[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 85 (Wednesday, May 17, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H4230-H4231]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     QUESTIONS FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, let me raise several questions for President 
Donald Trump. The American people and Members of Congress would like to 
know the answers.
  I am deeply concerned the President is compromising the national 
security of our Nation. Why would a President share intelligence 
information with the highest ranking operatives of Russia close to 
President Vladimir Putin?
  Though the President's cavalier and, frankly, outrageous behavior 
conveniently sucked up the airwaves last week, Americans cannot be 
distracted from his simultaneous firing of FBI Director James Comey, an 
official who spent his life protecting and defending the Constitution 
of our country on liberty's behalf.
  Let me ask: Why were no U.S. journalists allowed into the President's 
historic meeting with the Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and Russia's 
Ambassador to the United States for many years, Ambassador Kislyak, one 
of probably the highest ranking intelligence officers as well as 
Ambassador from Russia to the United States? To my knowledge, no U.S. 
President has ever received officials from Russia in the Oval Office 
and then brought only Russian journalists with digital recording 
equipment into that office. Let me repeat that. We don't know who they 
were, but they brought equipment, digital recording equipment.
  Think about that. Think about that.
  Meanwhile, the President excluded American press. Not a single 
journalist from this country was allowed in. He replaced them with 
Russian state media operatives. Today, CNN reports that, how 
conveniently, President Vladimir Putin has now said he will

[[Page H4231]]

make available to America the transcript of that meeting. He is willing 
to share it. Well, isn't that nice?
  It is further alarming that his National Security Advisor, General 
McMaster, said that, despite the President being unaware of the source 
of the information, at that meeting he made a spur-of-the-moment 
decision to tell the Russians what he knew about very important 
intelligence we received from an ally.
  It is starting to pile up, Mr. President: more and more reckless and 
cavalier behavior every day with America's security stakes very high.
  I don't have to remind my colleagues, it is on the record. Russia has 
been buzzing into U.S. airspace over Alaska. Her submarines are along 
the East Coast. This isn't exactly a friend to us. If you want to make 
America great again, you do not compromise America's national security.
  Not only is the President struggling for a coherent foreign policy 
that keeps Americans safe and secure and doesn't make our allies 
quizzical, he fails to keep his attention on promises to working 
Americans here on home turf, particularly on trade and jobs. Let's take 
the promises he made to our steelworkers in Ohio, that they will not 
lose their jobs, that America will be great again, that the coalfields 
will just boom; right?
  Well, in Lorain, Ohio, thousands of steelworkers are losing their 
jobs, with hundreds more, as I stand here today, being pink-slipped and 
getting termination notices unless the President takes action by the 
end of the first week in June. This is not the only community in 
America facing this, but it is not getting any publicity because all 
this other stuff is all over the front pages.
  We know we need direct and immediate action to save America's steel 
industry that has been dumped on by Chinese, Russian, and South Korean 
steel for years now. We need to stop foreign-dumped steel. These 
workers' jobs are directly impacted by what is happening at our borders 
with all that stuff coming in here.

  I have invited the President and his Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, 
to Lorain, Ohio, to witness firsthand this unfolding tragedy. Well, no 
promises are firm yet, not getting any acceptances while our workers 
need to be thrown a life raft in the typhoon that they are enduring. 
Perhaps it is hard to make America great again if you are moving from 
one self-made crisis to another and losing attention on the homeland.
  Lorain County carried for Hillary Clinton, but only by 104 votes. It 
is a Democratic county. They were hoping jobs might actually begin to 
be increased in that area, not zeroed out.
  So let's recap: a roller coaster foreign policy confusing not just 
us, but our allies, and broken promises regarding jobs.
  How about healthcare? Well, let's take this--more confusion.
  We can be certain TrumpCare removes--removes--protections for our 
seniors and does not address the rising costs of medications. His bill 
will take away assistance that closed the Medicare prescription drug 
hole after seniors reach a level of $2,500, costing them over $1,000 
more a year.
  Mr. Speaker, the American people deserve security, they deserve jobs, 
they deserve affordable education, and there is no better time to start 
than today.

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