A combative Donald Trump Cabinet official attempted to lecture CNN's Jake Tapper about what she called "fake science" when he fact-checked her about the reasons European nations balk at some purchases from the U.S.
In a longer-than-normal interview, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins did her best to defend the president's tariff policies even when confronted with the ugly stock market collapse after Trump held his "Liberation Day" Rose Garden press conference, repeatedly assuring the "State of the Union" host that the president's economic brain trust contains the best people available.
Things grew heated after she complained about European nations refusing to buy U.S. beef and pork products due to the hormones used on the animals.
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"We have watched our farmers and ranchers again, can't get our corn into Mexico, can't get our dairy into Canada, have Honduras buying more pork and poultry than the entire European Union, have a 700 percent tariff from Japan on our rice," she complained. "This is not okay and it is not sustainable. And for us to continue to build our agriculture, which is the backbone of our country, but also our manufacturing base, our energy, et cetera. for us to be able to do that, we have to put America first. "
"So those tariffs as the economy, the market begins to adjust, we will see a more positive as we move, I believe very quickly," she added.
" So just in point of fact, the reason that the European Union, even though they are our fourth biggest market for agricultural products, as you know, don't take as much American pork as you would like is because they have issues with hormones used in pork," Tapper explained.
"I don't want to get into a whole debate over that, but that's not, it's not an issue about tariffs," he continued. "But let me ask you about the computation of these tariffs because conservative economists at the American Enterprise Institute ––."
"Wait, wait, wait. Hold on, Jake," Rollins loudly interrupted. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, this is really important. You can't just say that. So here's the bottom line: they are using fake science and unsubstantiated claims to not take our products. So it isn't just that they have high tariffs."
"Thank you for making this point for me by the way, I meant to make it. It's not just the tariff numbers, it's the way they've treated our products," she persisted. "'Oh, sorry, we can't take your beef since 2002 because you use a certain type of feed.' That's just absolute bull. It is not correct and not appropriate. Our supplies, our farmers and ranchers, we produce the safest, the most secure, the best food in the world. And so to use that for the EU to say, 'Oh, my goodness, we can't do it because of this reason,' it's absolutely wrong. And it's not based on sound science."
"Okay, well, you can take that up with the Europeans," Tapper dryly replied.
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