Wild criticizes foreign policy
Calls Trump ‘unpredictable’; also discusses workforce training, climate change, drug prices
Congresswoman Susan Wild said Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s decision to pull U.S. troops from northern Syria and “essentially abandon” Kurdish allies in the fight against ISIS is “exactly what’s wrong with our foreign policy right now.”
“It’s very unpredictable,” said Wild, a Democrat who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “Things happen without consultation with the military, without the generals who know what’s going on on the ground.”
Wild made the comments to Tony Iannelli during a taping of his show “Business Matters.”
Her criticism came just days after Trump’s decision to withdraw troops even as Turkey threatens to launch a military operation across the Syrian border. The decision drew bipartisan backlash, including from U.S. Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Bob Casey, D-Pa. Critics fear the Kurds could be massacred by Turkey, a NATO ally, if U.S. troops withdraw, threatening
national security and the progress in the region to destroy ISIS terrorists.
In recent tweets, Trump has said the Kurds “were paid massive amounts of money and equipment” to fight as allies and, later, that the U.S. was not abandoning them. He tweeted Monday “if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I’ve done before!) …”
In backing up her statement about an inconsistent U.S. foreign policy, Wild referenced a recent trip to learn more about workforce development in Germany. Her German counterparts told her they are concerned that they can’t count on the U.S. as an ally — not because they don’t trust America, but because U.S. policy under Trump is so inconsistent.
“That’s a very dangerous place to be,” Wild said.
The foreign policy discussion was part of a 30-minute interview in which Wild, a Democrat and freshman lawmaker, fielded wide-ranging questions during the show, which will air at 7:30 p.m. Monday on WFMZ 69.
Wild represents the moderate 7th Congressional District, which covers Lehigh, Northampton and parts of Monroe County.
On the House impeachment inquiry on Trump, Wild said that what she read in the summary transcript of Trump’s conversation with the Ukrainian president and the redacted whistleblower’s complaint gave her “great concern.”
“I’m a lawyer by trade, as you know,” she said. “I’m a big believer in waiting to see where the evidence leads us.”
On bread-and-butter issues, Wild applauded the nation’s low unemployment rate, but pointed out manufacturers still have good-paying jobs they can’t fill. A big part of her focus, she said, will be to get people trained for jobs “of the future, keep them trained as our technologies keep changing and make sure that all people are able to enter this workforce that is working for so many people but not for everybody.”
She also teased that there could be college tuition relief coming with congressional reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. Wild said to expect an expansion and an increase in Pell Grants for four-year colleges and also for technical schools.
On climate, she acknowledged she didn’t sign onto the Green New Deal, though she applauded the effort for raising the issue’s profile. As co-chair of the New Democrats Coalition Task Force on Climate Change, she advocated for market-driven solutions. She said she believes industry will do the right thing, though it sometimes needs a regulatory or public opinion push.
She said the cost of prescription drugs is a big concern of her constituents and pointed to solutions for Medicare drug pricing.
“The fact that we don’t negotiate Medicare drug prices is ridiculous,” she said.
On firearms and shootings, Wild said she’s not out to take away anyone’s guns but again voiced support for mandatory background checks during a gun sale.
The conversation got personal during a discussion about suicide. Wild’s longtime partner took his own life last May, and she has turned her personal grief into a public conversation about mental health.
“It’s not just about suicide; it’s about mental health care in general. We have yet to achieve parity in this country between physical health and mental health,” Wild said. “We have to be discussing it. If you had a terminal illness or a life-threatening illness and you needed treatment for it, you’d go to your employer. You would not feel any shame about doing so. [Yet] if you were seriously depressed, suicidal or otherwise, the chances you would go to your employer to say you needed to get some time off are almost nil because there is such a stigma associated with it.”
Wild also fielded questions about what she thinks of the “Squad,” the nickname for four liberal freshman congresswomen who have gotten national attention: Alexandria OcasioCortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.
Wild said she could name all 435 House members. And while they are listened to, the far left does not govern “what happens in Washington.” It’s a “big tent party” with conservative and purple districts like the 7th.
“I like to say there is a Squad in Pennsylvania, and it’s the four women who were elected last November,” said Wild, referring to herself, Mary Scanlon of Delaware County, Chrissy Houlahan of Chester County, and Madeleine Dean of Montgomery County. “I think we really represent the core of the Democratic caucus, the majority makers in Congress … what we stand for, the kind of things that we’re working on.”
She also had some kind words for her predecessor, Republican Charlie Dent, a longtime congressman who is now, among other things, a CNN contributor. She called him the kind of elected official her district expects because he is not a “flamethrower,” and said he has been an invaluable resource during her first term in Congress.