[Lemon:] On the day the House sent the articles of the impeachment to the Senate, President Trump made sure he put the economy front and center, signing phase one of his trade deal with China. The agreement coming nearly two years after Trump launched a costly trade war that hurt American farmers and led to a $28 billion bailout by taxpayers. Joining me now to discuss are CNN political commentators Catherine Rampell and Mike Shields. Good evening, one and all.
[Mike Shields, Cnn Political Commentator:] Good evening.
[Lemon:] To both of you, I should say. Catherine, the Iowa caucus is less than three weeks away. Impeachment articles are headed to the Senate. And here is President Trump in a photo op with the Chinese counterpart, announcing a new trade deal. Timing of this, is it all about 2020?
[Catherine Rampell, Cnn Political Commentator:] I think it's not about 2020 at this point. He's clearly very worried about his constituents in red states being annoyed with him. Remember, we have had two rounds of bailouts for farmers as a result of his trade wars. That are now larger than the auto bailout that we have had under Obama that Republicans hated. So he is very clearly concerned about not losing these voters. Whether or not they actually came out ahead of where they would be in an alternate universe, we didn't actually start these trade wars, we didn't still have, for example, tariffs on $360 billion worth of Chinese goods, I think is an entirely different question. Maybe we're better off than we were three months ago, but maybe not where we would have been in that alternate universe without the trade wars.
[Lemon:] Mike, is it more of a political win for President Trump than anything else considering some experts point out not more was gained in this initial deal? Plus, American taxpayers have spent $28 billion bailing out farmers because of this trade war.
[Shields:] It's a huge win for the president. And I think it's just I mean, on its face, it's obvious it's a win. First of all, the timing of this, you know, the Chinese don't play games on how they negotiate things and how things get timed. There may be some countries where President Trump can sort of time something out. He was actually frustrated. There has been reporting on this, that he couldn't do one-on-one negotiations with the Chinese because they have a very formal traditional way of negotiating things. I think the timing of this coincidental. But secondly, look, this is $200 billion of goods being purchased by the Chinese, particularly in the farming and manufacturing sectors. That's great for the American worker. That's awesome. And look, the president said, I'm going to finally stand up to China. There are farmers today who are saying, I am glad that we took a little bit of heat to get to where we are. The last time anyone did anything on China was PNTR in 1998. Every politician gives lip service standing up to China. President Trump has created new leverage. And by the way, many of the tariffs, the original tariffs are still in place. He is still creating leverage for phase two and phase three. And what he is doing is standing up for the American worker. I think the Democrats would be better to talk about anything else other than this because the contrast between this victory and what is going on in the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue is really stark.
[Rampell:] You know, I'm old enough to remember when Republicans were protrade and premarket, and this is neither of those things. This is not capitalism. This is mercantilism. That is what Trump has implemented here. As you point out, we still have tariffs.
[Shields:] Explain that to a manufacturing worker who is getting a job from this.
[Rampell:] They are not getting jobs. You know why they are not getting jobs?
[Shields:] Don't say this is mercantilism to a farmer. They are going
[Rampell:] No. They are not getting jobs because Trump has kept in place tariffs on the inputs that manufacturers buy, including steel and aluminum, which is not even within the universe of what we are talking about here, but all sorts of other Chinese goods that are in the inputs that U.S. manufacturers buy and use to make goods that we then sell to American consumers and that we export around the world. So they are not doing well. That is why you see investment falling. That is why you see manufacturing in a recession. It's been in a recession for the past five months.
[Shields:] Eighty billion dollars-worth of manufacturing purchases from the Chinese is a massive victory. The idea that you can go to them and say, yeah, but this is really mercantilism, just ignore that fact. I think it's a great argument. I think Democrats should record what you said and play it to every farmer and every manufacturing worker in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Pennsylvania.
[Rampell:] Manufacturers are losing out on all sorts of business around the world. Their costs are higher as a result of this. We now have four studies in place. We have
[Shields:] Right. They have been left behind and this president ran
[Rampell:] Because of the tariffs.
[Shields:] to represent them and the Democratic Party doesn't care about it anymore.
[Rampell:] No, no, no. They are facing higher costs because of the tariffs. The tariffs are paid by Americans. They are paid by American businesses
[Shields:] The tariffs are creating leverage
[Rampell:] They are paid by Americans. They are creating leverage against ourselves.
[Lemon:] I have to go.
[Shield:] This is very
[Lemon:] Are farmers really happy about this? I don't know. Listen, I got to go. We are out of time. But I thank you both. We will continue this conversation because I think it's an important one. Again, this is phase one. There is a lot more to talk about. Thank you, Mike. Thank you, Catherine. Thank you for watching, everyone. Our coverage continues.