Sen. Warren defends past comments on Biden's mental fitness: ‘I said what I believed to be true'
'You think he was as sharp as you?' Fragoso responded swiftly.
'I said I had not seen [a] decline, and I hadn't, at that point,' Warren said.
'You did not see any decline from 2024 Joe Biden to 2021 Joe Biden?' Fragoso said with an incredulous look.
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'Not when I said that. You know, the thing is … Look — he was sharp, he was on his feet,' Warren replied. 'I saw him [at a] live event. I had meetings with him a couple of times.'
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'Senator, 'on his feet' is not praise,' Fragoso said. 'He can speak in sentences,' is not praise.'
'All right, fair enough, fair enough,' Warren replied. 'Look… the question is what are we going to do now?'
Fragoso is a writer, director, and left-leaning podcast host who is based in Los Angeles.
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Some Democrats had urged Biden to drop out of the race, while others threw their support behind the president. Some Democrats, including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, resisted
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Newsweek
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Hey @AOC , @BernieSanders , @SenSchumer , @SenWarren , every Dem should be thanking @potus for doing what the Dems have dreamed of doing, but have NEVER been able to do, creating a sales tax on 2 of the biggest semi companies in the country ! This opens the door for Sales Tax… — Mark Cuban (@mcuban) August 11, 2025 Cuban was referring to a new Trump administration deal requiring the leading chipmakers Nvidia and AMD to pay the U.S. government 15 percent of revenue from sales of certain artificial intelligence chips to China — a condition for receiving export licenses. While the White House has avoided calling it a tax, Cuban labeled it a "billionaire's sales tax" and "the ULTIMATE wealth tax," framing it as the kind of corporate levy progressives have long advocated for but failed to deliver. An Unprecedented Chip 'Commission' The deal marks a sharp departure from standard export-control practices. 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US Representative from Illinois Raja Krishnamoorthi speaks on the fourth and last day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, on August 22, 2024. US Representative from Illinois Raja Krishnamoorthi speaks on the fourth and last day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, on August 22, 2024. Getty Images While Cuban celebrated the chip scheme as clever, U.S. Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi saw it as a dangerous misstep. The top Democrat on the House China Select Committee told Newsweek the administration was taking "one of our most important national security tools" — export controls — and twisting them into "a pay-to-play scheme with no clear legal authority, congressional oversight, or transparency." "You cannot treat something as both a national security threat and a revenue opportunity without signaling to Beijing that our principles and national security are for sale," he said. If certain chips are too risky to sell, "those exports should be prohibited outright, not monetized." Orde Kittrie, a law professor at Arizona State University and former State Department attorney, agreed the arrangement is "inconsistent" with constitutional provisions reserving taxing power to Congress and prohibiting export duties. In an interview with Newsweek, he also questioned whether the funds could become "a kind of presidential slush fund" outside normal appropriation rules. The risk of undermining export policy is also a concern for Derek Scissors, a China expert at the center-right think tank American Enterprise Institute. He told Newsweek the deal "looks like a pathway for export controls to be continually violated" by allowing companies to buy exemptions whenever it is profitable. "They're calling it a fee," Scissors added. "Plain language says 15 percent of sales revenue is a tax." The office building of Nvidia Corporation in Neihu Technology Park, Taipei, Taiwan, July 25, 2022. The office building of Nvidia Corporation in Neihu Technology Park, Taipei, Taiwan, July 25, 2022. BING-From a policy standpoint, Bill Reinsch, a former Commerce Department official now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told Newsweek the precedent is "even more corrosive" because "the message it sends is that security is negotiable." "Licensing decisions should be based on a national security assessment of the items in question... not a payment," he said. But not everyone in the financial world sees danger. Eric Schiffer, investor and chairman of The Patriarch Organization, told Newsweek he agrees with Cuban's take that the move is "a form of tax that you'd think Democrats would like." "Mark is correct," Schiffer said. "But I don't see the Trump administration applying it aggressively or broadly. It will be tactical and at the president's discretion." He added that for Nvidia and AMD, it's "a big win" because it reopens a market they had lost, and "paying a small fee is worth it for them." Legal and Political Uncertainty Ahead Whether this move remains an isolated maneuver or signals a new model for extracting corporate revenue could hinge on how the courts — or Congress — respond. Critics like Kittrie note that Article I of the Constitution prohibits export taxes and reserves taxing authority for Congress, which could make the 15 percent revenue skim vulnerable to legal challenge. "Article 1 Section 9 prohibits the imposition of export taxes or duties," he said. "The 15 percent arrangement would appear to be exactly that, and thus prohibited to both Congress and the executive branch." On Capitol Hill, Krishnamoorthi has signaled the committee's intent to scrutinize the deal, warning it risks undermining America's credibility in enforcing export controls. If challenges emerge, they could also pull in trade law disputes at the World Trade Organization, where U.S. trading partners may view the measure as discriminatory or beyond the bounds of standard licensing fees. In this photo illustration a smartphone screen displays the logo for the app for Chinese AI company DeepSeek in front of the Nvidia website on January 27, 2025 in Bath, England. In this photo illustration a smartphone screen displays the logo for the app for Chinese AI company DeepSeek in front of the Nvidia website on January 27, 2025 in Bath, Chaisse, a trade law professor at City University of Hong Kong, told Newsweek such a case could attract multiple countries to join a WTO challenge, framing it as a dangerous precedent for tying export licenses to revenue transfers. He said the 15 percent requirement "far exceeds the administrative cost" of licensing and could be viewed as a disguised trade restriction. And while Beijing has urged Chinese companies to avoid using those processors—particularly for government-related purposes—for now, Nvidia and AMD are paying, China is buying, and Cuban is applauding a president he often criticizes. As the billionaire put it on X: "Sometimes you have to find a different path to get the results you want. You can't be dogmatic when you want to help people."
