Doug Jones: Carmakers ‘scared to death’ over Trump tariffs

Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) took aim at President Trump’s ongoing trade disputes with China and European countries on Wednesday, and said that American automobile manufacturers are fearful about the future of their industry under the president’s tariffs.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Jones said that automakers and soybean farmers, two groups hit hard by U.S. tariffs and reciprocal measures by foreign countries, are “scared to death” over the future of the president’s trade policy.

{mosads}“They’re beginning to say, ‘Ok, we put you in here to try to get us a better deal, but there’s got to be an endgame. Tell us what the endgame is and how long this is going to last,’ ” Jones said.

Jones added in the interview that Trump’s “nationalistic approach” toward tariffs was beginning to worry Alabama voters.

“They’re beginning to question [Trump’s success],” Jones said of his Alabama constituents, many of whom voted for Trump in 2016.

Jones went on in the interview to rule out a vote in support of impeachment of the president over his ties to campaign finance violations committed by his longtime lawyer Michael Cohen who pleaded guilty and was sentenced this week to three years in prison.

“I don’t think you have to just jump into that right now because it can not only politically backfire,” Jones said about impeachment. “There would be backlash. Our country is divided enough as it is. Democrats right now have an opportunity to try to get some things done.”

Jones won a tight Senate race in 2017 to become Alabama’s first Democratic senator since the 1990s, narrowly defeating Roy Moore (R) after women came forward to allege that Moore touched them inappropriately when they were minors.

The Alabama senator has since staked out a centrist position on many issues, voting with Republicans in some cases but with Democrats on others including a vote against Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court earlier this year.