level. hunter s opponent is a young upstart candidate who used to work in the obama administration s labor department. he was one of the democrats who earned an endorsement from former president barack obama. so i think that you will expect to be hearing a lot more of this. and republicans, again, are seeing yet another seat become increasingly more vulnerable as we re i m going to a potential blue wave. the cook political report has now deemed it leaning republican rather than solid republican, rick. this is a stretch, though, because this is such a red district. i think it s right in the toss-up problem. this is a san diego district with a huge naval base. and apparently, allegedly, duncan hunter was in italy and had requested a tour of a navy base, and they got word back that they couldn t do it at that time. and the response to that was f the navy. oh. news to me. that doesn t go over too well
for the administration. and it s kind of getting in the way of their political messaging in some of these states where they have an advantage. let s take north dakota. they have an advantage there. now they have the supreme court fight at the same time heidi heitkamp was traveling the state meet with farmers talking about what s going on with these tariffs. it s a big problem for them and people will see actual decrease in money. you mentioned the fact this isn t something you can brush off with rehetoric. look at this tweet the president sent this morning. i am in brussels but always thinking about our farmers. so it s like hi, dear farmers, i m thinking about you, but, one of the most prominent farmers in the united states senate, chuck grassley, basically isn t having any of this. listen to what he said. but he s negotiating, i think, as a businessperson. and if he takes the competitor to the brink and doesn t go over the brink, we re going to get a better deal. if he goes over
i know i ve asked this before, but i ll ask it again is this what a trade war looks like? the trump administration now preparing a new round of tariffs on $200 billion of chinese goods. and china is threatening to retaliate, this on the heels of the u.s. slapping a 25% tariff on chinese goods worth $34 billion last week. and china immediately retaliating. are you sensing a theme here? the move making members of the president s own party nervous. iowa senator chuck grassley says it could mean disaster for his state. he s negotiating i think as a business person. if he takes the competitor the to brink and doesn t go over the brink, we re going to get a
first, i m a free trader. second, if the president can get us a level deal with countries that can import into the united states with hardly any tariffs and we have to pay 25% in their country and you can get a level playing field, who wouldn t want the president to accomplish it? but he s negotiating i think as a business person and if he takes his competitor to the brink and doesn t go over the brink we ll get a better deal but if he goes over the brink it s catastrophic and right now on soybeans and corn in my state it s catastrophic with the dramatic drops in prices we ve had. it s the uncertainty of it that bothers people, not the fact that what the president is trying to accomplish. have you made those points clear to him that it s hurting your state? yeah. three times in the last three months several of us senators from agricultural states have been able to express this view to the president directly and over a period of 12 months to
the brink and doesn t go over the brink we ll get a better deal. if he goes over the brink it s catastrophic. soybeans and corn in my state it is catastrophic. last year china imported 100 million tons of soybeans. they actually 90% ofist was-90% was imported. they ve been trying hard to create their own soybean market for decades. poor irrigation, a lot of things have hurt that. there is not enough soybeans laying around to feed 1.4 billion people and i will say this much. i get where he is coming from and he is talking what they call wall street. but china won t be able to make up for u.s. demand for u.s. imports. there is not. no place in the world to say where can we find a bunch of soybeans laying around to feed a billion people? i will also say this. they have had a little success