May, 21 2020, 12:00am EDT

Statement: Trump's Open Skies Withdrawal Makes Us All Less Safe
Win Without War Advocacy Director Erica Fein released the following statement on Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from the Treaty on Open Skies:
"Once again, Donald Trump's belligerent approach to foreign policy has put us all at risk.
WASHINGTON
Win Without War Advocacy Director Erica Fein released the following statement on Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from the Treaty on Open Skies:
"Once again, Donald Trump's belligerent approach to foreign policy has put us all at risk.
"The Open Skies Treaty is a key tool for building confidence and ensuring transparency between countries. It has long held both bipartisan support domestically and wide support from our allies abroad. It is exactly the type of global cooperation that we need to prevent distrust, misunderstandings, and conflict in the international arena. Trump's decision to withdraw from this agreement -- and to willfully violate the congressional mandate to inform legislators before beginning a withdrawal process -- puts us further down the path of nuclear brinkmanship.
"Time and again, Trump has put nationalist bombast before actual security concerns: attacking multilateral institutions like the World Health Organization and the United Nations, engaging in futile trade wars, imposing deadly sanctions, and bringing us to the edge of all-out war with Iran.
"This administration's record on nuclear weapons is particularly egregious. Before this, Trump had already unilaterally withdrawn from both the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action -- the multilateral agreement to contain Iran's nuclear program -- and the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty -- the treaty known for helping end the Cold War by signaling a new era of mutual security and understanding between the United States and the Soviet Union. This latest step sparks serious concern that the critical New START may be next on the chopping block.
"In contrast to Trump's rhetoric, a retreat to isolationism does nothing to make the world safer. Quite the opposite: Trump's antagonistic foreign policy brings us one step closer to nuclear disaster. In the face of global threats like nuclear proliferation, pandemics, and the climate crisis, what we need is global cooperation, not great power competition."
Win Without War is a diverse network of activists and organizations working for a more peaceful, progressive U.S. foreign policy. We believe that by democratizing U.S. foreign policy and providing progressive alternatives, we can achieve more peaceful, just, and common sense policies that ensure that all people--regardless of race, nationality, gender, religion, or economic status--can find and take advantage of opportunity equally and feel secure.
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Sen. Cory Booker said it "will overturn President Trump's executive order that prioritizes pesticide company profits over public health and ensure that people who have gotten cancer from glyphosate can seek justice."
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On the heels of the US Supreme Court hearing arguments in Monsanto Company v. Durnell, Sens. Martin Heinrich and Cory Booker on Wednesday introduced legislation intended to overturn President Donald Trump's executive order mandating production of the highly contentious weedkiller at the center of that case.
"Since my time serving as a City Council member in Newark, I have seen firsthand the devastating harm caused by toxic chemicals in our communities," Booker (D-NJ) said in a statement. "That is why, this week at a rally in front of the Supreme Court, I stood with cancer survivors, activists, and Make America Healthy Again advocates to protest against providing a liability shield to foreign corporations that are poisoning the American people."
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Despite Trump's campaign promise to "Make America Healthy Again," he has frequently served the pesticide industry, including by siding with Bayer—which bought Monsanto in 2018—in the case before the high court, and by signing the February order invoking the Defense Production Act for glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup.
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