WASHINGTON—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) today joined Kudlow on Fox Business to discuss the decision by the Women’s Tennis Association to end tournaments in Communist China amid the Peng Shuai situation, and the Biden Administration’s weak posture toward China.
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Partial Transcript
Hagerty on the WTA’s leadership in holding China accountable for the Peng Shuai situation: “I applaud the president of the WTA [Women’s Tennis Association] for stepping up and saying, ‘We’re going to hold China accountable.’ This also reminds you of what China has done to cover up, for example, the origins of the COVID-19 [virus], silencing people, not allowing them to speak out, just as they did with researchers back at the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here we are again, but I applaud the fact that the WTA leadership is stepping up and saying, ‘We’re going… to stand up for our player, and we’re not going to allow any tournaments to take place until we get to the bottom of this.’ I wish the Biden Administration would only be as strong. They’re not willing to call out the Uyghur genocide that’s taking place there. They’re not willing to call out China for its malign behavior throughout the region. This [WTA announcement] is leadership, and I’m very happy to see it.”
Hagerty on Biden emboldening our adversaries: “I get the question every day in terms of what we’ll do in the Taiwan Strait. I get that question from Japan. They’ve been stronger in their messaging around this. Australia is stepping up in the region. I think everybody has eyes on us, but what happened in Afghanistan has emboldened adversaries like China. Since Afghanistan fell in the most disgraceful manner possible, what we’ve seen is a massive increase in aggressive behavior by China against Taiwan, flying over the Taiwan Strait. We’ve seen this buildup on the Ukrainian border by the Russians. I mean, this weakness demonstrated by Biden, time and again, has resulted in making the world a much less safe place.”
Hagerty on urging a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing 2022 Olympics: “It’s quite troubling, the double standard that you mentioned, and I think the American public is waking up to that. But with respect to boycotting the Olympics, I’ve called on the Biden Administration to impose a diplomatic boycott. I’ve also suggested to the Japanese that I’d applaud them if they were to do the same thing. But I want to be clear, Larry: it’s a diplomatic boycott that I’ve called for. I think the athletes need to decide for themselves. My sympathies go to them. They’ve worked so hard to get to this point. That’s a decision that they will have to make. But as you mentioned, there are many groups in America that have been very, very loud, very, very outspoken with very little evidence about things of this nature that happened here in America, yet they’re saying nothing. Their silence is deafening when it comes to something like this happening in China.”
Hagerty on the Biden Administration’s refusal to hold China accountable: “The same thing is happening with human rights groups, too. They turn the other way when we see the genocide of the Uyghur population there. Again, back to the COVID-19, the origins of this pandemic that is ripping around the world. This has been going on now for two years, and there’s been this massive unwillingness to look to the origins, to call them out. And the Biden Administration is the one that you’ve got to hold accountable the most.”