Chuck Schumer

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, Donald Trump's election speech tonight is not about the election Trump lost 6 years ago; it is a threat against the election he is afraid to lose this November. Trump may control the microphone tonight, but he will not control the verdict in November. The voters will have the last word, and Senate Democrats will rebut Trump's lies every day. We will fight like hell to make sure Trump can't silence voters. Trump's prime-time speech tonight isn't simply about relitigating his overwhelming defeat in the 2020 election; it is about undermining the 2026 election before a single vote has been cast. Trump won't expose anything of substance about 2020; he will just echo the same stale, baseless, pathetic lies he has repeated for 6 years. Donald, you have been trying this shtick for 6 years. Only your little coterie of sycophants still believes these lies--no one else. You can say it tonight, Trump. You can say it tonight. You can say it tomorrow. You can say it every night until election. No one believes you. The election was not stolen. Trump keeps chasing his tail, going round and round and round in circles so many times, he has left a rut in the ground. Every time he tells a lie, he digs himself deeper into the hole. Trump's fixation on these conspiracy theories reeks of desperation. Trump knows he can't defend Republicans' disastrous record--his disastrous record as well--so he is trying to discredit the voters who will judge it in November. Hey, Donald, the reason your numbers are so low is because you are obsessed with BS like this instead of what Americans actually care about. The American people are fed up with Donald Trump. Americans are fed up with the chaos in their streets, fed up with the corruption in their government, fed up with sky-high costs in every part of their lives because of this administration's policies. Voters are sick of forking over their tax dollars to line Trump's pockets and to fuel his failed war in Iran. Trump has given up on winning over hearts and minds. Now he is focused on rigging rules and purging voter rolls. Instead of changing course on their deeply unpopular agenda, Trump and the GOP have launched a coordinated, multifront campaign to subvert the 2026 election. But don't worry, America, it will fail. Trump has called for Republicans to ``take over voting in 15 states in the country.'' That is what he said. Trump said: We want to take over. We should take over the voting. . . . Republicans ought to nationalize the voting. It is in his own words. Trump has issued unlawful Executive orders to try to kill vote-by- mail. The administration is packed to the rafters with election deniers, including key election oversight positions. MAGA loyalists like Todd Blanche and Kash Patel have used the DOJ and FBI to torment election officials and foment lies with politically motivated investigations designed to sow doubt and instill fear. Trump's Republican allies in Congress keep pushing the SAVE Act, the most devious voter-suppression legislation Trump has ever dreamed up. Donald, when it comes to the SAVE Act, the courts have rejected it, Congress has rejected it, and even members of your own party have rejected it. Give it up. The SAVE Act isn't going anywhere. There is no way we are letting this administration feed Americans' personal data into an algorithm Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Russell Vought created and let it pick who gets to vote. Donald Trump made life harder and more expensive for the American people, and now he wants to make sure the American people can't hold him accountable at the ballot box. That is what Trump's speech is about tonight. But in America, voters choose their leaders; leaders do not choose their voters. Senate Democrats are going to fight like hell to make sure our elections belong to the voters, not to Donald Trump. The country does not belong to Donald Trump. The ballot does not belong to Donald Trump. The verdict does not belong to Donald Trump. It belongs to the American people. And this vote in November, they will deliver it.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, anyone who can represent a known pathological liar like Donald Trump can have no integrity and should never be Attorney General. We all know lawyers are supposed to represent their clients, but when you represent a client who just lies and lies and lies, pathologically, you should never be Attorney General. The only thing today's hearing will confirm is that Todd Blanche represents one client alone, Donald Trump, and he will continue to represent that lying client when he is Attorney General. There will be no integrity. There will be no real basis of fact. He will just do whatever Trump wants. We know that. But the central question today, at this hearing and on into the process, is not of what Trump wants but what Senate Republicans will do. Let me repeat that. The crucial question today is not what Trump wants, but what Senate Republicans will do. Where are the Senate Republicans? Are Republicans really going to go to the mat for Blanche, after he aided Trump in his corruption every step of the way? Do Senate Republicans have no issue with Blanche masterminding Trump's MAGA slush fund, arranging Trump's sweetheart deal from the IRS, and refusing to release 3 million pages of the Epstein file? Come on, Republicans, you have no shame? Is there no bar that can block you from, prevent you from, putting a man like this as Attorney General? Republicans have set the bar so low for our Nation's top law enforcement official that you have to dig for it. The American people don't trust Todd Blanche. Neither should Senate Republicans, plain and simple.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, how long will Republicans let Trump's secret police continue to sow chaos and violence in our American streets? For the second time in less than a week, ICE agents fatally shot someone, first in Texas and again in Maine yesterday. There are still a lot of unanswered questions about these two shootings, but what little we do know is disturbing, to say the least. Both cases appear to have involved ICE agents who were not wearing body cameras--killing individuals who were not the subject of the agents' warrant. Why were these two people shot at and killed? We don't know the answers. There are no body cameras yet. There are no body cameras as we would require. The ICE agents in Texas were also riding in unmarked vehicles. If Republicans had passed our bill, there would be body cameras, proper agent ID, warrant requirements, and other commonsense reforms, and these killings might not have happened. I hope our Republican colleagues are listening. If they had passed our reforms, these killings might not have happened. With those reforms, we would have at least had a better idea as to what exactly happened so that we could have avoided further killings in the future. Instead, Republicans poured tens of billions of dollars into Trump's rogue Agencies with no strings attached--no strings attached. While every other police department in America has rules, our Republican colleagues and Trump said: No rules. Do whatever you want. And look at the results. Look at what has happened. It is dangerous to give ICE agents free rein when we expect every other law enforcement agency in the country to follow basic codes of conduct. Allowing unidentified Federal agents to roam through American streets, to kick down people's doors without a warrant, to shoot people dead in the street without any--any--provocation, as it might well have been here, is an invitation for state-sanctioned violence, not an immigration policy. I am calling on the Trump administration to release all information related to these two shootings, and we need to conduct independent investigations of each. The American people need to know how and why this chaos is spreading through their streets. Republicans who refuse to go along with real reforms of ICE--reforms that we see in every police department in the country--should pivot, change their minds, realize these shootings were just awful and work with us to reform this rogue Agency. The American people need to know, of course, how and why this chaos is spreading through their streets, and we need a complete investigation that is independent.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, on this Trump election task force--it just gets crazier and crazier with this administration. Yesterday, the White House announced that Trump and his election task force will reveal intelligence reports that supposedly corroborate his baseless lies about the 2020 election. Give me a break. Donald, start focusing on lowering Americans' costs, not on your conspiracy theory that the 2020 elections were stolen from you. You don't have proof. You haven't come up with proof for 6 years because there is no proof, Donald Trump. You haven't come up with the proof because it isn't there. There is no proof. Trump should get off all of this nonsense, all of this wishful thinking, all of this lunacy and focus on what people actually care about--their higher costs. If Trump thought about November 2026 half as much as he thinks about 2020, maybe his party wouldn't be scrambling right now. Apparently, Trump also plans to say that Senators Ossoff and Warnock were illegitimate because of election fraud. How desperate can Trump get? He is flailing. His effort to overturn what happened in 2020 is a mission impossible. He ought to wake up, smell the coffee, and abandon this frivolous, ludicrous, diversionary effort. Trump's obvious desperation might be amusing if it weren't so dangerous. Without question, it is part of Trump's effort to subvert the 2026 midterm elections. The whole reason Republicans are in their current mess is that Trump refuses to drop his radical SAVE Act--to strip millions of Americans of their voting rights. Trump has made clear, once again, who plans to force a shutdown--Donald Trump; yes, Donald Trump. Yesterday, Trump said Republicans have to get rid of the filibuster and pass the SAVE Act ``otherwise we're going to have a shutdown.'' That is what he said yesterday. So, Americans, hear this: If there is a shutdown, it is on Donald Trump's back. Donald, do you remember the last time you demanded a shutdown when Nancy and I were in your office? It didn't work out too well for you then, and it won't work out too well for you now. America, hear this: If there is a shutdown, it is on Donald Trump's back. Unless Trump changes his course, realizes the SAVE Act cannot pass, and starts working on more productive things, we could be headed for another Trump shutdown. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Now, Mr. President, on Iran and the NDAA, when all the Trump administration can say about his disastrous war with Iran is that Vietnam was worse--a point Trump made yesterday--he reveals the scale of his failure. This is what Donald Trump said. The only thing he can say is that Vietnam was worse. Oh my God, a war that killed close to 50,000 Americans, a war that lasted almost a decade, a war that ripped America apart in ways that took decades to recover is what he compares Iran to? Oh my God. Trump's supposed cease-fire deal has completely collapsed. Our troops are coming under attack. The Strait of Hormuz is a minefield, and gas prices are going back up. Donald Trump is totally out of his depth. In fact, Donald Trump is drowning in the Strait of Hormuz because he has no plan. He had no plan when he got America into this war, and he has no plan on how to get us out. Trump started the war without authorization, without a strategy, without an exit. The reason that we have war powers acts is to force an administration to think through the consequences of going to war ahead of time. Trump, of course, didn't listen. Finally, after weeks, bipartisan majorities in both Chambers of Congress voted to end it. We had tried and tried. Finally, enough Republicans joined us, but Donald Trump ignored them. Now the White House has formally notified Congress that hostilities have resumed; that American strikes are underway again; and that our forces remain positioned for more. Yet Republicans want the Senate to take up the NDAA--the Defense bill--as though none of this is happening, as though Congress can debate the Nation's central national security bill while ignoring the Nation's most urgent national security crisis. We cannot. I will be voting no. The President is waging an unauthorized war in defying bipartisan majorities in Congress and in refusing to level with the American people about the cost, the mission, or the endgame. The NDAA cannot become a permission slip for that recklessness that we see occurring in Iran. Donald Trump does not get to drag the American people deeper into a war he cannot explain and does not know how to end and then demand Congress look the other way. Donald Trump and the administration have no authorization, no strategy, no peace, no blank check. Therefore, a day after the President told Congress that his war is back on, I am a no--a strong no--on the NDAA.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, my prayers and those of my family are with Senator Graham's family, staff, and friends after his sudden, sudden passing yesterday. We see the white roses on his desk, and we think of Lindsey. Senator Graham devoted much of his life to public service--first in the military and then in Congress, where he represented South Carolina for more than three decades. To the very end, Senator Graham's life was defined by public service. He was an important Member of this institution and a crucial voice for his constituents in South Carolina. For all of our many and vehement disagreements, Senator Graham and I still found ways to work together. One of the first things we did together was travel to China. We both believed that China was manipulating its currency, hurting American exports, hurting American jobs, and together we hammered away at that issue. At first, neither the left nor the right believed us. Amazingly enough, both the New York Times, a liberal publication, and the Wall Street Journal, a conservative publication, said there is no such thing as currency manipulation, but Graham and I proved to be correct, and we took some real efforts over the next few years to stop that manipulation and the outflow of American jobs. We worked together and hashed out a framework for commonsense, comprehensive immigration reform--the so-called Gang of Eight led by myself and Senator McCain and with Lindsey Graham as a key member. We worked hard. We didn't agree on everything in our bipartisan immigration proposal, but we agreed it was worth trying because doing nothing was worse. We also found common ground in our effort to aid Ukraine after the Russian invasion. I know that if Senator Graham were here in the Chamber today, he would also join me in urging the Senate to support Ukraine and strengthen sanctions on Russia. I urge Senator Thune in honor of Lindsey to put the Russia sanctions bill on the floor immediately. It will pass overwhelmingly and help our allies in Ukraine. Not seeing eye to eye is no reason to be blind to the way forward. Lindsey could understand that. Every Senator ought to do the same.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, with their dreadful, horrific Dobbs decision 4 years ago today, six far-right wing MAGA Justices broke nearly 50 years of precedent to rip the right to choose away from millions--millions--of American women. You can sum up both the dreadful Dobbs decision and the whole far- right philosophy the same way: less freedom in your life; more government interference in your personal decisions. That is the MAGA way. Dobbs will go down as one of the most damaging, legally dubious, and deeply out-of-touch Supreme Court decisions in American history. It is a disgrace that the Supreme Court did it. It is a disgrace on the Supreme Court itself. Trump may not like talking about his crusade against women's reproductive rights, but he cannot hide from the pain he has inflicted on women across America. Mr. President, 20 States--20--have enacted total or near-total abortion bans, which means that nearly 40 percent of women of reproductive age live in a State with an abortion ban. The human cost of the Republican assault on women's reproductive freedom is sickening. I have heard so many women share their stories of the horrors they have experienced in Trump's post-Roe America. Republicans are letting women die by restricting necessary care. Some women have to travel hundreds of miles--even thousands--to get the treatment they need and deserve and are entitled to. Parents, patients, and doctors have been punished like violent criminals for lifesaving procedures that were legal just a few years ago and had been for decades before that. The GOP is treating mifepristone like it is poison and Planned Parenthood like it is an enemy of the State. It is despicable. Even before the Justices behind Dobbs were confirmed, anyone could see they wanted to overturn Roe. Every Republican Senator, who voted to confirm these radical Justices who stripped away these fundamental rights to choose that women have had for so long, will have to answer to the American people. We will not--we Democrats--will not let Republicans brush their radical efforts to ban abortion under the rug. The American people know it, and we are going to keep showing the difference between the two parties on this issue when the American people are strongly on our side.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, everywhere you look, Republicans are one big, hot mess. The reason is simple: Donald Trump is pursuing policies that are terrible for America and despised by the American people. The Republicans know just how unpopular Trump's agenda is, but they fall into line out of fear or blind loyalty or some of each. Republicans better smarten up and press Trump to back off his radical proposals during their lunch tomorrow or they will pay a price for ignoring the American people.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, on Iran, with his failed and reckless war in Iran, Trump has turned ``the art of the deal'' into ``the art of the blunder.'' Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, and JD Vance are too afraid to come in front of the American people and the whole Senate to defend their war and so-called understanding, so now Trump will talk only to Senate Republicans behind closed doors. Senate Republicans need to grill Donald Trump for answers--for answers on where negotiations stand--when he meets with them at the Capitol tomorrow. Trump and Vance hadn't even finished their phony victory lap yesterday when Iran announced that it did not make any commitments to allow nuclear inspections--no commitments to allow nuclear inspections--even though that was supposed to be one of the mainstays of what Trump was pursuing. Trump also claimed that the Strait of Hormuz was fully open even though shipping through the waterway remains a small fraction of what it was before the war. In more than a week after announcing side deals and so-called understandings with Iran, the administration still hasn't briefed Congress or the American people on what has actually been agreed to. Wishful thinking won't end this war, and certainly Senate Republicans' calls to pump hundreds of billions of dollars more into Trump's fiasco will make matters even worse. Republicans can complain about Trump's war, his secrecy, and his disastrous deal with Iran all they want behind closed doors, but the only way to ensure this war ends once and for all is for Republicans to act. Later today, Democrats will once again put Republicans on the record as to whether they want Trump's disastrous war to continue by forcing a vote on a House-passed Iran War Powers Resolution for the first time. We have held nine other votes on our War Powers Resolutions to end the war, and Senate Republicans have left the American people disappointed each time. We have forced this fight on the floor again and again for more than 100 days: Only Congress has the power to take our Nation to war, not Donald Trump alone. Republicans need to support our War Powers Resolution to end the war, and they need to hold Trump's feet to the fire in their meeting tomorrow.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, on the SAVE database, yesterday's court decision bodes very poorly for the SAVE Act's survival. Free and fair elections in America got a big boost in court yesterday when a judge, a Federal judge, blocked Donald Trump's effort to set up a massive voter purge database. The absolute last person Americans want combing through their personal data is Donald Trump. Letting Trump scrape through Americans' private data to purge them from the voter rolls isn't just unpopular, it is illegal. Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Russel Vought wanted to plug Americans' sensitive, personal information, including Social Security information, into their shoddy database and have DOGE's algorithm decide who gets to vote. It is sci-fi voter suppression--authoritarianism by algorithm. Trump cares so little about Americans' freedom that he is trampling on their right to privacy just so he can take away their right to vote. For months, I have been saying this database was one of Trump's most sinister strategies for subverting our elections in November. That is why Senate Democrats have blocked the SAVE Act--Trump's extreme anti- election legislation--over and over and over again. Democrats will keep fighting Trump's plan to rig the rules in November because in our country, Americans decide elections, not algorithms installed by Musk, DOGE, and Trump.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, on Tulsi Gabbard and the Pulte purge, there are reports that Tulsi Gabbard was receiving instructions from a so-called guru and repeating them word for word. That ought to concern all of us if it is true. No one knows who this guru really is, what his connections are, and where the instructions came from. Maybe it was completely innocent or maybe not, but we need answers. In appointing Bill Pulte to act as Acting DNI after Tulsi Gabbard, Donald Trump is replacing a guru with a grifter. Bill Pulte doesn't have an ounce of national security experience or an ounce of integrity, and he has already started to purge the intelligence experts who have that integrity. God only knows what Pulte plans to do next. Will Pulte interfere in our elections? expose intelligence sources? abuse Americans' private data? go after Trump's political enemies like he has done so many times before? With his insistence on installing Pulte, Trump has embarrassed his own party, weakened our national security, and endangered the American people--all to serve his personal political interests. When it comes to protecting Americans' national security, we need an adult in the room, and Pulte is removing them left and right.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Finally, Mr. President, on our spotlight forum on the Dobbs decision, later today, we will join Senator Murray and other Senate Democrats for a spotlight forum on Republicans' extreme war on women's reproductive freedom ahead of the fourth anniversary of the Dobbs decision. Donald Trump may want to brush his extreme effort to curtail women's reproductive rights under the rug, but we won't let him. On the campaign trail in 2024, Donald Trump said that women ``won't be thinking about abortion'' if he got elected, but the truth is that they have to think about it more than ever before because of this awful decision. Ever since the Dobbs decision 4 years ago, Republicans have been working around the clock to restrict access to abortion care. So today, we are going to hear from people who have been forced to live with the consequences of Republicans' radical assault on women's reproductive freedom, and we will discuss how we are fighting back. We are going to remind Donald Trump that women haven't stopped thinking about his efforts to take away their rights; they are mad as hell. I yield the floor.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, for years, Trump promised to put maximum pressure on Iran, but he ended up delivering maximum confusion, maximum chaos, and maximum cost to the American people with his disastrous war. Every second this war continues, the costs to the American people go up. And this is the 10th time Democrats have forced Republicans to vote on a War Powers Resolution to end the war. Time after time, the vast majority of Senate Republicans sided with Trump and his war, instead of the American people. The American people have paid the price for Trump's historic blunder in Iran. It will go down in the history books as one of the worst foreign policy forays America has ever made or any country has ever made. It is so, so ridiculous, costly; achieving no goals that Trump set forward--virtually none. The American people have seen skyrocketing gas prices, soaring costs, and, tragically, the loss of 13 servicemembers and the wounding of hundreds more. And, meanwhile, Iran took Trump to the cleaners. Trump gave Iran everything--their terrorist proxies, their control over the strait, their own revenue, their hundreds of billions of dollars in reconstruction aid. And it is still unclear what we have gotten in return. Trump, Vance, and Rubio refused to come before the American public and answer questions. No one knows what side deals there are. No one knows what actually was said. No one knows the details of this so- called understanding, and the reason is they are probably afraid to show it because they know how badly they have done. Trump won't brief Congress. Trump won't defend his deal. Trump won't end his war. But Democrats will keep forcing this vote--and we are going to keep doing it--because only Congress has the power to take this Nation to war, and this one must end. In fact, Trump never, ever should have started it. I yield back all time, and I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, on Iran, Donald Trump's foreign policy by clown car continues to careen toward disaster. After this failed war with Iran, Trump needs to rename ``The Art of the Deal'' as ``The Art of the Face Plant''--``The Art of the Face Plant.'' Just days after Trump boasted he had reopened the Strait of Hormuz, Iran announced it was closing the strait again. Trump hasn't been able to guarantee safe passage through the strait yet, but he already has waived the sanctions to allow Iran to bring billions of dollars in oil revenue. Iran gets what it wants; Trump dithers. Now Trump and Vance are patting themselves on the back about getting Iran to agree to nuclear inspections that only stopped after Trump's 2025 strikes. And what exactly will this access look like? Trump and Vance refuse to provide details, just like the rest of this so-called understanding. Trump's memo of understanding reads like an Iranian wish list. After Trump's war, Iran gets to keep backing its terrorist proxies, to keep building ballistic missiles, to maintain a stranglehold on the global economy, and to rake in hundreds of billions of dollars in reconstruction aid and maritime tolls. Trump got taken to the cleaners by Iran. The administration keeps telling us not to read too much into the understanding, but there is one thing that is very easy to read: The American people hate this war. They want it to end. Roughly 80 percent of Americans say they want this war to end immediately. Two-thirds-- two-thirds--disapprove of how Trump has handled Iran. And can anyone blame them? All the American people have gotten from Trump's war are skyrocketing gas prices at the pump, backbreaking inflation, and the tragic loss of 13 servicemembers and the wounding of hundreds of others. The story of Trump's ruinous war has been the same since day one: The Iranian regime gets emboldened, the American people get screwed, and Donald Trump gets himself into a deeper and deeper hole. The cost of this war will only get worse every second it continues. We need a full accounting of everything Trump has given away as part of his 14-point understanding. I continue to call on Trump, Secretary Rubio, and the rest of the leadership team to brief the full Senate without delay. It is outrageous that none of us have gotten a briefing yet. Why don't they want to give us a briefing? Are they embarrassed? Is it so vague that they told Iran one thing and will have to tell the world another? Is it because Trump got taken to the cleaners? Is it because Trump is embarrassed to have this understanding fully discussed by the people who put it together? It has been 8 days since this so- called understanding was announced. Why is the administration so scared to come to Congress and the American people and defend their war and their deal? Trump ought to listen to what Senate Democrats and the American people have been saying for months and end this war for good.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, well, everyone who bought Trump's book ``The Art of the Deal'' ought to ask him for a refund because what Trump has done in Iran is the ``art of the disaster.'' The United States is worse off because of Trump's incompetence, his ego, his inability to listen to facts. Iran took Trump to the cleaners with this so-called understanding. Iran doesn't have to cut off support for its terrorist proxies. Iran doesn't have to give up ballistic missile production. Iran doesn't have to make any hard commitments on its nuclear program now, and there is no guarantee they make any in 60 days. But Iran does get to rake in billions of dollars in oil sales, hundreds of billions in reconstruction aid, and God knows how much more in potential fees Trump may let it impose on ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Not to mention the benefits Iran will get from the sanction relief that Trump has promised with no idea of what he will get in return. Again, Iran took Trump to the cleaners. In Iran, ``the art of the deal'' has turned into the ``art of disaster.'' If Trump wants to send hundreds of billions of dollars to Iran, then he will need to do it with Republican votes because I will tell you, Democrats certainly won't be helping Trump send $300 billion to Iran. Are my colleagues on the other side of the aisle prepared to send Iran $300 billion when economic needs are so severe here at home? But that is what Trump wants them to do. Now, back in 2015, Trump said that America's ``deal with Iran will go down as one of the most incompetent ever made. The U.S. lost on virtually every point. We just don't win anymore!'' Trump is eating these words on a silver platter served up by Iran. Again, in 2015 he said the ``deal with Iran will go down as one of the most incompetent ever. The U.S. lost on virtually every point. We just don't win anymore!'' He is eating those words now because those apply so aptly to the deal that he just announced, so-called understanding, with Iran. He is eating those words on a silver platter served up by Iran. Even members of the Trump administration seem to be trying to put some distance between themselves and this so-called understanding, telling the public not to read too far into the text and that there are secret deals in the works. Well, I will tell you right now, Trump needs to reveal any secret deals to Congress and the public immediately. He has got to do it right away. If the secret deals are anywhere near as bad as the understanding we have seen, we need to know about them. This war needs to end permanently. Americans need to know how Trump plans to do it. Crucially, Americans are wondering what they got out of this war because Trump's blunder has left our country worse off by every measure. Thirteen Americans have been killed and hundreds more wounded. The Iranian regime is richer and more radical than before Trump's war. Iran has greater control over the Strait of Hormuz than before the war began. Gas prices are still much higher than before the war, with families having paid hundreds of dollars extra to fill up their tanks these past few months. The cost of everything from groceries to basic household necessities are higher than before the war as well. Trump's so-called understanding is the culmination and representation of his ruinous strategy in Iran since day one and his inability to govern in general. In Iran and in so much else he does, Trump leads by whim, by ego, by greed. His strategy doesn't work in the time of peace, and it certainly doesn't work in the time of war. He is about the most incompetent President we have ever seen. In Iran, as in everything, the American people pay the price for Trump's incompetence. So as I have been saying for months, it is long past time that Trump end this war, which never should have started in the first place. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Mr. President, on FISA, Trump has made it clear beyond a shadow of a doubt that he doesn't care about our national security and cares even less about reauthorizing FISA. Trump has embarrassed Republicans, pulled the rug out from under them, and blown up the FISA negotiations at every step. Trump has lobbed a grenade into Jay Clayton's nomination. Insisted on making his personal fixer, his own attack dog, Bill Pulte, the Acting DNI. And he is demanding to tie FISA to the extreme SAVE Act to attack Americans' voting rights. Trump is so hell-bent on taking away Americans' voting rights that he is willing to put them in danger to do it. Trump would rather have our intelligence community go after his political opponents than protect the American people. Can Trump get any more reckless? Make no mistake, Donald Trump is holding America's national security hostage for his own political gain. Republicans can point fingers at Democrats all they want, but Trump has himself owned up to blocking FISA. Here is what he said, this is Donald Trump: I will not approve FISA . . . We are canceling the Senate hearing . . . [B]ill Pulte will remain as the Acting Director of National Intelligence. Trump will own any and all consequences that come from his undermining America's intelligence community and our national security.

Mr. SCHUMER. I announce that the Senator from Maryland (Ms. Alsobrooks), the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Bennet), the Senator from Delaware (Ms. Blunt Rochester), the Senator from Illinois (Ms. Duckworth), the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Durbin), and the Senator from Arizona (Mr. Kelly) are necessarily absent.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. I announce that the Senator from Maryland (Ms. Alsobrooks), the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Bennet), the Senator from Delaware (Ms. Blunt Rochester), the Senator from Illinois (Ms. Duckworth), the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Durbin), the Senator from Arizona (Mr. Kelly), and the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Kim), are necessarily absent.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, Trump's actions last night make it crystal clear that he is the one standing in the way of FISA. It was already clear that Trump was the one blocking FISA, but the fact that he withdrew Jay Clayton should erase anyone's doubts. Trump wants FISA to stay expired. Trump is twisting himself up in knots and jumping through hoops to make it impossible to reauthorize FISA right now, and he is embarrassing his Republican colleagues in the process. Trump can blame Democrats all he wants, but no one is going to believe him. Trump just got caught redhanded undermining America's national security. Withdrawing Clayton even shocked Trump's closest Republican allies. Trump also reasserted his demand to tie FISA to his radical SAVE Act, which would strip millions of Americans of their voting rights and resurrect the ghost of the Jim Crow south. Trump is just so, so off base and should get it out of his mind that he can save SAVE by attaching it to FISA. It ain't happening; it ain't passing. The SAVE Act is perhaps the most vicious piece of anti-voting rights legislation Trump has ever come up with and has absolutely nothing-- nothing--to do with FISA whatsoever. So every time Republicans find a path to negotiate on FISA, Trump slams the door shut on them. Every time the Republicans find a path to negotiate FISA, Trump slams the door shut on them, and you can hear the howls. Trump is taking America's national security hostage to serve his own personal interests. This is Trump's hostage note. Here is what he said: I will not approve FISA . . . He said: We are cancelling the Senate hearing . . . He said: [B]ill Pulte will remain as the acting Director of National Intelligence. Trump should know national security is not a pawn. It is not a pawn, and yet it is clear that he is holding our national security hostage, and it is absolutely disgraceful. Trump is gleeful about undermining national security and leaving America vulnerable, saying it is simply to add a ``slight bit of intrigue'' when Americans' safety is at stake in a dangerous world with dangerous countries? And he says he is adding a ``slight bit of intrigue?'' Are you kidding me? Intrigue when it comes to America's national security, intrigue when it comes to the safety of our people? Trump ought to add a slight bit of common sense as he does this. But, again, just to repeat what he said, he said: I will not approve FISA . . . We are cancelling the Senate hearing . . . [B]ill Pulte will remain as the Acting Director of National Intelligence. All three sentences show that Trump is making national security a pawn to his own political and off-base interests. There can be no other explanation for the choices Trump is making and his insistence on having a political hack like Bill Pulte serve atop our Intelligence Committee, other than he plans to order Pulte to abuse his powers as Director of National Intelligence. The question for oversight now is: What exactly will Trump ask Pulte to do? Expose intelligence sources? Alter analysis? Target political opponents? Mess with elections? Pulte has shown that he knows no limits and will do whatever Trump asks, legal or not, ethical or not, in American people's interests or not. Make no mistake, all of the consequences that come from undercutting our national security will fall on Trump and any Republicans who go along with his dangerous, partisan games.