[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 145 (Tuesday, September 15, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4700-S4701]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Artificial Intelligence

  Mr. SCHUMER. 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,

[[Page S4701]]

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.


                      Wedding of Donald Trump, Jr.

  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?

       [S]ometimes a wedding gift is simply a wedding gift.

  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?