Karoline Leavitt Brings Receipts Of Dems Echoing Trump’s Concerns About Trade Policy

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt brought receipts of prominent Democrats making the same critiques about trade policy as President Donald Trump during Tuesday’s press briefing.

Trump has come under Democratic scrutiny for imposing reciprocal tariffs on foreign imports in order to create fairer trade practices and return manufacturing to the U.S. Leavitt said that Democrats simply do not want to admit that they agree with Trump on the need to change current trade practices, which prompted her to read direct quotes from high-profile Democrats who expressed concern over the status quo on foreign trade.

“Everybody in Washington , whether they want to admit it or not, knows that this president is right when it comes to tariffs and when it comes to trade,” Leavitt said. “In fact, Democrats have long said that the United States of America has been ripped off by the countries around the world. They just don’t want to admit it now because it’s President Trump saying that.”

The press secretary quoted former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who said in June 1996 that her colleagues must “fight against the status quo trade policies that had contributed to America’s trade deficit with China.” She further quoted now-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and former Democrat Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown remarks from 2007 and 2012, when they both sounded the alarm on the U.S.’s trade deficit costing American workers “millions of jobs.”

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“These are the words of Democrats years ago,” Leavitt said. “It is about time America finally has a president who is taking action to restore those millions of jobs back to the United States of American to boost our manufacturing industry. He’s doing what’s right for the American people. It will take a lot of labor, it will take a lot of effort. That’s exactly what the American people elected this president to do.”

CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings said