WASHINGTON—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) today joined The Evening Edit on Fox Business to discuss the consequences of President Joe Biden’s war on American energy and how the United States must deal with Communist China from a position of strength.
Partial Transcript
Hagerty on the need to lessen dependence on Communist China: “I think what we’ve seen is China step in and, as Senator [Marsha] Blackburn aptly said, they’ve even given evidence that they will backfill. They will do what they can to support Russia, their ally. I think things aren’t working out well for Russia; certainly not as they had planned. And I hope that China observes this carefully, reconsiders the posture that they’re taking, because we need to be strong. If you think about it, we are too dependent on China. We have allowed this to happen over the years. I’ve been arguing for years that we need to become less dependent on China. We need to re-shore our companies. We need to get our operations back here in America. We need to put China in a different position strategically.”
Hagerty on Biden’s war on American energy funding Putin’s aggression: “He’s run out of options here. He tried to pass this massive Build Back Better plan. The American public doesn’t want it. Jamming another $5 trillion worth of expenses on the backs of America. And on the climate issue, they have been wrong-footed from the very start of this Administration. [President] Joe Biden on the first day began a war on the oil and gas industry that frankly has precipitated much of the disaster that we’re encountering right now. If you think about it, the price increase that he precipitated here in America when he stopped the Keystone XL Pipeline, when he stopped drilling on American lands, when he cut off access to ANWR [Arctic National Wildlife Refuge], that price increase here domestically has actually gone around the world. The biggest windfall has come to Vladimir Putin in Russia. So, Biden has found himself funding the war, the war machine from Russia against Ukraine at the same time we’re trying to stop it.”
Hagerty on Democrats’ green energy fanaticism: “It’s massively misleading. It’s so myopic. It’s so short-sighted, Liz. I mean, it’s almost like a religion, a theology to these people. They keep pushing toward these green solutions when they don’t have the bridge to get there. The infrastructure is not in place to support this. The alternative fuel sources are not there. Yet, they’ve decided to wage war on the oil and gas industry from day one in this Administration, and they put America in a terrible bind.”
Hagerty on Biden’s spending-fueled inflation hurting everyday Americans: “They’re denying the numbers. They’re denying the facts in all of this, Liz. Look at my home state of Tennessee. We actually drive to work. This is being felt by every American, and the top-line numbers—the 7.9 percent inflation, which is the highest that we’ve seen in 40 years—I don’t think that actually reflects the reality that most Americans feel right now. Certainly, for those of us that drive, we are living with this, and the Biden Administration’s war on oil and gas started it. The way to fix this right now is for Joe Biden to come out and say tomorrow that we’re going to reopen the Keystone XL Pipeline, that we’re going to start drilling again here in America. He’d rather deal with international killers than work with American drillers.”
Hagerty on NATO’s strength against Communist China: “It’s cage rattling. China is making a lot of moves right now to try and shift the status quo. I don’t think it’s going to work. I think that they stepped up and they supported Vladimir Putin in something that they deeply regret at this point. Putin’s arguments to China must have been that this will be over in two or three days. It’s turned out to be a 20-day plus grind, and it’s not working out the way China planned. NATO’s now stronger, more united than ever before. We need to continue to push back on China. The world’s looking at China hard.”
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