00:00You sit on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and I just want to start with the news that we're kind of
00:02going through this morning, the fact that we have reporting that that response to the U.S. proposal has been
00:07conveyed via the Pakistanis to the U.S.
00:10Your reaction to that, and what do you need to see in that response to feel better about the prospects
00:14of this conflict coming to an end?
00:16Well, some great reporting there, and like everyone else, I'm waiting to see what the details are.
00:22But we have to take a step back and remember that we're waiting for agreement on a ceasefire that is
00:28only necessary because of a problem that President Trump created in the first place.
00:32You know, Iranians would not know that they had this potentially powerful tool in closing the Strait of Hormuz but
00:38for our attack.
00:40And so this is, as you were pointing out, just one step in a much larger conversation about the very
00:46real concern about having a nuclear-armed Iran.
00:49But we're really in a place now where the president, I think, is looking to save face.
00:53It's a war that we know now there was not a clear imminent threat.
00:57But as has been true throughout this war, as a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, I've gotten zero up
01:05-to-date, real-time information from this administration.
01:07There have been no public hearings.
01:08And so it's really a little bit like poking in the dark to try to figure out where we are
01:13and where this administration hopes to land ultimately.
01:15Are you concerned about the lack of what you just talked about, a consultation with Congress, as well as something
01:23people keep talking about with us is the lack of technical experts going into these negotiations?
01:28When they negotiated the original Iran nuclear deal, which the Trump administration pulled out of during the first term, that
01:33was months and months of negotiations in Geneva with multilateral partners, with State Department officials, junior officials, people from IAEA.
01:41The State Department, as far as we can tell, has been largely cut out of these negotiations.
01:45It is really only three people.
01:46And the president, it seems, making these decisions.
01:48Are you confident that they have the knowledge they need to go into these rooms and come out with a
01:53deal that is advantageous to the United States?
01:57Fortunately, I'm not confident.
01:58What I can tell you is what I do know from sitting on the Foreign Affairs Committee is that even
02:03if the State Department were at the table, that department has been absolutely gutted.
02:08So a lot of the support infrastructure that should be in place doesn't exist.
02:11And the fact that this president also, on top of that, likes to go it alone so much is really
02:17problematic for, I think, finding those kind of sustainable deals.
02:21What worries me in all of this is that we're going to end up with a deal that is equal
02:27to or maybe even worse than that JCPOA, which was imperfect, by the way.
02:32There were opportunities for improvement.
02:34But President Trump created this environment in the first place by ripping up that original agreement, allowing Iran to really
02:43go at their enrichment program with great vigor following ripping up that deal that, as you mentioned, was very involved
02:51and very detailed.
02:52And so now we're back at a place where if we can get through a ceasefire agreement and if we
02:57can get back to the table, I'm hopeful that we can get back to a place where there's not enrichment
03:02happening.
03:03But we have a long way to go.
03:05And in the meantime, there's been an incredible amount of pain inflicted upon not just Americans in terms of service
03:12members' lives lost, hundreds if not at least tens of billions of dollars spent, painted the pump for Americans and,
03:18frankly, across the globe.
03:20And so we're asking here, you know, to what end?
03:24And I think at this point the president can't really answer that question.
03:28Let's talk a bit about what this has to bear on U.S. politics.
03:31I'm just going to note here, Chris Wright, the energy secretary, is on Meet the Press with Kristen Welker on
03:35NBC News.
03:35He said the U.S. isn't going to take off any options off the table when it comes to Iran.
03:39An interim Iran deal has got to be possible, he said.
03:42And then he noted gasoline and diesel prices are going to remain up while this war continues.
03:47I'm curious how you see that pressure mounting as you talk to constituents and make your way around the district.
03:52You mentioned you haven't been briefed formally by this administration on the Foreign Affairs Committee.
03:56We did see the Secretary of Defense go up and speak to the Armed Services Committee.
04:00There is some speculation that maybe we're reaching a greater appetite for a war powers resolution on Capitol Hill.
04:06What's going to change the conversation or the political terrain?
04:09Is it going to be gas prices, diesel prices continuing to rise apace?
04:13Or is it going to be that?
04:15The longer this lasts without any indication of sort of where the direction of this war is headed from the
04:18administration,
04:19it's going to finally lead you and your colleagues to do more, try to do more,
04:22to get administration officials up to Capitol Hill to give you some answers?
04:26Appreciate those questions.
04:27I'll start with the war powers resolution.
04:29I mean, this is now beyond the 60 days and the flexibility that my colleagues on the Republican side have
04:34said the president deserves.
04:35So it's not a suggestion.
04:36It's the law.
04:37If the president wants to continue military operations, he has to have authorization from Congress at this point.
04:43I think the law is clear.
04:45And so that's on that point.
04:47I would say I want to interrupt you really quickly.
04:50Do you think that would concern this particular president?
04:53Do you think anything Congress passes, even if it would pass a war powers resolution, do you think that would
04:58stop him?
04:59Well, and that's not a reason for Congress not to try to stop him.
05:02But if the president blows past war powers restrictions, then I think we have to sort of up our game
05:09as members of Congress to hold this president accountable.
05:11This is a president who has consistently shown a disdain for any any sort of check.
05:15And unfortunately, my Republican colleagues have largely deferred to the president on those issues.
05:22And I hope that given the consequence and given the impact to the other point, I think that the costs
05:28of at the pump and it's not just at the pump.
05:31We're seeing it on airline tickets.
05:33We're seeing it through surcharges in places like Amazon.
05:36We're seeing it through what's happening with food prices.
05:39This is having impact across the lives of all Americans.
05:43And so I think what's happening is, in particular, my Republican colleagues in Congress are seeing this is going to
05:49be a real drag on their election prospects in November.
05:53And I think this is really going to fuel a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives.
06:00I think we're going to see a closing, if not a Democratic takeover of the Senate.
06:04So I think these issues are real.
06:06People are really hurting as I talk to my constituents.
06:08And I think it's really interesting to know that usually when it's one of the secretaries or the president himself,
06:16these are millionaires and billionaires who are members of this administration telling Americans it's going to be OK.
06:21It's only temporary.
06:22That's that's not acceptable to people who are trying to put a roof over their head and food on the
06:27table.
06:28Let's move, if we can, to the summit that's going to take place this week in Beijing between the president
06:32and President Xi Jinping.
06:33And we had your colleague, your Democratic colleague, Ro Khanna of California on the show yesterday.
06:36And we asked him what he's looking for as an outcome from from that meeting between those two world leaders.
06:41Let's take a listen to what he had to say in reply.
06:48Maybe.
06:50We may not emphasize it if I can.
06:53He has thought that he has to reverse.
06:55And we've had China hold us hostage on rare earths and critical minerals.
06:59I want a deal that actually helps American farmers, American shipbuilders, American manufacturers.
07:05And I hope he will work to get that.
07:07He hasn't so far.
07:09Apologies for that delay.
07:10Congressman Khanna looking for an economic resolution to come out of this meeting in Beijing.
07:14Similar goals on your part.
07:15What would you like to see these two leaders announced at the end of those meetings?
07:18I think that's part of it.
07:20What I can tell you is this is a president who's been very soft on China.
07:23The one place where he's been hard is on tariffs, and that has negative impacts for everyone.
07:28No one wins in a trade war.
07:30But what we do know is that this president's been very soft in terms of advanced ships and the selling
07:36of those.
07:36And that really is, I think, putting our national security at risk.
07:40You see a ton of pieces of legislation around export controls in the Foreign Affairs Committee.
07:45And I think it speaks to this concern of the way this administration is acting, and in general, on the
07:51issue.
07:51So, yes, in addition to what Representative Khanna had said, I actually want to see our president take a harder
07:57stand on some of these export controls,
08:00some of these advanced ships, and looking more in the American interests.
08:03I'm also looking to making sure that this president, that President Trump, takes a much more affirmative stance in support
08:10of our friend and partner, Taiwan.
08:14I know that I just introduced legislation, bipartisan legislation.
08:17I'm a co-lead with Representative Kim that would have the United States do a survey of all the potential
08:22responses if there were to ever be an invasion of Taiwan by China.
08:27And so I'm hoping that the president not only step up for American farmers and American interests from a national
08:33security perspective,
08:34but also to be a much more ardent supporter of Taiwan's interests in these meetings.
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