Watch: Gillibrand Demands Immediate Action On Artificial Intelligence, Tariffs, And Menopause Care In CNN Interview

Watch: Gillibrand Demands Immediate Action On Artificial Intelligence, Tariffs, And Menopause Care In CNN Interview

Sep 15, 2026

***Watch Senator Gillibrand's Full Interview Here***

Today, in an interview on CNN's The Situation Room, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) called for immediate congressional action on regulating artificial intelligence, repealing President Trump's 50% tariffs on Canada, and providing sufficient healthcare to the millions of American women going through menopause.

The interview follows Senator Gillibrand introducing the BAD DEAL Act to repeal and refund Trump's 50% Canadian tariffs, and it comes ahead of the first ever congressional hearing on menopause that Gillibrand, ranking member of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, is holding tomorrow.

Footage of Senator Gillibrand's interview with Pamela Brown can be found here.

Transcripts of key moments can be found below:

ON THE URGENT NEED FOR CONGRESS TO PLACE GUARDRAILS ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE THAT PUT HUMANITY FIRST:

GILLIBRAND: We need urgent engagement now. We need to be able to have rules of the road, we need to be able to have reliable guardrails, and we need to be able to be talking to these AI companies regularly about how to do this well, how to maintain our leadership, how to maintain the ability to cure cancer and cure disease, and have massive breakthroughs. But we also need to make sure we're investing in America. We need to make sure we are investing the wealth of AI into a jobs guarantee, into healthcare and education. We need to make sure that we have a plan for how we deal with these models that are doing things that even the experts did not expect them able to do so soon. And so we do need that regulatory clarity now, and we need to work with AI companies. And I do not think President Trump is providing any leadership on this. He's sold the most efficient chips to China, but again, not making sure that we have rules of the road that our own AI companies can ensure that the public is safe.

BROWN: He's calling these warnings from these AI leaders a conspiracy. I'm wondering, in your view, does Congress have the sense of urgency that is needed right now to meet this moment, given all the warnings we're hearing from AI leaders?

GILLIBRAND: I think we should begin hearings immediately. I also think we should work on a bipartisan basis to provide the guidelines and oversight that is needed. AI companies have been, many of them have been asking for this level of engagement and regulation. We've seen so many of the harms, but we also have so much promise, and so we want to make sure we're at the forefront of this technology, that we are competitive, that we can cure cancer and cure other diseases, but we also want to make sure it doesn't harm humanity, and so that means alignment has to be there. These AI models must be aligned with humanity. Humanity has to be the focus. I worked in our defense bill over the last several months to try to put a human in the loop on all systems and to make sure AI couldn't be used for domestic surveillance. We wanted to make sure that nuclear weapons would have proper human oversight before an AI model could choose a target or push send on a nuclear weapon. We also wanted to make sure there was humans in the loop for any offensive weapons. Like, I fully understand how efficient and capable an AI system will be for defense to shoot down missiles on their way to American cities, but when you're talking about choosing a target or deciding when to bomb or where to bomb, that should have a human oversight in all circumstances.

ON GILLIBRAND'S BAD DEAL ACT TO REPEAL AND REFUND PRESIDENT TRUMP'S TARIFFS:

BROWN: You and Senator Peter Welch recently introduced this act to repeal the 50% tariffs placed on Canadian goods and refund Americans for all duties paid. How will this legislation practically manage the logistics of refunding Americans, the taxes they've already paid. How would this work?

GILLIBRAND: Well, what the bill is that Senator Welch and I have would repeal these tariffs completely. President Trump has created so much chaos in the market because of these tariffs. In Canada, this new 50% tariff is going to raise prices for New Yorkers on food, on clothing, on everyday household goods, and on building materials, which again will increase the rate of housing and how much it costs to get a better apartment to rent or to buy a home. And so we are trying to repeal those tariffs immediately because what President Trump has done is illegal and creating massive chaos in the economy for everyday New Yorkers and everyday Americans.

ON GILLIBRAND HOLDING THE FIRST EVER CONGRESSIONAL HEARING ON MENOPAUSE:

BROWN: Before we let you go, Senator, I want to ask you about you recently making history by convening the first ever congressional hearing on menopause through the Senate Committee on Aging. Tell us why that was so important to you to bring this issue to light.

GILLIBRAND: Well, menopause is what millions of American women go through. 75 million women are either in perimenopause, menopause, or postmenopause in America today, and the inadequate amount of research and analysis and care for these women is literally disgraceful. It's basic health care for most Americans, and because it is so underresearched and underresourced, a lot of American women don't know how to best treat their symptoms. The symptoms can be wide-ranging to debilitating, and women have the right to get access to healthcare to make them be able to function in life, to be able to continue to work, continue to thrive, continue to provide for their families. But because of the lack of research, because of the lack of funding, because of the lack of information and availability of treatments, a lot of women needlessly suffer and are unable to live full lives.

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