to see so much Wall Street influence coming to Washington.''
  So what happened? How come the guy who spent the election tweeting 
``I'm not controlled by lobbyists or special interests'' is stuffing 
his transition team full of lobbyists and special interests? Well, when 
you ask the President-elect about his flip-flop, he says he needs 
lobbyists on his team because ``they know the system.'' He said, 
``Everybody's a lobbyist'' in DC. That is literally the opposite of 
what he said during the campaign, and it is also not true. Many 
Americans, both inside and outside Washington, have plenty of expertise 
to serve the American public without being bought and paid for by 
special interests.
  Americans are angry about a Federal Government that works for the 
rich and powerful and that leaves everyone else in the dirt. Donald 
Trump knows that. He talked a good game during the campaign, and he 
promised to end corruption. He promised to drain the swamp. And after 1 
week, we have seen what Donald Trump's promise means--nothing. His 
word, his promise to the American people, is worth nothing.
  Well, Mr. President-Elect, let me be clear: I am ready to fight on 
behalf of the millions of Americans you have lied to. That includes the 
millions who voted for you and the millions who didn't.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. HOEVEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cassidy). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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