Fox News Sunday
Interview
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Hi, Shannon. Thanks for having me.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
That the tensions are rising. I think there's a saber-rattling on the part of Putin to basically try to frighten with the operations going on.
Here's why -- the way I see it, Shannon, is since President Biden has come into office, he's projected weakness. And when you projected weakness, you invite aggression and war.
When you project strength like Reagan talked about, you -- you invite peace. And so, what we're seeing, you saw peace on Iran getting aggressive, and now Putin now invading Ukraine. And Chairman Xi in China threatening Taiwan and the Pacific.
All these things are happening at the same time, and it's not by accident. It's by design, and it's a weak foreign policy out of fear.
I mean, I think that we are so weak right now -- these tactical nukes are disturbing. I think it's the fact they're in Belarus, you know, as well.
But, you know, the Japanese prime minister went to Ukraine the other day and said that what happens here in Ukraine will happen in Taiwan and the Far East and the Pacific. So, you know, we have to -- this is a very important confrontation right now.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Our defense industrial base is not up to speed. Now, the weapons we're putting into Ukraine are old weapons, more land-based, and what we sent to Taiwan are going to be sea -- maritime based and they are new weapons.
I think the concern, though, is I signed off on foreign military sales to Taiwan three years ago that have yet to go into the country. And I'm getting ready to travel over there. That's a concern. There's no deterrence.
I think what's happening in Ukraine will provide a deterrence with what happens with Taiwan. But they are not prepared. There's no deterrence there for war.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
What's more -- I think what's more disturbing to me is this alliance between Putin and Xi. And they just met again saying next 100 years will be greatest years, and they're talking about putting in lethal weapons from China into Ukraine, into the fight, you know, with Russia.
This is an unholy alliance. And they're buying weapons from Iran and North Korea. They're all tied together in this thing. It's a geopolitical -- it's a fight between tyranny and oppression versus democracy and freedom and the West.
And you can't -- you can't dissect the two. They are tied together. What happens in Ukraine directly affects Taiwan and the Pacific, and we need to deter on both sides. My argument is this administration has wholly failed in that deterrence.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
We're losing our prestige. We're not leading, you know, in front. We're leading from behind. We talked about during Obama years, right? And you had ISIS rearing its ugly head.
Because of this weakness, our aggressors, foreign nation adversaries are on the march. They are getting aggressive against our interest in the United States because of his weakness. And I know that President Trump, at least when he was in office, you know, they feared him.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Fear provides deterrence and unpredictability as well, I would say with Trump.
I would say with Biden, because of this projection of weakness -- and I go back to Afghanistan, we may have time to talk about this week. When Afghanistan imploded, that is the turning point. That is when Putin looked and not a question of if but when, Putin looked at Ukraine and Xi is looking at Taiwan, that's when everything changed.
Afghanistan was a turning point. It was a disaster. We left Americans behind. Afghanistan partners behind.
And then we have heard testimony about the sniper there that had the suicide bomber on his sights but wasn't given authority to take out the suicide bomber that would have saved 13 servicemen and women. That's a tragedy and that is a beginning of when things start to go downhill.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
It's extraordinary. You have 23 embassy employees dissenting to the policy of secretary of state and the White House. We want to know and the American people deserve to know and the veterans and the Gold Star mothers deserve to know what were in those dissenting cables, what was so important that these 23 employees were reaching out at the highest levels, saying we disagree with your policy.
I think -- I don't care about his internal policies. I care about the veterans and Gold Star mothers and like Marine Sergeant Vargas-Andrews had his arm blown up, his leg, who had the suicide bomber in his sights and wasn't given permission to engage. That's what I care about.
And that's why if they don't deliver by Monday, close of business, I will serve that subpoena.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Well, we're racist, but the Chinese are not, I don't understand this logic, blame America first.
I mean, the fact is, you know, every national security official in this administration has said that it is a national security threat.
And you know what? We banned it in the Congress, right? So, if we banned it in the Congress, that's too dangerous for us to have, why in the world is it safe enough for children to have?
It is a backdoor into your iPhone. It's a spy balloon into your phone. It can collect your data. It can message to you.
I've -- I've marked up a bill out of my committee, at a constitutional framework to ban TikTok and I think Congress is going to move forward on this. One thing you saw from the hearings in a bipartisan way that both sides of the aisle were standing together saying this is a threat to our children and we need to stop it.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
It's profit versus national security. I deal with this all the time.
Are we going to export technology, Shannon, that go into the hypersonic weapon, you know, that was built down on the backbone of American technology? The spy balloon had American components in it.
Is it -- is it right for us to make profits exporting technology to Chinese that then they put in their war machine that they could turn against us, say, in Taiwan and the Pacific?
I don't think so. I think we have to appeal to sense of patriotism in this case. And I think national security outweighs profit incentive.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Thanks for having me, Shannon.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source