Fox News "Hannity" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Tom Cotton

Interview

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And the CCP will probably never take responsibility for the virus they unleashed upon the world. According to one new report, a top researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Virology has deep ties to China's military. So, what does this mean for the United States and what can we do to hold the malignant communist party of China accountable?

Joining me now with more is Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton.

Senator, thanks a lot for joining me. Really appreciate it.

SEN. TOM COTTON (R-AR): Good to be on with you, Dan.

BONGINO: So, Senator, you are one of the voices that were -- you were attacked, grotesquely attacked for speaking truth early on and asking just basic questions. Hey, there's a lab in Wuhan that studies coronaviruses. We have a coronavirus outbreak, that lab had safety problems in the past.

You know, as a pretty smart guy, you said, maybe we should ask them questions. And you were brutally attacked. I know you're not one of these schadenfreude guys, but it's got to feel good to be right and to put them on their heels a little bit, the left and the media. I mean, they look like idiots now.

COTTON: Dan, you know, I wish I had been wrong, obviously, given all of --

BONGINO: Yeah.

COTTON: -- the Americans have lost over the last 18 months from this pandemic, but it didn't take a lot of intelligence to say, gosh, this virus emerge from Wuhan, a city larger than New York, right down the street from that lab where they research viruses. And the lady that runs those labs is literally nicknamed the bat lady. Maybe we should take a look at them.

I'm glad to see that NBC News is finally reporting to its viewers that that lab has deep ties to the Chinese communist party's military. If you're watching Fox 18 months ago and ever since, you would know that. There's no distinction in China between the party and the state and the military, and supposedly private institutions like government research institutions or companies or anything else. The party controls everything, and the military is the arm of the communist party in China.

BONGINO: You know, Senator, I had former DNI John Ratcliffe on my show last week, and ask him this question, I will ask you. It just sadly -- it feels like we're losing come here. I mean, China's infiltrated Hollywood, our sports industry, we have technology takeovers. You know, we've had government procurement issues in China, intellectual property theft.

You know, we have Taiwan being threatened. We have Hong Kong right now in the midst of a takeover right in front of our faces.

I mean, what can we do? Is there any way to expand kind of a Magnitsky type thing, where we can sanction some of their diplomats and their kids?

I mean, the one thing they want to be able to do is visit America. But doesn't it -- listen, I'm a patriot like you, but we got to be candid. Doesn't it feel like we are taking a kick in the cojones here, man? We got to fight back.

COTTON: Yeah, Dan, as you say, politicians in both parties for many decades put China's interests ahead of so many Americans' interests, whether it's our factory workers, or our troopers who are stationed in the Western Pacific. Some of the missionaries we had going to China, say nothing to do with their own people, in places like Hong Kong or northwest China where they're committing against ethnic and religious minorities.

BONGINO: Right.

COTTON: But we need to remember, that China needs us a lot more then we need them. We can buy your T-shirts and sneakers from another country. But where are they going to sell theirs? So, we can slap more tariffs on them.

As you say, we can take things away visas from Chinese communist officials and their kids so they didn't come here and take spots in our universities. It should be for American kids.

We can revoke their permanent most favored nation status so they don't get that beneficial trade status, but rather, Congress and the president have to decide every year whether we'll extend it for one more year.

Those are all ways that we can make China pay, not just for unleashing this plague on the world, but also for decades of lying and cheating and stealing. It is time to lower the boom on China.

BONGINO: Yeah, and it seems, Senator, like the only country doing it right now is Australia. Australia's taking a pretty muscular stand and it seems like we're just taking back a tape (ph).

But just I want to move on quickly to Russia because that's important too. You're obviously well-versed in foreign policy.

You know what an embarrassment, right, that President Biden stops a pipeline here, the Keystone pipeline, costs Americans 11,000 jobs and cost us domestic energy security. But then he gives Vladimir Putin a free pass to build a pipeline to enrich himself straight to Germany when the Trump administration tried to stop this, because of the transit fees that they would have bypassed. I mean, this is -- I don't understand how Democrats up on the Hill with you see that as being fair. Block a pipeline here but give it to Russia?

COTTON: Yeah, it's crazy, Dan. That we would end a pipeline here that's going to create thousands of high-paying American jobs, it's going to provide more energy security to the United States and our ally Canada to the north, while Joe Biden allows that pipeline to be built from Russia to Germany to more deeply hook Western Europe on Russian gas and to prevent Americans from exporting our gas to Western Europe, when we could create even more jobs here.

And let's not forget a third pipeline in this tale of three pipelines, Dan, it was Russian criminals that hacked into the Colonial Pipeline that caused gas lines all across the eastern United States.

BONGINO: That's right.

COTTON: And Joe Biden's anemic response to them did nothing to teach Vladimir Putin a lesson that he cannot continue to harbor these cyber criminals who continue to attack America's critical infrastructure like gas pipelines or meat processing plants.

The only thing Vladimir Putin is learning over the last six months is that Uncle Sam is wearing a "kick me" sign with Joe Biden in the White House.

BONGINO: You know, Senator, that's a great way to sum up these dreadful last six months, those three pipelines. That tells the whole story.

I'm out of time, unfortunately. Thanks a lot for joining us, Senator Tom Cotton. Really appreciate it.

COTTON: Thank you, Dan. Happy Independence Day to everyone.

BONGINO: Oh, happy Independence Day to you as well.

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