BNN - Thursday, May 23, 2024 - 05:00 p.m. (ET) - Segment #3

>> President biden has made clear that he will take action to stand up for american workers and companies. Unless we, the united states, announced key and targeted steps to combat trade practices by the prc. Joe: earlier today, the g-seven summit in italy, the talked about taking steps to combat what she says is unfair trade practices by china. The most partisan activity in washington right now is bashing china. Joining us now is raja krishnamoorthi, the ranking member on the china select committee. Good to have you back. Military drills are taking place right now in the taiwan strait as beijing seeks to punish, in its words, taiwan for swearing in a new president. When you consider everything in the picture that I just described from tariffs to drills, is our relationship with china deteriorating further right now? >> I don't think it is deteriorating as much as it is continuing to be maybe unresolved. I think it's really up to xi jinping. I think he needs to make a decision, which is, does he continue with this policy of aggression and provocative behavior, which could potentially lead to dangerous and catastrophic consequences in the taiwan strait and south china sea, or does he pursue an alternative course, which is lowering tensions, lowering aggression, and doing something that would restore stability to the security situation in the end of pacific region? And, by the way, help their own economy, which is tanking right now. I think that is really his decision to make. Joe: as we discuss this, there is a state visit happening a few blocks down the road at the white house. The president of kenya is here, and china is in every conversation that he is having with world leaders as they tried to shake off in many cases, the debt from belt and road and express some buyers remorse, I think we could say, about years of relations with china. What can the biden administration do in this meeting today and maybe at this state dinner tonight? I'm assuming you will be there, congressman, to start turning the tide when it comes to africa and china. Rep. Krishnamoorthi: sadly, I will not be there, but you are absolutely right that the chinese economy is the ultimate predator. They are worse than a payday loan shop because basically through debt-trapped diplomacy, they have something called the belt and road initiative, and in return for infrastructure projects -- for instance, in places throughout africa, they then obligate these countries to take on massive debt in return for shiny projects, and now these countries are turning elsewhere, including to the united states. Now it is up to us to make a competitive offering, for instance, through the development finance corporation and other institutions, so that we can assist these countries with economic development without overburdening our own taxpayers and in the process helping them and helping us at the same time and creating new markets for us. Joe: understood. With that said, I know you have great concerns from your role on the committee. What we will learn next is something that I would love for you to shed some light on for our listeners and viewers. We are in a general election right now in this country, and I have been hearing nothing but concerns about misinformation, about deepfakes, about potential election interference by the chinese. What are you hearing on your committee that our audience should know? Rep. Krishnamoorthi: the office of the director of national intelligence made it very clear to our committee plus the intelligence committee on which I sit that the ccp intends to interfere in other countries' elections this year, including our own. There are various platforms they will use to do that, so we have to be vigilant in terms of making sure that we protect our election infrastructure just as we have in the last couple of elections, through federal, state, and local partnerships, and that we adopt certain best

practices that countries like taiwan and ukraine have learned in defending against the misinformation campaigns that, for instance, russia or china or other countries have utilized to metal in elections. Joe: a lot of people are saying that the rest of the year will be messaging bills in your house of representatives. You can tell me if you see it otherwise, but there was not even house business for about an hour yesterday in a standoff between congressman jim mcgovern, a democrat from massachusetts, and republicans in the chamber who chose to silence him after naming the charges that have been levied against donald trump. His words were stricken from the record, even though he was not talking about a house member. Earlier today, the democratic leader of the house, hakeem jeffries, had this to say about the incident. We will have you respond. Let's listen. Represented a jeffries: apparently, there are people on the other side of the aisle who want to silence jim mcgovern because he waxes the floor with them every time he speaks. While at the same time giving marjorie taylor greene free reign to conduct her outrageous behavior. Joe: how do you rationalize those? Rep. Krishnamoorthi: I happened to be in that infamous oversight hearing the other night. Unfortunately, marjorie taylor greene did engage in a series of performative activities which work outrageous -- which were outrageous, and I was shocked that my colleagues on the others of the aisle did not themselves try to strike those words or try to get her to even stop doing what she was doing, so I think that for then come and say somebody else is doing something wrong just seemed a little hypocritical, but at the end of the day, I think nobody should engage in what is called personalities or ad hominem attacks. I think it's just not what the american people want. That's not why they hired us to be in congress. I think that our committee, the select committee, has offered a potential constructive way in terms of bipartisanship to move on. Credit goes to representative jeffries and speaker mccarthy -- then speaker mccarthy. Joe: you refer to personalities. That's what the house rules say you are not allowed to talk about personalities of numbers of the house on the floor so it does not get to be personal, but donald trump is not in the house. Shouldn't it be the other way? Shouldn't marjorie taylor greene's disparaging comments about a colleague be stricken from the record and congressman mcgovern's upheld? Rep. Krishnamoorthi: I think so, but on the other hand, I think that right now we should look at the substance of what the american people want us to do, and I think that, again, leader jeffries has asked us as a caucus to really focus on those kitchen table topics and those items that americans and our constituents want us to work on, if it's reducing the cost of childcare and education or enabling them to have jobs in the future, which is what our committee is trying to do and winning the strategic competition between the U.S. and the ccp. Joe: neither of us can believe we are talking about this right now, I think we can agree. Rep. Krishnamoorthi: [laughter] let's just say there are some bigger fish to fry, and I think the american people want us to get to the business of that. Joe: I appreciate that, congressman. I'm sorry you are not at the dinner tonight. I was going to ask you how dinner was. Congressman raja krishnamoorthi. Coming up, our political panel will join us to break down president BIDENText on Screen Text on Screen Text on Screen Text on Screen Text on Screen Hi Phil Swift here for FlexSuper Wide Duct Tape.Just check outhow wide this

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