congressman michael mccaul, chairman emeritus of the house foreign affairs committee. we are really looking forward to it. , chair of the house foreign affairs committee. china, the end of pacific. ukraine has dominated the conversation. we were talking backstage about the scale and scope of chinese espionage that the u.s. and europe faces.

. ♪ next, congressman michael mccaul of texas, senior member of both the house, security and foreignairs committees, in a dialogue with politico on the sidelines of the munich security conference. he talked about the indo-pacific region and the russia-ukraine war and china's influence, while expressing concern about china's ability to use ai for fear. dash for warfare. ♪ >> thanks everyone so much for being here. we have got a great conversation today with a really prominent republican voice who is here in munich with us, congressman michael mccaul, chairman emeritus of the house foreign affairs committee. we are really looking forward to it. , chair of the house foreign affairs committee. china, the end of pacific. ukraine has dominated the conversation. we were talking backstage about the scale and scope of chinese espionage that the u.s. and europe faces. your own personal story from your time in working doj before you came to the hill and what threat that poses? >> thank you for having me. my relationship with china goes back to 1997. i prosecuted the case. he was taking money, a

congressman michael mccaul, chairman emeritus of the house foreign affairs committee. we are really looking forward to it. , chair of the house foreign affairs committee. china, the end of pacific. ukraine has dominated the conversation. we were talking backstage about the scale and scope of chinese espionage that the u.s. and europe faces. your own personal story from your time in working doj before you came to the hill and what threat that poses? >> thank you for having me. my relationship with china goes back to 1997. i prosecuted the case. he was taking money, as we proved later from the director chinese intelligence and aerospace, putting it into a hong kong bank account, into the dnc for the clinton campaign. i wasn't a republican or democrat then. i was independent. it goes back that far in terms of trying to influence elections but also the espionage taking place when my fbi agent in l.a., the lead for the counterintelligence got indicted for espionage. the whole time i was working with him on this case. you cannot make this up. the cultivated an fbi asset, kat

we will talk with texas republican congressman michael mccaul and minnesota democratic congresswoman ilhan omar, tennessee republican senator bill hagerty will join us from the senate republican retreat in florida. it's all just ahead on "face the nation." ♪ >>> good morning, and welcome to "face the nation." we begin today with our first assessment of how president trump and his policies are doing just three weeks into his second term. our cbs poll finds that a majority of americans, 53%, approve of the job he's doing. that's a better approval number than he ever reached during his first term in the white house. joining us with more is our executive director of elections and surveys, anthony salvanto. what's driving this? >> i will keep it simple, margaret, he's doing in the eyes of the public what he said he would do in the campaign. there's political value in that, in fact, 70% of people say he's doing what he promised, whether they approve of him or not. there's another part that continues over from the campaign, there were words that he was described as being tough, being energe

michael mccaul, who's the chairman of the house foreign affairs committee, said it was his understanding that you premium president followed him there. zalinski has been invited to participate in these upcoming tops, russian and american negotiators would also be present. and this comes after trans phone call with russia's president on wednesday in which they discuss a future in person meeting that would exclude landscape. now it appears that these piece tossed will work toward a summit between all 3 presidents, the united states, as your cranes largest, a supplier of money and weapons. but american policy towards ukraine has dramatically shifted under trump. the us defense secretary says that a p still in which refrain reclaims all of its loss territory to russia since 2014 would be quote, unrealistic. and that the us does not support new crane joining nato and trump's envoy to russia and to use craze says europe should take no role in peace talks ending the war, but rather should ramp up their own defense spending. heidi jo, castro, alger 0, washington, priscilla, head, tyrone al jazee

also, according to michael mccaul, who's chairman of the house for an affairs committee, and part of these a part of invited on this trip. he said that it was his understanding that ukraine's president belong, there's a lensky was also invited to take part in these talks in saudi arabia. he said that all of this would be working toward a summit between all 3 presidents. that's trump zalinski as well as putting, and that in these talks to take place and saudi arabia, there be negotiators from russia, from america. and that's a lensky again. and his understanding has been invited. all of this. so of course is in the broader context of a dramatically changed us policy towards ukraine, which we just heard. our colleague james base summarize the us now no longer thinks that ukraine should join nato. also saying that europe should be excluded from the peace talks. this is according to trump's new envoy to russia and to ukraine, and also pete hex. of the new us secretary defense saying that the result of these peace talks would be unrealistic for ukraine to get back all of its territory los

have a listen to current committee chair brian mast and former chair michael mccaul. >> many of the people and many of the programs in usaid have literally betrayed america. it's not just the content of usaid that is the betrayal. it's the larceny that usaid has conducted. >> all these. programs gave. >> usaid a black eye. >> and that's unfortunate. i believe it still has a legitimate purpose to counter the rising threat of china in belt and road and our other foreign adversaries. it also has the ability to counter terrorism. >> let's discuss with democratic congressman gerry connolly of virginia. he serves on the house foreign affairs committee. congressman, thank you so much for sharing part of your afternoon with us. before we get to that usaid hearing, thank you. i do want to ask you about this announcement from the white house about reciprocal tariffs to start. do you think that what the u.s. charges for imports should be equal to what other major countries charge? >> well, i do think reciprocity has an important place in international trade, but it's got to be done carefully. uh, it

um, your fellow republican colleague, representative michael mccaul, told my colleague manu raju that the administration's efforts to shutter usaid could lead to some really bad unintended consequences. i want to take a listen to this. uh. >> there will be problems if you have life saving medication and food tied up in the houston port, that's, you know, going to waste or 500,000 metric tons on the ships on the seas where it can't go anywhere. uh, that sort of defies common sense. >> what do you say to that? i mean, administration is making, you know, efficiency and common sense, central tenets to the government. do you think it makes sense to let millions of dollars in medications and food spoil on ships in the name of this effort? >> uh, no, it doesn't make sense. and that's why i believe that senator marco rubio is going to get on it as soon as he can and make sure that the unintended consequences of this action are abated as, as quickly as possible. look, when you take an action like this, always there's going to be some some collateral damage. all right. and so, uh, that's why ag