Washington, D.C. - Today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) appeared on MS Now to discuss the Supreme Court's ruling striking down President Trump's global tariffs and urged Republicans to join Senate Democrats' efforts to reassert legislative authority over U.S. trade policy. Below is Senator Schumer's interview:

Stephanie Ruhle: Joining me now is the Democratic Leader of the Senate, Chuck Schumer. This is quite a day.

Schumer: Good evening.

Ruhle: I'm honored you could join me. First, put the president aside, your reaction -

Schumer: Very hard to do.

Ruhle: Your reaction to today's Supreme Court ruling.

Schumer: First, the Supreme Court did what everyone knew was the right thing. When Trump used this so-called emergency doctrine, which never mentioned tariffs at all, everyone knew that if the Court was ruling correctly, they would throw it out. But it's thrown Americans to chaos. All of the promises that Trump made, it's going to bring back manufacturing jobs. They're lower. It's going to lower prices. Prices are higher. It's going to create a new way of bringing, you know, a trade deficit. Deficit's worse. Everything, it's been a disaster for the American people. And Stephanie, here's the amazing thing. The number one thing people in America care about is rising costs. Tariffs have caused them. Trump didn't mention costs in his whole speech. He just rambled. He just went on and on. He sort of like was -

Ruhle: Oh, you mean his response today?

Schumer: Yes. He doesn't even mention it.

Ruhle: Yes, so let's talk about his response.

Schumer: He was like a 10-year-old, name-calling, foot-stomping, berating Supreme Court Justices. He's like a baby.

Ruhle: But what do you make of the President bashing individual Supreme Court Justices? Those same Justices he'll be standing right across from at the State of the Union in a few days.

Schumer: I think it's outrageous. Instead of reacting, what he should have done, since the tariffs have been such a disaster, what he should have done is said, "hey, okay, the Supreme Court ruled, I'm getting rid of them." But he can't. And so, he's coming back with another plan to impose the same tariffs that are going to keep costs up, lose more manufacturing jobs, increase inflation, increase the trade deficit. All these bad things he's going to try again. But I've got news for you, Mr. President, and this may be good for the American people. Your new way of doing it is going to be very difficult. You have to do all kinds of findings and hearings and everything else for the 301 tariffs. He imposed these other tariffs illegally, as it turns out, across the board. But it ain't going to be very easy. And he doesn't even think about it. One other thing. Businesses. Small business, medium business, you know what they hate? They hate uncertainty. They hate chaos. Guess what? That's what he's done.

Ruhle: Yeah, today this is only going to bring us more chaos. But what happens if they don't return the money, right? Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent already said, "I'm not so sure the American people or businesses are going to be getting this money back."

Schumer: See you in court. They'll be back in court. If the tariffs are illegal, then the money must be returned. And Trump keeps trying to ignore the law, break the law, flaunt the law. But in many, many cases, including this one, the courts, the courts have held him responsible. And in about two-thirds of the cases that we've gone to sue Trump on, not just the Senate, but, you know, people who care about him breaking the law, he's lost. Including to a lot of, when a lot of Trump judges ruled, including today, where two Trump judges ruled against him.

Ruhle: Actually, let me ask you about that, because in Neil Gorsuch's opinion, he warned about the problems with sidelining Congress and placing too much power in the hands of the executive branch, and he wrote, "That is no recipe for a republic."

Schumer: Correct.

Ruhle: This is a Supreme Court Justice Trump nominated. What do you make of this?

Schumer: I make of it that every so often, even these Justices who Trump nominated, even these judges who were way to the right, the law is so clear, it's hard for them to avoid it. The amazing thing is how the other three didn't. But it's Congress that's always had the power on tariffs. And right now, I would urge my Republican colleagues, some of them don't like the tariffs, but we've had some bipartisan legislation-

Ruhle: Most of them don't like the tariffs.

Schumer: Well, but some of them are brave enough to vote against Trump's tariffs. And we have some bipartisan legislation. And I hope that this court decision will bring enough Republicans on board that we can say once and for all: tariffs belong with the Congress, not with the White House.

Ruhle: Okay, but what does hope mean? Right, Mitch McConnell put out a very aggressive statement against the President, in favor of the Supreme Court's position. Does this mean you're going to get on the phone this weekend and start calling the Republicans?

Schumer: We are, yes. We are, right now, talking about how we can join with Republicans to reassert Congress's power. We tried to do it previously. They didn't join us. They were afraid of Trump. They must join us now because the law is so clear.

Ruhle: You think you can convince them?

Schumer: Let me tell you something. If they're going to do what's right for the American people, they'll join us. There's so much heat on these tariffs. Everywhere you go, everywhere I went in New York State, whether it's in New York City, the suburbs, or rural, Republican upstate New York, people complained about these tariffs. Small businesses were going under because of these tariffs. People were paying through the nose because of these tariffs. Our tourist season in Canada, you know, so many Canadians come down to the Finger Lakes, was kaput. The tariffs have been a disaster. And Trump-

Ruhle: There's not a lot of TV interviews that include the word kaput. I'm so glad Chuck Schumer is here. But what about the people of New York? Because J.B. Pritzker, Governor of Illinois, sent an invoice to the White House today saying, "we would like to see a check for $1,700, a tariff refund check, for every person in the state of Illinois." Should the people of New York State be getting something similar?

Schumer: Absolutely. Why not? I mean, the bottom line is these were illegal. They were always illegal, it hurt people badly, it's hurting Trump himself within the eyes of the American people. He ought to, you know, once, once he ought to admit he made a mistake. He ought to admit he's harming the American people. And he ought to, he should have taken advantage of this decision to say, "bye-bye tariffs, I can't do them anymore, the Court says they're a no." But he can't do that. He never admits he's made a mistake. But again, I just want to go back to the point I made before. Not to mention that it's raised the costs of people. It's just incredible because it's been one of the main reasons that costs have gone up. It's one of the main reasons Americans are so unhappy with the economy and their economic plight. And he's in this bubble. He doesn't even understand that.

Ruhle: Do you know why? Because he loves the tariffs, I believe, so much, because they are the thing, until now, that lets him at least live like a king. Business leaders come into the White House, go to see Commerce Secretary Lutnick every day, offering the President gifts and offerings, all because they're trying to get exemptions, right? You've got all these lobbyists hanging around the hoop, getting paid by businesses just to get a meeting with Lutnick. So the President loves the tariffs. Is there anything you and your colleagues can do going forward, or bill you want to introduce to stop the grift that we're seeing day in and day out? Around these tariffs is just one example.

Schumer: There are so many examples of corruption.

Ruhle: So what are you going to do about it?

Schumer: Over and over and over again. First, there are all kinds of court suits that we have worked with. I've been plaintiff in a few of them, with so many of these great lawyers, and we win most of the cases. And second, the bottom line is that we should withhold Trump's ability, legislatively, to do these tariffs. Again, the Republicans have an obligation to do that. They should join us now. Now's their opportunity because they know. When you talk to them privately, they know how bad the tariffs are for the American people.

Ruhle: Well, today's a win, at least for the Constitution. It's a win for small business, for the American consumer. The President is speaking at the State of the Union on Tuesday. A number of Democrats have already said they're not going to attend. What is your position on this?

Schumer: As of now, because I respect the whole institution, but I don't respect Donald Trump one bit, I will go. But the bottom line is there are a lot of my colleagues who aren't going to go.

Ruhle: What do you think about that?

Schumer: I think that's fine with me. Everyone should make his own choice. As the Democratic Leader, I am going to go, as of now, but who knows what will happen in the next few days.

Ruhle: My last question. Obviously, today is not good news for the President. The Epstein files are not good news for the President. We just got GDP numbers that are not good news for the president. And obviously, the ICE deportation situation is not good news for the President. Are you worried that in the next few days, the President will launch some sort of major distraction that can be his lead for State of the Union? Because what I've just listed are not good headlines for him.

Schumer: The bottom line is he often does that. I'm really worried because sometimes he gets so unhinged almost when he's in trouble like this. I'm worried what he might do in Iran. Who knows?

Ruhle: All right, Senator Chuck Schumer, thank you so much.

Schumer: Thank you.

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