Sen. Sherrod Brown said he spoke with President Donald Trump Wednesday night, and that even though Trump blamed him this week for the closure of a major General Motors plant in Ohio, the president still backs his call for a bill that could provide a tax break for people who buy American-made cars.
"I reached him last night and he said he wanted to help," the Ohio Democrat told CNN's "New Day" Thursday.
"He said he would sign on to my American Jobs, American Cars Act which will incentivize for buying American cars. He said he wants to help. He put me in touch with his U.S. trade representative, an Ohioian, I might add. We will move forward and hope it gets through Congress."
Brown said he and Trump didn't talk about the president blaming the closure of the Lordstown plant on him.
"The president is not one to take a lot of responsibility for his own issues, problems," said Brown.
"What I found amusing is that there's a Republican president, Republican House of Representatives and a Republican Senate and Republican governor and Republican Supreme Court and he looked all over Ohio and found a Democrat and pointed the blame to (me). I don't care about that.
"I want to fix this. He said he wants to work it and I am working with his trade representative."
Brown did support Trump's call for a steel tariff, but said Thursday GM has not cited the tariffs as a factor in its cutback call.
Meanwhile, Brown has been mentioned as a potential 2020 presidential contender, but on Thursday, he said "I don't know" about a run.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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