Bridge Battle: Mike Rogers’ High-Stakes Game of Tariffs and Tunnels

So U.S. Senate candidate, Mike Rogers, backing this idea of using the opening of the Gordyhow Bridge as leverage for this broader trade negotiation with Canada, specifically over tariffs on Chinese-made vehicles. And in this period where the United States and Canada aren't quite seeing eye to eye on a number of things. The Canadian government went out, reached out to China. They're talking about bringing in, you know, tens of thousands of these Chinese EVs. And one of the impetus is for some legislation that even Elissa Slotkin was putting out there was barring these vehicles from coming into the United States for day trips across our borders. Exactly. And so this is something that Mike Rogers is thinking about as well. And the U.S. Senate candidate joins us this morning to talk about it. Mike, good morning. It's good to have you back. Good morning, Chris Lloyd. Great to have you. So let's talk a little bit about the Gordyhow International Bridge at this point. You know, there's been, I think, some frustration that it hasn't opened yet. What's your perspective on why? And what do you think needs to happen in order for this thing to open up? Well, listen, our Canadian friends have not been good partners on what the automobile business is going to look like. So they've dropped those tariffs from 100% to 6% on 100% Chinese-made cars. They've, up to the quota will be eventually over 70,000 of those cars. And what that does is really important. About 25% to 30% of even the cars that are made in Canada have U.S. content. So, or let me rephrase that, 25 to 30% of the cars that are made in Canada have U.S. content. So all of our parts suppliers, all those small shops that are doing parts for those cars are at risk. And the greatest existential threat to the United States auto worker jobs and our auto companies are Chinese-made automobiles. And the pressure is on to get them back across the border, number one. But they're also putting pressure on Washington, D.C., the Chinese, trying to make sure that they can produce cars here in America. And why this is important, they don't care about making money. They want to own the market, period, pure and simple. I mean, we have a small little startup company here called Slate that's trying to build electric vehicles. I think it's out of Troy. Really unique concept of modular builds for these cars, really kind of clever. All of that goes at risk. And we should use every bit of leverage for some tough negotiating with our Canadian friends as we can. They might not care if they have an auto industry in 10 years. I do. If Canada refuses to change its policies, would you still support opening the bridge or should it remain closed until an agreement is reached? Well, I mean, never say never. I would go have a pretty tough negotiation between now and then. And here's the good news, people forget. The people that own the other bridge are paying taxes. So once that bridge probably is either diminished or whatever, that tax base goes away. Canadians are not paying the United States any taxes. I'll guarantee you that. So I'm not too worried about the length of this thing. I am worried about the consequence. If it weren't so dire...

of what could happen to automobile jobs here in the state of Michigan, then you can play, you know, gee whiz. But this is, again, probably the biggest threat we have to our ability to produce cars and keep these auto jobs here in Michigan. So the USMCA, there's a broader issue here too. It is going to expire in 2036. So 10 years from now, it will expire. But there is supposed to be a joint review on July 1st in just a few days that mandates all three companies get together to talk about this agreement, and they're going to review this. Do you think they're going to be able to make headway in those conversations on the bridge? I don't know if that's going to be the... sole focus of it. I mean, obviously that bridge is of little of Mexico's concern. Sure. But when you look, I think we have to step back for a minute. If we have this bridge open two months, three months, six months later, and we win a significant concession from Canada about these Chinese cars, that's significant for auto workers right here in the state and keeping their jobs. That's worth having a little scuffle over it. You know, we can't just continue to give this stuff away. You know, just in the last decade, we've lost 40,000 manufacturing jobs here in Michigan. Those are middle-class jobs. They're gone. And by the way, happened to be under the Democrats in Lansing and for 32 years, two Democrats in the United States Senate. I mean, that's why this is such an important change election. We have got to fight for every... single job here because the Chinese would love nothing more than to have only customers here in the United States that don't build anything and it's what we've seen the consequences of this we've seen the consequences of the Democrats raising our utility rates or raising the cost of doing business here we've seen the consequences of that we're living it right now and why we wouldn't use this as an opportunity to get this done. It is no money out of our pocket having that bridge closed for another six months. Matter of fact, I argue that the other bridge pays taxes as we discussed. So let's use this as an opportunity to get this right. If not, how many more jobs are you willing to ship out of the state of Michigan? I don't know about you guys. I'm not willing to do that anymore. We need to get Michigan back up off of her knees. and growing again and being the envy of the country when it comes to high-end manufacturing. We have 30 seconds left here. Obviously, you're fighting for this open U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Gary Peters. Are you looking at the trends? How are things looking on your end?

We're looking great. I mean, people know this as a change election. We just talked about it. 32 years of the same party representing Michigan, you know, we've lost air bases, we've lost the main battle tank production, we've lost tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs. Our energy rates are too high. People are looking to move. Your kids are looking to move south. We've got to change all that, and people know it. And we have solutions. If you go to Rogers for Senate.com, we have solutions for all of this. including getting our kids educated again. So we're feeling great. Our polls are showing that we're beating all three of the Democrats that are getting more radical, more crazy. And you know what? This is going to be common sense versus crazy. Mike Rogers, we appreciate your time as always. Thank you. We'll talk soon. Thanks, guys. Yeah, you got it. Coming up on the other side, tech stocks are slumping. What does that mean? Chris Alberta joins us to break it down. It's chair morning.