At Tuesday's town hall event, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) discussed his views on President Trump’s global tariffs.
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00:00Thank you, Congressman, for coming to our area that you represent and visiting us here and
00:13hosting this town hall. My question to you, sir, is to promote unity. Over my 43 years,
00:26I've watched all the good jobs leave this Adams County. And as the good jobs have left,
00:35crime has increased. Sheriff Patton here does an amazing job with his deputies,
00:42doing their doing their best to protect us. And they should be commended always. But my question
00:54is that with everything that's going on with all the tariffs, the way this is going to long-term
01:02work, there's going to be more manufacturing jobs. Companies are going to come here and make
01:10jobs for more and more people. How can, you being our representative, how can you assist and work with
01:21these people and these, the people in Washington who, the lobbyists, to bring jobs down here in Adams
01:33County? Well, thank you. Good question. I don't think tariffs is the answer to bring jobs. I'll be honest
01:41with you. But, but I have created and voted for every incentive, whether it was tax credit, whether it
01:54was loan, whether it was grant to create opportunities for people to create jobs in their community. But you
02:04know, it's a two-way street. In order for jobs to come, you have to have industrial parks. You got to have
02:14health care. That if a job come and somebody's employee, employer gets sick, they don't have to go 60 or 100 miles
02:26to the hospital. So there are some local issues we have to fix. We have to look at the housing stock. We
02:34have to look at the public school system. People want to make sure if I bring my children or families
02:42to this community, there is a school system that, that will educate our children. So, so companies look at all
02:51those things. And then they let other communities compete against those very same thing. And they
02:59kind of sit in the catbird seat and take the best deal. So we need the city fathers and mothers of
03:08Natchez and Adams County and Southwest Mississippi to sit down and put the plan together on how we make
03:16that happen. The other problem we have is that some companies that want to come, we don't have the
03:26skill set for the employees to work. Grand Gulf is right up the road. They, they bring folk from all over.
03:38When we're building it, people can work on the construction site. But once they up, once it's up and going,
03:48people coming from all over the country because they can't find the local talent right here. So if the
03:56educators, elected official and business people would all work together on putting that plan together, we can have it.
04:06But, but, but I'll be honest with you. We can't compete with China on, on, on labor and other kind of thing,
04:13cause I, the Chinese government owns the companies. And, and they don't have a minimum wage rate in China.
04:23You know, if, if they need to squeeze a little more money out of whatever they do, they just do it cause they run it.
04:33Companies in America are in business for a profit. And in order to be for a profit, you got to sell it for a certain thing. And so that's why the tariffs are going to be a problem, if you don't believe me, when you go to a grocery store and start looking at the products and the prices.
05:02Cause some of those things that we buy come from Mexico, come from Canada, come from other places, and they got tariffs. And we're not going to, those countries are not going to let us put tariffs on them and they not put tariffs back on us.
05:20So, I mean, that's, you know, but it, it, I think it, we'll, we'll see it play out. My point is, if local officials would work together, I'd be happy to create any incentive for employment opportunities that's there.
05:38And that's a local decision for people in this community to do. And I promise I'll work with them and I'll push every program out there that that's available to make it happen.
05:49Yes, ma'am.
05:50Yes, ma'am.
05:51Good evening, sir. How are you?
05:55All right.
05:56Good. Aaron Burr was vice president of the United States under President Thomas Jefferson. And due to the Burr conspiracy, Aaron Burr was brought here back to Washington, Mississippi, on the campus of Jefferson College. And he was tried there.
06:16As a result of that, President Thomas Jefferson actually had Congress to pass and he signed the Insurrection Act of 1807. On January the 20th, 2025, President Donald Trump asked the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security
06:41to, within 90 days, to, within 90 days, give him a report and a recommendation with respect to his actually invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807 and martial law.
06:59That means within four days, President Trump will make an announcement with respect if this country goes under martial law and if the Insurrection Act of 1807 will be enforced. He's asked Homeland Security and Defense.
07:21You are a ranking member of Homeland Security. With that position, what do you know about this? What can you tell us about it? And if in five days the president invokes the Insurrection Act of 1807 and martial law, what are your recommendations to the citizens of your district? Thank you.
07:49Yeah, well, let me just say, if you remember, I said the Secretary has not come before our committee since she's been there. We provide oversight. But if the Secretary doesn't come to our committee, we can't ask any questions.
08:07Now, the other thing is, I'm not chair. If I was chair of the committee, I could subpoena her to come before the committee. One of the things about being on a committee, it's nice to be there, but it's better to be in charge.
08:24And so if I were in charge. And so if I were in charge, I would subpoena the secretary before the committee as our oversight responsibility, and we'd ask all these questions. But I'm not privy to any of that because she's not been made available to our committee.
08:44So I can't really give you any of that information. And that's part of that siloing that President Trump is doing to try to do things through executive order without a legislative nexus to it.
08:57And that's not what the founding fathers put together. But President Trump is doing it his way. That's because he's president. And we don't have the checks and balances in place to stop that.
09:12But that doesn't stop us from holding town halls, sharing with people just what the facts are. I mean, that's all I know. I don't know anything else about that.