Republican Congressman Don Bacon (R-NE) joined CNN on Thursday and proposed that Congress should reclaim its sole authority over U.S. tariff policy, which he argued Congress mistakenly ceded to the president. U.S. politics and the economy have been rocked in recent weeks by President Donald Trump’s tariff whiplash, announcing and then unannouncing tariffs on key allies like Canada, Mexico, and Europe.
“What could Republicans, congressman, the Republicans in Congress specifically be doing more to push the President to try to de-escalate his trade war? What leverage do you have?” asked anchor Wolf Blitzer.
“In Article 1 in the Constitution, really, tariffs should be a Congressional-initiated action. So this should come from Congress. However, I think we made a mistake. In the past, we passed legislation that gave the president some temporary tariff authorities. And I think that we should look back and maybe restore the power back to Congress,” Bacon replied, adding:
And take away the authorizations that we’ve allowed the presidents, not just President Trump, but President Biden and President Obama before him. This power should reside in the House and the Senate. We have the power of the purse, and so I think we should restore these authorities back to the House.
“That’s an interesting proposal. Let’s see if that happens. Let me quickly also get your thoughts, Congressman, on that Signal group chat scandal that’s ongoing. You’ve called on the White House to, quote, ‘Own up to the mistake.’ But now President Trump is calling the entire situation a witch hunt,” Blitzer replied, pivoting to Signalgate.
“Do you have any confidence in the Trump administration to hold people accountable for this stunning intelligence breach?” Blitzer asked.
“You know, this was a great mission, a great operation, and unfortunately, the way the White House has handled this hurt, it’s undermined what should be a successful bragging right here. It was great operation against the Houthis. Everybody that reads the messages knows that it was inappropriate for the Secretary of Defense to put when we’re going to bomb Yemen, when the aircraft are taken off, one of the impacts are going to be. That stuff was… put out two hours before the mission on an unclassified network,” replied Bacon.
Blitzer ended the exchange by noting Bacon is a retired U.S. Air Force brigadier general and as such he “speaks with a lot of authority.”
Watch the clip above via CNN.
