Fox News "Fox News Sunday" - TRANSCRIPT 'Fox News Sunday' on January 29, 2022 [sic]
Interview
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Joining us now, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Congressman Michael McCaul.
Congressman, welcome back to "FOX News Sunday". We appreciate it.
REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL (R-TX): Thanks, Shannon. Thanks for having me.
BREAM: All right. I want to start by this report of a U.S. general, a top general, who is making a comment about a potential war with China in 2025. Get your reaction to this.
NBC News is citing a memo to his officers with this quote. They say: I hope I am wrong, he says to them. My gut tells me we'll fight in 2025.
Now, that's being met with a lot of different reactions and skepticism. This is attributed to the opinion of one man.
What do you make of that and how do you think that's going to be received?
MCCAUL: Well, I hope he's wrong as well. I think he's right though, unfortunately. I mean, China is mounting --
BREAM: Wait, an actual war?
MCCAUL: Well, I think China's looking at uni -- reunification of Taiwan, right? That's how they call it.
There are several ways to do that. The first one is to influence the election that will take place a year from today. President Tsai's party is running for re-election. China is hitting them hard, saying they're a proxy to the United States to get in a war with China.
If they succeed in that effort, like Hong Kong, without a shot fired. But if they don't win in that one, they are going to look at a military invasion, in my judgment.
We have to be prepared for this. And It could happen I think as long as Biden is in office, projecting weakness, as he did with Afghanistan that led to Putin invading Ukraine, that the odds are very high we could see a conflict with China and Taiwan and the Indo Pacific. This goes back to my father's war, World War II.
BREAM: OK. So, let's talk about that because those things are all interconnected. Let's talk about Ukraine and these tanks that we're sending over. You have said there's going to be a winter offensive by Russia. These tanks are needed in the Donbas region.
But this is what the Pentagon said this week about when they may actually get there.
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BREAM: Okay. So there's another estimate that's up to a year for them to get there. It doesn't help Ukraine in the short term. And do you worry about what that telegraphs to bad actors like China about our ability to be ready?
MCCAUL: Well, the better Ukraine does against Russia, the more deterrence against China. It's very clear and important point.
With respect to the tanks, all that was necessary is the United States to give the signal that we're going to do this, to unleash the Leopard tanks that are in Germany and Finland and the Netherlands. But ten other countries that needed permission to put their tanks in.
The Leopards can be put in tomorrow and today actually. The Abram tanks need more logistic, supply, training. So, I wouldn't -- the key was to commit Abrams tanks to unleash the Leopards. The Leopards are going to go in almost immediately.
What's important, Shannon, is that Putin has changed his new general. He took the butcher of Syria out, new general in to do an offensive in the winter/spring. And now, Ukraine needs the resources to do a counteroffensive against Russia.
BREAM: So, this talk about our ability to send them armaments on whatever time schedule raises this question about our military production and capability.
MCCAUL: Right.
BREAM: There's a new study this week. It's sounding an alarm about that. "The Wall Street Journal" quotes it, and it says: the protracted conflict has exposed the strategic peril facing the U.S. as weapons inventories fall to a low level and defense companies aren't equipped to replenish them rapidly.
Now, this goes back to your issue with China as well because the study says we could run out of precision missiles and advanced technology in less than a week if we get into a conflict with Taiwan. That's a shocking assessment.
Do you agree with it and how worried are you about that?
MCCAUL: Very. Our industrial defense base is broken. I signed off on all foreign military weapon sales three years ago. They have yet to go into Taiwan. So, we need that deterrence. But if we don't have the weapons, that's as critical for deterrence.
I would say that also -- you know, a third of the supplemental has gone into our ability to replenish our stockpiles and have modernized our defense, a third of that to make new weapons and a third into Ukraine. But it's important to note that the NATO eastern flank has put the Russian military in the Ukraine as we backfill NATO to modernize their military.
BREAM: Okay. Let's talk about the debt ceiling because the defense spending is a big chunk of that and part of that conversation. We're going to talk with your colleague, a Democrat, Congressman Adam Schiff -- or Smith in just a minute.
And here's what he said about the GOP plan for dealing with the debt ceiling.
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BREAM: He talks about not passing appropriations bills or short term funding measure, refusing to raise the debt ceiling, triggering a fiscal crisis. How do you respond?
MCCAUL: I don't think we're going to see a shutdown. I mean, McCarthy, you know, I talked to him. He's going to meet with the president, wants a reasonable debt ceiling to counter, you know, irresponsible government spending.
I agree with him in this sense that I will not sit back and watch our defense being cut at such a dangerous time in our history.
I haven't seen anything like this, Shannon, since World War II, my dad's war. I mean, you have one dictator, largest invasion in Europe since World War II, the other dictator threatening the Pacific that the greatest generation liberated. And now these two and Iran and North Korea are trying to redraw the maps that the Yalta Conference brought to us.
BREAM: We'll talk more with Congressman Smith about that coming up.
But I also want to make sure to touch on the classified documents. So, former Vice President Pence is the newest to come forward and say, hey, we've discovered something.
There was a briefing for senators this week with the director of national intelligence. They came out in a bipartisan way very frustrated and angry about what they weren't able to see.
Here's what GOP Senator Tom Cotton said after the briefing.
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BREAM: So he said he's going to shut down some Senate business, potential withhold judicial nominees, block them.
Do you think that's the right approach? And what role of oversight should Congress have with these documents?
MCCAUL: I agree with Tom Cotton. I mean, we're a separate branch of government, Article I, the first article in the Constitution. And this administration has not shared these classified documents with the Intelligence Committee. I had access to those as well. I haven't seen anything.
To put all this in the proper context, first of all, I don't understand people taking classified documents home. If I did that, I'd be prosecuted, you know?
But having said that, where's the archivists through all this? Why isn't he or she in the room when the president, vice president are packing their boxes up? How did this happen?
But more importantly, the Biden Center -- $30 million from China at the time that University of Pennsylvania, Biden Center is being stood up. I have a lot of questions.
I sent a letter to Secretary Blinken. He was the manager of that, the government in exile, the shadow government waiting. Did they have access to these documents? What were in the documents? Did they meet with foreign nation adversary actors from China?
We don't know. But that's a very serious allegation that I think the American people deserve to know what happened.
BREAM: Let us know if you get answers.
MCCAUL: I will.
BREAM: We would like to know as well.
Chairman, thank you for joining us again on "FOX News Sunday".
MCCAUL: Thanks, Shannon. Thanks for having me.
BREAM: Appreciate your time.
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