Publisher's Synopsis
Live from Germany, Helga Zepp-LaRouche was the guest on the LaRouche PAC Friday Webcast of Aug. 4. This transcript has been edited. Host Jason Ross: Hi there! This is Friday, August 4, 2017, and you are joining us for our regular Friday Webcast here at larouchepac.com. I'm Jason Ross-I'll be the host today-and I'm very happy that this week, we are joined by special guest Helga Zepp-LaRouche, who is on with us via video from Germany. Hi there, Helga. Helga Zepp-LaRouche: Hello. How are you? Ross: Good! For the show today, as a brief bit of set-up before we get to Helga, this week we saw Donald Trump sign the sanctions bill that had been passed by the House and the Senate-H.R. 3364-which targets Iran, North Korea, and Russia with sanctions. Part of this bill claims, as a given, that Russia interfered with the U.S. election; part of the bill says that the United States will never recognize Crimea as part of Russia; and it would tie the President's hands in having foreign policy actions passed by the House and the Senate rather than through the Executive Branch. Donald Trump signed the bill this week, issuing a signing statement about the parts of the bill that he finds to be unconstitutional. Trump tweeted just yesterday that "Our relationship with Russia is at an all-time and dangerous low. A very dangerous low. You can thank Congress for this." Russia responded by calling for the expulsion of a certain number of U.S. diplomats to reach the level of Russian diplomats in the United States; something similar to what President Obama had done with Russian diplomats and Russian diplomatic property. What this means overall, is that it's really increasing the pressure on U.S.-Russian relations, and making it very difficult for Trump to follow through on one of his campaign promises, which was the potential of reaching a detente with Russia. As he had famously said, "It's not bad to get along with Russia; that's a good thing." So, Helga, I'd like to bring you on to provide your view of this. I know that your husband, Lyndon LaRouche, has said that if this coup against Trump succeeds, this puts the threat of nuclear war very much on the table. Could you tell us your view of the situation? Zepp-LaRouche: Yes. I think this is not just a Senate vote, or a Congress vote. This is about the President in American history since its founding. Because it completely overturns the American Constitution, which gives the power to define foreign policy to the President, and the Constitution has a separation of powers. Now, under the bill that was voted, after the Congress and the Senate voted by an overwhelming majority to impose sanctions, if President Trump wanted to undo that, he would supposedly have to send a letter to the Congress, and the Congress would have to respond in 30 days to either approve it or oppose it. That is Congress hijacking the power to define foreign policy from the President! I think the American people had better wake up to the fact that what is being taken away is the American Constitution. I would think that every American patriot who loves America-and I know the American people are generally very patriotic-they have to understand this moment. Because they just can not let this go. It has so many implications. The VIPS Memorandum My husband, Lyndon LaRouche, said that if this is allowed to stick, then we are back to the immediate confrontation against Russia- and also China-as we were with the Obama administration and the control of the neocons, who had controlled United States policy for two terms of George W. Bush and two terms of Obama. It was these neocons who were completely upset that somebody not belonging to the system-like Donald Trump-won the election. I remember very well that on the 21st of January, the British weekly magazine, The Spectator, had a headline saying, it's just a question of whether Trump will be gotten out of office ...
