WASHINGTON – In case you missed it, U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) sat for a broad interview with Margaret Hoover for an episode of PBS’ “Firing Line.” A 25-minute version of the interview aired on PBS stations on Friday, and a full 50-minute version of the interview has also been made available as a podcast.

During the interview – which was conducted shortly after Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted leaders of 25 nations for the Shanghai Cooperation Summit, and subsequently presided over a military parade with Russia’s Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un – Senator Coons assailed President Trump for weakening America’s standing in the world and fraying our alliances through tariffs and threats at a time when we need them more than ever. As China, Russia, North Korea, and other adversaries are increasingly aligning, we need to deepen, not lessen, coordination with our allies to strengthen our collective security and wield our collective economic power.

Domestically, Senator Coons sounded the alarm on President Trump’s overreach and shared his disappointment in his Republican colleagues for failing to “remember their oaths and challenge things that are well outside historic norms and our constitutional order.” He also called for HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to resign because he has “advanced unscientific and… unconstructive, even dangerous ideas and policies.”

Selected highlights from interview are included below. You can watch the televised interview here.

On China trying to re-align the world order:

Hoover: Do you believe we are seeing a fundamental realignment between the United States and the previously established post-World War II world order?

Senator Coons: If we do not change direction, yes.

The last nine months, the second Trump administration, has put more pressure on our partners and allies, on the folks we have counted on to be with us in every major values fight, economic issue, security fight for 80 years.

…

‘America First,’ I think, tells a mistaken story about the history of the last eight decades. It says, “We fought, we won. We are the world-leading power.” And it misses the absolutely central role of our allies in every major development of the last eight decades.

On Trump and Putin:

Hoover: Has Trump's attempt to disrupt the bond between China and Russia completely failed?

Senator Coons: Yes.

I mean, when President Trump hosted Vladimir Putin, welcomed him with, literally, a red carpet and US military officers and a lot of pomp and circumstance in Anchorage, I think by having American B-2 bombers fly over, he intended to send a message. I can't see what that meeting produced other than some progress for Putin in terms of being welcomed… back into the world of nations.

…

Putin is literally giving a big middle finger to Trump and the United States every day. And to keep saying, “Maybe two weeks from now. Maybe two weeks from now,” is showing real weakness in the face of violence, aggression, and war crimes. Putin is only going to stop when we stop him. And thankfully, the Ukrainians are doing all the fighting. There's not a single American soldier fighting and dying on the front lines in Ukraine.

On Republicans and constitutional limits:

Senator Coons: We are seeing the limits of the judiciary and of Congress. Our framers assumed that the folks who served in Congress and in the judiciary, that we would be more loyal to and more jealously guard the prerogatives of our branch, whether it's Article I and our power of the purse or it's Article III and the federal judiciary that has, uniquely, the ability to call the president to account and say, "No, you can't do that" and issue injunctions.

…

The folks who've been confirmed as nominees, the bills that have been passed, the policies that have been adopted by Congress have shown a deference to the President even at his most aggressive and even at his most expansive… We are in real danger if the Supreme Court does not draw some clearer lines on presidential authority and use of power, and we are in real danger if we don't appropriate, if we don't use our power as Congress to say, “We spend the money. We say what you can spend.”

…

I've been very disappointed in my colleagues. And look, Democrats can give brave speeches, can stand up and storm out of hearings, but at the end of the day, as long as they've got 51 votes in the Senate and they're willing to change the rules and they're willing to break the norms and they're willing to go along, we can't really do anything except urge them to read their Constitutions and remember their oaths and challenge things that are well outside historic norms and our constitutional order.