'This Week' Transcript 2-12-23: Sen. Chuck Schumer, Rep. James Comer & Rep. Pete Aguilar
Interview
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Yeah, I agree with that. We're going to come forward with a plan. We're still debating that plan. We're having robust debate amongst our conference. That's what democracy is supposed to be about.
And thank goodness for the House Republicans. Thank goodness that somebody's willing to step up and say, we can't keep going down this unsustainable path of spending $1 trillion to $2 trillion a year more than the government takes in. Somebody has got to be the adult at the table, and House Republicans will hopefully be that person.
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Yeah. We're going to be coming forward with a plan. This doesn't have to come forward before July. Obviously, I'd like for the plan to come forward next week.
It's tough, George. As you know, you've been involved in government. It's easy to spend money. What unites the Democrats is spending money.
Now, when you get to the point to where we now where you've got to make cuts, it's a lot tougher. We're not going to cut Social Security or Medicare. We've been very clear about that.
It's very disappointing that the president and Chuck Schumer would continue to try to scare seniors.
These are important programs to everyone. There's bipartisan support for Social Security and Medicare. If anything, we need to shore those programs up. They're running out of money.
But at the end of the day, those programs are going to be off the table with respect to cuts. But everything else is on the table.
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Well, this is a problem that we have. You know, China continues to steal our intellectual property. They continue to steal our patents. They manipulate their currency. We believe they have a big footprint in academia with a massive spy ring within our research universities where they continue to steal our hard-earned research and development.
So China's a problem. And this administration thus far hasn't set a very good example of standing up to China. I think that, you know, shooting the balloon down in the Atlantic once it flew over all the military bases, including my own Fort Campbell, Kentucky, it's very disturbing. I'm glad this administration's taking it more seriously with respect to the balloons.
But we've got a whole lot bigger problem with China than the spy balloons. I mean, this -- this is a problem. Their military continues to grow and expand. They're continuing their -- their Belt and Road Initiative all over the world where they're trying to create a dominant world economy. This is a problem for the United States. And we need an administration to stand firm to China.
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Absolutely. We have said that in the House Oversight Committee. TikTok's parent company is ByteDance. They are based in China. TikTok executives testified in Congress a year or two ago that none of the data that TikTok collected ever left the United States. But what we've learned from -- from whistle-blowers and media accounts is some of that data did, in fact, go back to China and that's a concern.
It's a concern for high-level people in the government because with that data, ByteDance can -- can tell where you are if you are using TikTok. They know with your location is. So that would be a concern if we continue to see escalation among China and United States. We certainly don't want the -- the Chinese bad guys to know where our public officials are. And that's why you're seeing more state governments ban TikTok. And I think that's going to continue a trend.
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I think everything's on the table. Look, we're investigating Joe Biden. We -- we know that Joe Biden said during the presidential campaign that he had no knowledge of his son's business interests. He wasn't involved. He didn't benefit from them. We have evidence that would suggest otherwise. And this is very concerning.
You know, Americans are outraged that China flew a balloon over the United States. Americans are outraged that China is trying to buy farmland. I think Americans would be outraged to know how much money the Biden family has taken in from China. And for what, we don't exactly know. So this is something we're concerned about. But we're also concerned about a legislative fix.
Now I don't disagree with the Democrats and their criticism of the previous administration. We have a problem here that needs a legislative solution. That's why this Biden investigation is so important. There's a legislative solution to this, and it can be bipartisan. The Democrats complained about Kushner's foreign dealings. Republicans are certainly complaining about the entire Biden family's foreign business dealings.
We need to know what is allowable and what isn't allowable. We need to have strict ethics laws. And we need to significantly increase the disclosure laws in America. So I think this investigation is going to be very important to fix a problem before it gets out of hand.
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I -- I believe that when we talk about passing legislation to set a line as to where you can be with relatives of high-ranking government officials with respect to doing business with adversaries overseas, then it would apply to everyone. We need to fix this before it gets worse in the next administration.
The Democrats complained about the Trump administration, but obviously we're complaining about the Biden administration. The difference between Jared Kushner and Hunter Biden is that Jared Kushner actually sat down with was interviewed. He was interviewed by investigators. So he's already been investigated.
Thus far Hunter Biden's attorneys, the president's attorneys, the president's White House, they're doing everything they can to block our investigation. Hopefully the Biden family will be as cooperative as Jared Kushner with our investigation as they were with the January 6th investigation and all the other investigations of the Trump administration.
So I think this is a problem. I think that there can be a bipartisan legislative solution. But we can't get to that point until we know the extent of what the Biden family influence peddling involved, especially with respect to Communist China.
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