institute in washington, d.c.

he will share with us is and sites on the middle east. congressman, you bring a depth of experience to this discussion. as a senior member of the house foreign affairs committee you served as the chair of the subcommittee on the middle east. north africa and central asia. and a subcommittee in europe. you're the lucas service -- longest serving never of the house armed services committee for your coach are numerous caucuses, including bulgaria,

france, u.k., korea, ethiopia, belarus, bangladesh, afghanistan, qatar and the republican caucus on israel. >> and india. >> i left a few off so we were not here all afternoon. the right your career you have been a steadfast advocate for promoting peace through a strong national defense, reducing the tax burden on american families and ensuring physical response bloody by limiting federal government spending. we are eager to hear your recommendations towards the middle east, a region of critical importance to global stability and the u.s. interest. thank you for being here today. i will speak one-on-one with the congressman for 30 to 45 minutes. perhaps we will have time for questions. fantastic. why don't we start with what is in the headlines? syria. can i get your reflections on what is going on?

it is hard for most people to follow. >> what an extraordinary weekend. putting syria in perspective, the city of aleppo, three times the size of washington, d.c., has been taken over by the rebels. this is a city that tragically in 2012 that when he 16 was the assault location of russian federation or criminal p utin. amazingly enough, the dictator assad could stay in office and stay in power. the incredible thing is this weekend the rebels, a different composition almost every day, it is a real defeat for the assad dictatorship, for were criminal

putin and the iranian dictatorship. amazingly enough, hezbollah also was in syria. it's another defeat for them. it's an opportunity for the people of syria to rise up and create a free syria. >> why look at the map of the world today, i tend to think of this as a contest between russia, china and iran, north korea against the united states and its allies. do you see that in the same way? >> i certainly do. we have a conflict that we did not choose. this is not the responsibility of the united states, nato, western civilization. this is a decision by dictators who ruled by gun invading democracies who ruled by law.

you cannot miss it. i'm so set people in my party somehow not connected the dots. the dictators are working together in every way. they are working together with lesser dictators like assad. with kim jong-un. over and over again you can see a connection of dictators. the great thing i believe is that with the election on november 5 we can go back to what worked. that was peace through strength. we saw in the middle east. who would ever imagine how exciting the abraham accords -- to see the association of israel with so many of the arab countries. this should be continued. i have the perspective. i led the delegation of congress members to the opening of the embassy in jerusalem. the coverage of donald trump. on may 14, 2018. in 1994, speaker newt gingrich

had congress passed legislation that would move the american embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem. jerusalem was the only capital the world we did not have an embassy. every time it would come to the attention of a president that they should locate the embassy, the state department would say it would create a dislocation and destabilization in the middle east. it was donald trump that the guts to say promises made, promises kept. there was no destabilization. it was the exact opposite. that was the abraham accords. i'm looking forward to the future of peace through strength. the emissary to the middle east. mike huckabee. heart be still. the ambassador to jerusalem. then you add to that marco rubio as secretary of state. how incredible.

and then i'm really thrilled that with comes from middle east, at least a phonic as the -- elise stefanik as the u.n. ambassador. mike walsh and security adviser, a team is coming in place that understands peace through strength. >> the rebels in northwest syria, we think of them and they have an islamist, they have an islamist character to them. there's a kind of knee jerk assumption that they're going to be hostile to israel. i think it's pretty clear that they have recognized that israel's destruction or near destruction -- let's say israel's victories over hezbollah have really opened up an opportunity for them. >> professor, you're ahead of the curve because you would think islamic jihadists are coming into aleppo. will actually, you have to look

a little bit further. a lot further and it really opens opportunity indeed because of the defeat of hezbollah, the defeat of hamas, and i am of the belief that these are puppets of iran. not proxies of iran. they're not acting in place of iran. they are iran. it is the octopus of iran. that's where the center of evil is located in the middle east. by the defeat of hezbollah, so the defeat of hezbollah, so significant and all the leadership of hezbollah, sol mainy and all to have the defeat of hamas, which i hope is complete soon. it's a real encouragement to stabilize forces and then another country i think is so important that we work with is turkey. there's been such confusion over who's good, who's bad. who's a threat.

legitimately to the people. our nato ally. gosh, we should be working together. >> that's exactly how i read that. i was going to ease into the turkia question because i get a lot of heat when i suggest that we should be working with turki -- occur coach against the russian counter balance. there may be some friction between them but it's our job to be the shock absorber and keep the tension between them. is that how you see it? >> it is and apparently we need you back in the administration. if weaved been here friday, the thought of aleppo, the only thing you knew about aleppo was

the horrible mass murder conducted by putin which then he tried to replicate in mariapol in ukraine. but now in putting perspective again, the city of two million people. we're not talking about a village but an extraordinary city that was leveled and just mass murder and with assad himself. -half a million people have been killed under the dictatorship of assad and 14 million displacedded from their homes. that's inconceivable. that's half of the population of the country and you try to relate that to americans and it's just inconceivable that, indeed, half of the population would lose their homes, their businesses, their schools, their mosque or church or whatever. and then to see -- i've had the opportunity to visit with the syrian refugee camps in jordan and then i know of significant

camps but even that is impressive to see the people from, many are business people. when it's refugee, i think, ok, we're going to see tattered -- and tents. no, they had -- with yards and then they even had a shopping district within the refugee camp. i know it from back home. some of the people from syria in south carolina are some of our best leaders. i know what this can mean for the american people and the middle east. >> can we talk a little bit about sanctions?

i know you've been a proponent of sanctions on assad and the cesar act is up for renewal. can you give us a sense -- for example, for those who aren't following closely, exactly what this means, when sit up for renewal and what's your prognosis? >> it's going to be good because it's bipartisan. i want to give a lot of credit to mike mccall and then the ranking member greg meeks. we'll be working together to maintain the sanctions and i want to codify it further with the new republican congress to codify sanctions and i want them to be against the country, i want them to be against the individuals, i want it to be against the oligarchs, against the businesses. specific as to banks. any way it can be done and then i'm also keenly interested in your perception of what we can do with secondary sanctions.

i truly believe that we can have sanctions on countries that support terrorism and finance terrorism but, indeed, the countries that are benefiting from reduced oil prices. there should be secondary sanctions to deter the markets that are exist tent. >> let's stick with this question of sanksening of assad. i want to understand your reasoning about it but also understand where it stands today in the -- in congress. your understanding then is that these sanctions on the assad are part of maximum pressure against iran is, that how you see it? >> absolutely. and it's so sad what the

administration did on the first day to eliminate the hootie terrorist organization and then look what the houtis have done. i was not aware of 150d. missile attacks on red sea shipping until a couple of months ago. now we know and instead of -- >> you're not being regularly informed by the military -- 1 >> the perception was we were dealing with the houthis, nomads, until you find out that they had underwater sea drones. not many nomads have that capability. [laughter] but the axis of evil do. and i'm still in a state of shock that it was not identified. wherever a launch site is should

be a target and for the innocent civilians of yemen, they should be made aware that wherever there's a launch site in their neighborhood they may want to move. we need to respond immediately and this has worldwide impact. the shipping routes of korea, japan, taiwan, of indonesia and australia and india. so it's foot just a local issue and the thought that now you have shipping lanes, even for the people's republic of china, that have to go around africa. all of this could have been avoided. >> i saw today, a we'll from tusk sincom saying that the u.s. nfl frigates had come underattack by the houthis. and the tweet said we've successfully defeated the weapons new hampshire shot at us. instead of talking about the people who pulled the trigger or the houthis who pulled the trigger or the iranians that

stand behind them, they talk as if we're fighting weapon systems that are making decisions on their own. >> it's disgusting. we're talking about a $39.95 drone in sending a $2 million mitchell to take it down. when did that become comparable? >> i can't believe that our navy is comfortable with that. >> no, they're not and liberation comes on january 20th. >> so you're expecting completely new rules of engagement for the military? >> rules of engagement and hey, a recognition -- and this is what i really appreciate about donald trump is -- and that is he can be insulted by repeat who puts their handout in negotiation or friendship or whatever but when they pull it back, he rex. it began with assad.

he was having dinner at mar-a-lago with president xi and during the dinner he was informed that assad had used chemical weapons. he said mr. president xi, i'll be right back and he authorized the attack on the weapons. he didn't mean to do that during the dinner but -- >> i wonder. if there's one thing president trump understands it's the symbolism of power. that's chinese saying, i don't know if it's an actual saying or one we made up. you kill the monkey to scare the chicken. >> whatever it is, we're quite aware that mr. trump is not perfect and all of us can have disagreements but i'm going to go back. it's peace through strength recognizing that the enemy is iran working with fellow dictators putin and xi and then you have backups of assad and un

and lukisinka. you can think of bizarre people around the world. sadly maduro right here. you realize how dangerous that is. >> you brought up donald trump and you know that you came to realize pretty early that donald trump represented serious in our politics. it surprised me how long it's taken washington, d.c., even republican washington, d.c. to catch up to this. to see that the trump movement wasn't a flash in the pan. they of that it represented something deeper in this society. why do you think washington has been so slow to recognize this? >> they need to get out of the beltway, ok? because once you leave the beltway and you go through different neighborhoods and it can be very upscale

neighborhoods, it can be not so upscale but to see trump signs in the yard. trump flags. i mean, it's just -- i almost go off the road sometimes laughing so hard to see the number of flags on a street and -- but it's a genuine movement and then it's so disappointing to me, the accusations of threat to democracy. it's the exact opposite. he wants to devolve power back to the states, reduce regulations. remember the commitment that he was going to reduce three regulations for every new regulation. but he did better. it was eight regulations that were done away with. over and over again, it's really impressive and then i'm so grateful that i get to see, as i go through the community, african-americans, asian americans, hispanic americans. i was in a christmas parade

yesterday where people would yell out a christmas message of support trump. it's not what you would think but it's just a broad cross section. people have faith in him. >> multiethnic, multiracial coalition. is is it fair to call it a working class coalition? >> yes, it is. it really is. and i'm always impressed when i go to very upscale stores like dollar general and -- and lowe's. ok, or whatever. as i'm going through and people stop me and if you looked at them you would be judgmental and say these poor people don't know what's going on. suddenly they are very eloquent on issues and it's very reassuring. >> so to your working class constituents, what do you think the trump movement means to them? the three top -- >> it would be hope and -- to

address the issues of overspending, inflation. they understood that if you throw a lot of money, trillions up into the air, that could have an impact called inflation. they know that so they want fiscal responsibility. they up that if you allow 14,000 convicted murderers into the united states that there could be a consequence of loss of life and horror of laken riley, just inconceivable so the issues there of law enforcement and then i believe people are equally concerned about moral values and they see a de peeruation of moral values so it's encouraging to see positive people being involved. >> does support for israel resonate with your constituents? >> hey, it's amazing.

i group grew up in what we call the holy city of charleston, south carolina. and at the time of the american revolution, the largest jewish population in the world was in charleston, south carolina. >> i didn't know that. >> the proviviansal usually constitution was the first to recognize jueish. so the -- that's where i grew up. the full total assimilation of the jewish community into south carolina has always been. and then you have that and then you have evangelical churches, truly the biblical references that those two ever who stand with israel shall prosper and those who don't, there is a consequence. it's a universal support and then -- i'm so pleased that,

indeed, i have never in south carolina experienced anti-semitism. i'm just appalled in what i see and i was really proud of elis stefanik. i was at the committee with chairman virginia fox and to have the university prosecutes that anti-semitism or calling for the death of jews, you need to consider the context. what? i mean, this -- that -- and i say that sadly, that i'm really grateful in working with our universities in south carolina and my other colleagues, we truly are respecting of different points of view but not calling for river to the sea, which means death to everybody in between. >> back in 2015 i think it was, yes, 2015, i did a town hall for

a congressman -- congresswoman it was from connecticut. she was a democrat that her statistic husband she was trying to decide whether to vote for or against the jcpra. they detected before her constituents on a radio program basically and then they would call in and ask questions and it was amazing for me as somebody who hadn't been in politics to listen so their questions. because they were almost verbatim questions. one person would say, i'm a professor of anthropology at the university of connecticut. i don't understand why netanyahu is unrunning our foreign policy and another guy who says i'm a mechanic at such and such auto

repair shop. i don't understand why we're supporting our enemies against our allies. >> disconnect? >> yeah, if you have a ph.d., and fortunately i do, but it didn't completely ruin my thinking. you can't just read the basics of who's a friend and who's an enemy. >> it should be bipartisan. one of the highlights of my career was to work with senator joe lieberman. i just am really grateful and i still miss very much the chairman of the foreign affairs committee elliott engel. they were democrats against the jcpoa, which was absurd on it face. we're talking about iran, the successor to the persian empire where we talk about 3,000 to 4,000 years of history and we're talking about a 10-year window. what? that is just absurd and totally

ignoring the danger that the regime in teheran never stopped development of icpm's and claiming they wanted to launch weather satellites. no, icbm has a single use and that is against the united states. there you have the nil -- they already have the missile capability to vaporize israel or bulgaria or independenta. they have quite a range but the icbm development and the total naivete and that is what donald trump is going to reverse. >> let's talk about the balance in congress. particularly in the house of representatives. every time i open the newspaper in the last few days i see the margin -- the majority that the republicans enjoy in congress is getting thinner and thinner and

then you have elise stefanik and mike waltz coming into the administration. so where's the -- what's the majority now? >> hey, i can tell you very honestly, thank goodness for speaker mike johnson because he's going to be hurting caps, which is a polite term because it's worse than that. some of these people -- god bless them. but hey, i just have a lot of faith and then we have a great leader with steve scalise and lisa mcclain now and i'm grateful that we have great leadership with tom emmer as our whip and then -- but the vote is going to be very narrow and what a challenge. >> so what is the election going to mean in the inauguration on january 20th for the legislative

gypped? >> it's going to give us a real opportunity, and a challenge and we must deliver. for example, on sanctionses, we need to codify the sanctions. they're currently by executive order but they could bed soified and over and over again, i'm also -- hey, i know on day one how it was misinterpreted he's going to be a dictator for a day. no, what he meant was that he was going to drill, baby, drill. it's called keystone pipeline. i have an interest in that. the tires used in alberta, canada, for the shale recovery are made in lexington, south carolina, my hometown. these are very nice michelin tires. 12 feet high, $100,000 each. so the we want those canadians to buy more tires. i see real change and the securing of the border. three years ago i was at del rio. it was horrifying. i was visiting national guard

troops and i asked the border patrol agents, how many people across on the transcript watch list? and -- terrorist watch list and they said we're not allowed to tell you. it's thousands. and president biden himself has said that lone wolf could kill thousands. whether it be convicted murderrists, or rapists coming in, so the border will become secure. even before he came in and he didn't mean it as a threat but a promise to our canadian and mexican allies that they would see what tariffs mean if they don't insist on the border and they are. it's in their interests too. i worry about mexico itself

being thoroughly equipment -- corrupted by billionaire cartel operations so what we're doing is helpful to the people of mexico. >> in terms of -- do you think there will be legislative action on the border? >> no, we don't. that's what's so frustrating to me. the state of mexico, all of the different policies really considering reimp police departmented. >> so it's executive action in that case? >> there may be some fine tuning. >> what about legislatively what do you think you're going to be spending your time on? >> i will -- working in every way to back up president trump with, of course, with marco rubio and we lease and with mike waltz and it will be -- with elise and with mike waltz and it will be a team. we have nike rogers with the

armed services committee and mike mccall electric off but maybe a new chairman of the foreign affairs committee and then mike turner with the intelligence committee. we'll all be working together to secure national security and back again to peace through strength. to me it's reagan identity agenda. i was really grateful at the milwaukee convention to help host 27 ambassadors from the eun union. and i pointed out to them different divisions in the republican party that it's basically the reaganite view of peace through strength. and a fun thing occurred is that two hours after that i was at another reception

with half of the ambassadors there and mike johnson began his speech by saying i'm a reagan identity. so, of course, that prompted me to applaud uh to applaud out of context. and uh and, and the speaker was really funny. he said, hey, that's the reason i asked joe wilson to come to all of my speeches. but that's the divisions that we have in the republican party. when they talk about foreign wars. i want it to be a foreign war, not here and i don't want to relive 1943 again. if we had stopped hitler. and september 17stalin poland. in five weeks, 60,000 poles were murdered. people should have noticed that and acted against the axis. >> kind of the division between

us republicans -- those of us who look at allies like ukraine and israel and see them as manning the front lines so that we don't have to. >> that's it. >> and they ski those allies as pulling us into conflicts that are needless to us. >> i totally disagree. my view there -- in this conflict between dictators and democracies so sad lip it is a hot war for the people of ukraine and the people of israel. but they are responding and the courage and i like to point out my view of president zelensky and that is when the putin-esque accusations that he's scrubbed, i point out to people, let me tell you a definition of noncorrupt is. that is that you're in your office and there's a russian convoy 30 miles long coming to kyiv to kill you 10 miles from your office and president biden did something right. he offered him a ride out and he

said, no, i don't need a ride, i need munitions. that is noncorrupt. we've seen historically people leave their country -- 1 and go to their villa in wherever. so i have a lot of faith in the people of ukraine. >> i have an aunt with a villa in bern. you didn't know that, did you? [laughter] >> my gosh, every house there is a villa so that's nice. >> it looks to me -- reacting just to the news of the last couple of days that there's a tremendous opportunity -- if you think of ukraine as a place where the russian-iranian alliance is imposing itself on europe and syria where it's imposing itself on the middle east and you see that astride both of them is turkia.

this movement and the syrian national army stands the turkish military. it seems to me that there's an opportunity here for president trump to really make a big play about working closely with the turks to try to stabilize that whole arena from ukraine into syria. >> and truly, i believe he's put the right people, with dr. bulliss who has lebanese heritage. with dr. huckabee, how incredible for him to be there with marco rubio. we have such an opportunity to create stabilization and to me that is what is so beneficial to our gulf allies and i really appreciate the first time i was able to visit and i -- to visit

qatar. before i got there, i had the impression that people in the middle east wanted to live in the 14th century. i found out, no, they don't. the forest of 50 and 60-story highrises give it away right away. i explained back home that people in the middle east wants -- it looks like hilton head on steroids and so, so that's -- the stabilization. but we've got to address the issue of iran and we've got -- hey, there's been no greater example of a -- tragically, a bizarre disagreement than in the last month with the objects 1 missile attacks from teheran, the current president said oh, don't go against the iranian nuclear capability. oh, don't go against the

iranian -- >> the restrictions president biden was putten on the israelis, you moo en? >> restriction after restriction and donald trump said this is -- leapt no crisis go to waste. this is -- a right response would be to eliminate the nuclear program of iran. if it's not eliminated, my concern is we can see -- i'm the only member of congress who has actually been to prelyang. how does it still exist? an income of 987 dollars. it exists because of the nuclear capability and then we see the horror and the insult to the people of ukraine that budapest memorandum to give up their nuclear weapons with the understanding by the united states, united kingdom and russian federation that there would be a territorial integrity so they gave them up and look what happened.

an invasion in 2014 and another 10,000 people killed then and then the invasion of february 24, 202. and so, you can -- 2022. so, you can see that having a nuclear capability or not having it is a significant issue but i'm particularly concerned for our allies. our gulf allies in saudi arabia and our allies of northern africa to morocco and indeed the threat to turkia itself. >> amazing when i go to the middle east and you travel to these countries. in saudi arabia, the birth of modernization is sweeping the country. >> right. into the global economy, they want their peace, they want their corner of the global economy, they want stability, prosperity, all the things that, that we want, they've moved

away from the radical religion and, and the united states at the same moment when we had, when we had asked this of saudi arabia for so long and they complied for their own reasons. they weren't complying with the american wish, but they moved in exactly the direction that the united states had hoped for them. at that moment, the obama and biden teams began working with iran effectively building it up when it represents all of the world, all of the most pathological trends in middle east politics it represents and we just strengthen all that. it's mind boggling to me actually. well, it is so disappointing because the opportunities we have. and when i think of saudi arabia, i think of aramco, what working together the resources of that country, which the united states had such a positive impact. and then it's always interesting in visiting to the gulf states, for example, bahrain, as i was there, i found out how much they have a great affection for the united states.

missionaries established the first schools and hospitals in bahrain. and i didn't know that and i didn't know they were. and so it's things like that that going back 150 years, there's been associations that have been mutually beneficial and so that, and then i'm really grateful bahrain, we have the navy base there. and from 1952 which was very, very important in the cold war and to maintain the suez, the suez canal, and then with qatar al ed airbase so important which they paid for. and so over and over again, there are different associations and hey, um and you can actually begin in north to south and you think of the liberation of

kuwait and the people are there, uh know why they're not the what 18th province of saddam hussein? do you, do you think you're back to your constituents uh in uh in, in south carolina? do they, do they share your sense that we have to be lean forward and play a leadership role in far flung places like syria in? quick -- >> well, i'm very fortunate. ok. first of all, i have fort jackson and the district i represent. and so the initial army training facility. so there's a strong pro military and then i also have the savannah river site in the district again, understanding national security. but then i related it to jobs. i have the michelin facility in my district, french. it's the largest michelin manufacturing facility in the world. and it's right down the street from bridgestone, japanese,

to the world another $2 billion manufacturing facility which is not far from samsung with the development we have there. and then we want everybody in the world to have a x five. the bmw s are made in south carolina. and so it's very important to me that we um maintain the export of x fives worldwide and then, and then it relates to business. ok. um in south carolina boeing, 787-10 jetliners are made in south carolina. and so i had the opportunity to meet with the foreign minister of saudi arabia in riyadh. and i thank them uh for their uh $39 billion purchase of um of 780 sevens. uh with the understanding they may double the purchase. uh and then i was really grateful to meet um with ambassador altan of qatar. indeed, where they were making substantial purchases of south carolina made being boeing 7 87-10. and so my constituents um can see the benefit of foreign direct investment and foreign

sales of exports, imports. the port of charleston has recently been dredged to 52 ft for super panamax container ships. and so we, we can see the benefit of my constituents substantially. not all can see the benefit of a strong america and a dynamic america and the mutual benefit of trade around the world. >> i just got back from israel and it was just as this cease fire in lebanon was being negotiated and there was, there were there's mixed feelings in israel about the cease fire for all kinds of reasons. there was a general understanding that that the government was under pressure from the biden administration to wind the conflict to an end. there was concern that the people of the north, the israelis who have been displaced

from the north are not going to be secure when they going back to their homes because because hezbollah has not really been defeated. and i encountered a common feeling among people that the value of this cease fire will depend on the policies that from in acts -- that president trump in acts when he comes after, after inauguration. and in particular, there's a desire i think articulated pretty clearly by prime minister netanyahu, that the israelis will be able to move from the lebanese theater to the iranian theater and actually address and by address, i mean, destroy the iranian, the iranian nuclear program. what's your, what's your position on that? and both in terms of what you would like to see and what you since president trump's attitude will be. well, first of all, the difference between an agreement with hezbollah or a cease fire

with hamas, to me, a cease fire. hamas was simply a allowing the terrorists to regroup. this is different and with hezbollah and that, and this is where i believe president trump can really make a difference and that is to try to store, to restore a, a level of governance in beirut. and so that's, it needs to be uh what was, hey, the paris of the middle east, i mean, and um one of the great cities of the world of a great country and uh and just uh it needs to be restored and, and the lebanese military who we've worked with for decades, needs to be restored and refreshed and to create the stability in, in the southern portion of lebanon. >> ok. we got a few minutes here. we can maybe open it up for uh

questions. there in the back gentleman with the white hair. we've got a, we've got a microphone to your right. >> would it be even better? congressman joel rur of the hudson institute? i just wondered if you could given that there's a change in the balance in congress with the, with the senate now coming under republican control. could you describe what do you think, what's been pending? what's been, what's been jammed up? let's say what legislative priorities or are there specific important pieces of legislation that maybe have not made it through over the last couple of sessions of congress that might be opened up in the new congress? what would you expect to be sort of the first things through if the log jam breaks, it's a new -- quick it is a new world and that very significant

legislation, the assad anti recognition act 300. it was bipartisan, so much of this was bipartisan, but for some reason, the senate bogged it down. 330 votes to not have a recognition and normalization of relations. and so it's been held up um inconceivably to me uh in the uh in the senate, but that's symbolic of so much legislation. some related to the supporting the people of the republic of georgia and over and over again, legislation promoting freedom and democracy for the people of venezuela. over and over again that had made it through with the leadership. and i give credit to chairman mike mccaul and ranking member greg meeks to get through legislation, but it's gotten bogged down in the senate and even with, as i mentioned a vote

at 330 just and did not pass and something as elementary is not recognizing a dictator who's killed half a million people. >> let me ask you a little bit about uh if i could ask you to give us a little bit of a civics lesson for those of us who haven't worked on the uh on, on capitol hill uh leadership of committees. what, what difference does it does the character of the leader make? what are the, what are within the purview of the leader? and how important is that position? >> the committee chairmanships in the house and senate are very important and, and i have to tell you, i'm rejoicing in the senate. senator tim scott of south carolina is going to be the chairman of the banking committee. wow. ok. and then senator lindsey graham is going to be chairman of the budget committee. >> and so it would be wrong if there wasn't a south carolinian in charge of major committee in

the house, right? there would be an imbalance. >> no, no. what i'm telling you is the economy is in good hands and fiscal responsibility. but, and so the chairmanship, so i can tell you right there, right away. and so that's quite a change. and then in the house, the number of chairmanships are uh on the republican side, we have term limits and so that's six years. the other party does not. and so many of their chair, people, members have been there for a long time. but on our side, um it shifts and so this year there'll be shifts on several committees and that the current chair, chairman and chair women have reached the six year limit. >> so, but what, what exactly is the, is there are the responsibilities of the committee chair?

>> they actually control the calendar. and so that's what's so important which bills can come up and are substantially almost universally within the dictate and control of a committee. >> does, does the, does the chairman have to work in coordinating with the ranking member or is it pretty much just your call on safe home affairs and also on armed services? >> it's quite bipartisan. and so you have chairman mike rogers working with adam smith on the armed services committee. but then you get, and we uh within the foreign affairs committee, it's quite bipartisan, but then you get to ideological committees. ok. i'm on the education workforce committee. and thank goodness, we have a real bulldog named virginia fox is the chairman of that chairwoman of that committee and because there are ideological legitimate differences between the political parties. the ranking member there is a top notch individual bobby scott.

but ideologically, we don't agree. >> in the back there. >> brian maguire, european news agency. thank you for taking time to speak today. just on trade. first of all, you lay out a lot of businesses that are doing great work in, in south carolina. and it's, it's a message that sounds to me like we're america is open for business, right? president trump is talking 20% tariffs on european businesses are not hearing that very lightly. what would your message to president trump be in that regard? well, i actually, and very much can see that he can use tariffs . we're legitimately because we've also as good as things have been. we also have in the district that represent cnc steel, new core steel and we've had in the past dumping from people's republic and i've been to shanghai to see the ba steel facility there. and so tariffs can be very, very legitimate and, and i think it's

legitimate that our canadian and mexican friends maintain their border and our border. and so, and so that a way to get a legitimate attention has done it and, and i consider it positive that prime minister justin trudeau has visited mar a lago and i'm very hopeful because it's, hey, it's so mutually beneficial. tariffs too. the horror. there's probably not anybody here doesn't know of a family that's been affected by the fentanyl crisis. and so the president is making it very clear to mexico and to the people's republic that this manufacturing importation has got to stop and, or there will be tariffs that have some pharm pharmaceutical background. >> i wrote an article together with a hudson colleague, i don't know, maybe four or five years ago about china and the middle east.

and there was a guy on twitter who loved the article and he just kept retweeting it, retweeting it. and he made, he made maps to go along with the article and i sent him a message and he kept writing here, here's a map to understand what this article says. and you have to read this article and everyone you should read the article, by the way, it's china's emerging middle eastern kingdom in case you're curious. but the point is i wrote him a direct message and i said, you know, thank you for your support. but i i'm kind of curious why did you like the article so much? and he wrote me back and he, and he said that his favorite niece had died of a fentanyl overdose. and he said until that moment, he hadn't really understood the importance of the, of the china issue and this and the message of donald trump on the on china. but from that moment, he said he was converted. i thought that was to me that

was a very, it was very moving, but it was also a very interesting example of the things that make foreign affairs real to people. >> well, it does and i'm just in the last month, i mean, just to see the efforts legitimately made by president trump have just been so encouraging to me. and then i'm also encouraged, he gets to work with extraordinary organizations like the hudson institute. so thank you all, and the think tanks that are here and across the united states can be so helpful in providing the background so that we can be proactive. i'm looking forward to the um as we see, gosh, president trump being proactive rather than re reflexive. >> we got just a few more minutes here. let's see. we've got a question here and then i have one. i want to ask you before we end. >> hello, david smith of the guardian. thank you.

you talked about the values of ronald reagan in terms of foreign policy, but i wonder, do you not have concerns about some members of president trump's team from, you know, jd vance to tulsi gabbard, some statements that president trump himself has made suggest actually isolationists might have the upper hand with regard to ukraine and others. >> i don't know how the guardian got in here. hey, hey, hey, hey, ok, i'm a thatcherite too. ok. so let's give credit. indeed. the triumvirate of ronald reagan and maria thatcher and john paul, i i to bring freedom and liberty to tens of millions of people. but no, i, some of the statements are isolationist except that that's why i point out that when people are concerned when president trump has been taken out of context

concerning nato, what he's been saying is that all the nato countries should come up with the 2% that they agreed to. it's not that he thought of it they did before he was in office. and i had the opportunity to be at the munich security conference and later it osce in vienna and that day i flew back and had the opportunity. it was not a real meeting, but it was a photo line. i said, hey, mr president, i've just left europe where they now understand in a very positive way that they need to reach 2%. and so, but he was taken out as being negative. and so i think it's taken out of context that indeed and then supporting ukraine, it was donald trump that sent the javelin missiles to try to deter a russian invasion. it was donald trump historically and how incredible to put american troops in poland. i mean, just, just how incredible that is with a polish american daughter in law.

i get really very pleased about that. and then also it was donald trump that stopped nord stream 2. and what a message that was to angela merkel and, and he was perceived as boorish and crude being so assertive that north stream too was financing war criminal putin and needed to be avoided. so over and over. and one final thing i grew up in the most british city in north america charleston. , so we appreciate our heritage. >> yes, sir. in the back. no, no, we we need for the viewers at home. >> thank you. thank you so much, wilson. i'm from georgia. you mentioned georgia. i'm at the fletcher school line diplomacy, but currently volunteering the country, not the neighbor. and as we speak there, around 200,000 georgians protesting against the brute force of the oligarchy.

and i wonder what do you have to tell them? and also the prime minister, self proclaimed prime minister who said that your statement, recent statement could be disregarded as the new administration is coming to, to office and should we have any hope that the barry act will be progressing this week over the coming days? >> i do believe. but hey, back again, the people of georgia, i equate again. let's go back to tiananmen square. ok. before the other people, i still appreciate hungarians standing in front of soviet tanks in 1956. i remember the little guy but, and now to see and hey, i still treasure the young cpa who was murdered in the streets of tehran and bled to death in the streets. but people can stand up and we've seen how it can be successful.

we remember the crowds in bucharest as nikolai and elena ceausescu notice that the crowd turned against them. ok. understatement. but again, to see freedom and democracy and of the republic of georgia. and i have to really coming from south carolina. i've got to be really careful professor as i talk about georgia, the republic of georgia as opposed to the state. a final point on that i was actually in tbilisi for a joint parachute jump. the state of georgia national guard has a state partnership program with the nation of georgia. and so they have a pentagon has a sense of humor, putting them together. i was carefully when they came down, was it the american leg or the beautiful cross of st. george. the georgian military were front

line of courageous and professional and every day -- every way working. so what a benefit for the people of georgia, nato, and that you, so we want to give encouragement to the people of georgia and i believe they will prevail. >> that brings us exactly to the 3:00 mark. please join me in thanking the congressman. [applause]