Sherrod Brown Mocks 2016 Hopefuls Who Suddenly Take An Interest In China

Senate Democratic candidate Sherrod Brown speaks to a crowd of more than 1,000 people, Saturday, Nov. 4, 2006, in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
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Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) thinks there needs to be a serious review and far more attention on the United State’s approach to various deals with China. He admitted though that there’s not as much as there should be on that subject. But, Brown said, that could change with the 2016 presidential campaign season fast approaching

“I see a general disengagement. The human mind and the Senate mind … let me back off that for a second,” Brown said during a speech and Q & A on U.S. trade policy toward China hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations on Tuesday. “I think that our economy has been such and the partisanship is so polarizing that China doesn’t demand our attention like the Middle East does and the way the domestic economy and I don’t see all that much engagement on our China commission for example.”

But that will probably appear to change as the 2016 campaign season kicks into gear, Brown said.

“I think we will see those senators who look to — for want of a better term — fashion themselves as sitting in the oval office someday and that’s not a small number of my colleagues. And you can almost always tell who they are by looking on who in their term gets on the Foreign Relations Committee, the Armed Services Committee,” Brown said.

He noted that at one point eventual presidential candidates then-Sens. Chris Dodd (D-CT), John Kerry (D-MA), and Barack Obama were all on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“I would expect some of these potential candidates to engage a bit more. I mean Senator [Marco Rubio] — I’m not questioning his intent, he’s on our Hong Kong bill,” Brown said. “He cares about human rights, I know that from talking to him. I expect to see a little bit more of that and I will work my colleagues because it’s so much a part of where we go and what we do.”

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