Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) asked an official from President Donald Trump's administration whose "throat do I get to choke" if the controversial tariff trade war fails.
Tillis grilled U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer during a Tuesday Senate Finance Committee hearing.
"It looks like we've got a novel approach here in terms of an a la prima approach," the senator said. "I'm not a trade expert, and I'm not going to question it at this point."
"I do have a question about, at the end of the day, the other thing in management consulting we like to focus on is this concept of one throat to choke," he continued. "Whose throat do I get to choke if this proves to be wrong?"
"Well, Senator, you can certainly always talk to me," Greer replied. "I'm at the tip of the spear, certainly."
"I would push back, Senator, just a little bit on this," he added. "For now, we've excluded pharmaceuticals and semiconductors to take a different kind of approach."
Tillis noted that Trump officials had indicated that "there won't be any exclusions."
"So the president, again, is the final decision maker on all of these things, and he has directed that there not be exclusions," Greer insisted.
"So again, I'm just trying to get my head around the logic of an a la prima approach, and I'm waiting to be, I'm waiting to see it be successful," Tillis noted. "But it just seems like we've decided to begin a trade war on all fronts."
