ICYMI: McConnell on America’s Newsroom
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) joined Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino this morning on Fox News’ ‘America’s Newsroom’. See below for highlights or click here for the full interview.
On the Flying Object Takedowns:
“It is perplexing. We've been in these briefings, as you suggest, but they [the Biden Administration] don't seem to know anything. So, we're anxious to hear what analysis, if any, they've been able to achieve on the Chinese balloon, and to just get a sense of what these other three actually were. I’ve never been in briefings where I learned so little. If the President knows a lot more, it’s time for him to tell us all about it including the American people.
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“What is the game plan for protecting our skies? You get the impression they were quite surprised by all of this. That would suggest that maybe we need a new plan to protect our own airspace, but the complete absence of any useful information has been what has been most on display here over the last week and a half.
“So, I hope the President will say something to the American people. I hope it goes far beyond what we've been able to glean from these so-called classified briefings.”
On the Biden Administration’s Handling of China:
“The Chinese are clearly an adversary. They've teamed up with the Iranians to support the Russians in Ukraine. [The Biden Administration is] not being helpful on anything I can think of in the national security space. Of course, we've had longstanding challenges with [China] with our commercial interaction, with them stealing our intellectual property. The Chinese are not our friends. I think the Secretary of State, if the meeting does finally occur, needs to be pretty forceful.”
On the Munich Security Conference:
“I’m going to try to help explain to the American people that defeating the Russians in Ukraine is the single most important event going on in the world right now. It will save us an enormous amount of money down the road if the Ukrainians can succeed. They are not asking for any of our personnel, they're asking us for financial help. The Europeans are stepping up. They've done an awful lot that seems not to be recognized, for example, handling enormous numbers of refugees. In terms of the cost of it, it's about.02% of our gross domestic product. We are also monitoring very carefully the money that is being spent. There should be bipartisan support for this.
“My biggest criticism of the President is he seems not to have done enough soon enough. Had he moved more rapidly, we might have been able to help the Ukrainians have even more success than they've already had, but it seems like these weapons systems tend to get there a little too late on every occasion.
“I want to reassure the American people this is enormously important. We need to stay together on a bipartisan basis in our country and defend these people who are bravely fighting for freedom and for democracy in Ukraine.”
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Related Issues: China, Ukraine, National Security
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