President Obama said he sent a U.S. aircraft carrier into waters near Yemen to try to settle down the conflicts in the region with a show of American force.
“You know, ultimately, when it comes to the seas, we are obviously the dominant force and we’re coordinating closely with all of our allies in the region, sending a message that rather than another conflict in the region, we need to settle this down,” Obama told MSNBC “Hardball” host Chris Matthews in a pre-taped interview that aired Tuesday night.
While the president stressed that the U.S. generally keeps some of its ships in the Persian Gulf region to maintain “freedom of navigation,” he also suggested that the U.S. Navy could take action if Iran continues to deliver weapons to Houthi rebels inside Yemen.
“And what we’ve said to them is that if there are weapons delivered to factions within Yemen that could threaten navigation, that’s a problem,” he said. “And we’re not sending them obscure messages; we send them very direct messages about it.”
Earlier, Obama participated in a round-table style discussion with Matthews in which the host shot out questions about Fast-Track authority for a looming Pacific Rim trade treaty, and the president had to compete with other panelists — Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and local Northern Virginia business owners and leaders — for answer time.
Matthews pressed Obama on why so many prominent Democrats, such as Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Sherrod Brown of Ohio are arguing that the deal will benefit the rich while leaving average Americans behind.
Obama said party fears are lingering because of regional job fallout around the country from previous trade deals, but he tried to assure fellow Democrats that he has learned from those experiences and has fixed this trade deal in response.
Calling the bipartisan fast-track agreement recently hashed out on Capitol Hill the “most progressive framework for trade we have ever had,” he accused Democratic opponents — including Warren — of playing politics by appealing to legitimate but unfounded job fears many in the party have.
“Some of the information that is getting thrown out there plays into legitimate fears that Democratic voters have, and progressives have, but it’s simply not true,” Obama insisted.
Earlier, Obama flatly argued that Warren “is wrong on this.”
“I love Elizabeth. We’re allies on a whole host of issues, but she’s wrong on this,” he said.
Matthews interjected that many Democrats are arguing that the new trade deals, including one with 11 Asian countries known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, would benefit higher-paid, better-educated people.
Obama didn’t disagree, earlier in the interview flat-out stating that the U.S. is no longer able to compete for low-wage manufacturing jobs.
“That ship has sailed,” he said. “What we can do is compete for the high-end, where we’re adding value. And the small companies … where it’s [information technology], it’s talent, it’s innovation, that’s the kind of stuff that we can sell around the world.”
He also stressed that the trade package on the table right now provides a significant expansion of trade assistance aimed at helping “folks who do potentially get displaced.”
“It’s about double what it currently is,” Obama said, “which means that we can help more workers get retrained, work at community colleges and that is going to allow them to compete.”
