ICYMI: McConnell on Fox News @ Night
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) joined Shannon Bream last night on Fox News’ ‘Fox News @ Night’. Click here to watch the full interview or see below for highlights:
On Surging Gas Prices:
“We were energy independent in 2019 and exporting oil and gas. Every solution [the Biden administration] come[s] up with involves somebody else sending energy to Europe rather than us. And with regard to dropping some of the reserves and the strategic petroleum reserves, it's like dropping a pebble in the ocean, it’s going to see almost no impact on daily consumption.
“Don't blame the gas prices on Putin. It started at the beginning of this administration. It is a reaction to this shut down of the fossil fuel industry. They go after them in every single conceivable way. What we ought to be doing is pumping more of our own to take care of, not only our needs, but to help Europeans as well.”
On President Biden’s Budget:
“[Democrats] want to get $2.5 trillion in new taxes. If they had their way, you'd be getting a massive amount of new revenue. That’s not what we need. [President Biden] laid out a budget that increased non-defense by about 14% and didn't even increase defense by enough to cover the increase in inflation. But we have a war going on in Ukraine. Our goal ought to be to help the Ukrainians win, to defeat the Russians right there.
“So we have a defense budget that simply not realistic. America doesn't need any new taxes. We did tax reform back in 2017. It produced a gusher of revenue by actually lowering the rates for example, on corporations, produced a gusher of new revenue. Raising taxes is not a good idea at this particular juncture.”
On Putin’s War in Ukraine:
“The problem is that the president has finally gotten around to doing the right thing, but we don't have a lot of time. He has sort of been pulling his punches all along. I don't think we hear the president saying, what I think our goal ought to be, which is to win, not to have some negotiated settlement, unless President Zelensky is willing to do that. This is extremely important. This is an opportunity for the democratic world to punch this bully right in the nose and others are willing to carry the fight.”
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“The wrong thing to do is things like preventing these soviet-era MiGs from being transferred from Poland into Ukraine. Ukrainians have the pilots, they know how to use them. In other words, we ought to be giving them everything we possibly can to help them win this war.”
On Judge Jackson’s Nomination to the Supreme Court:
“I don't think she was treated poorly. She was asked about her record. And her record, I think, was hard to defend. For example, she has a particularly curious view about certain kinds of criminal behavior. In this particular case, people who would distribute child pornography of all things. In every one of the cases where she was sentencing a child pornography case, she gave out sentences that were below the guidelines that are part of the statute. I think she's a judicial activist. She’s very smart. She’s very capable. She is going to be exactly what President Biden wants. A very liberal Supreme Court justice.”
…
“The Democrats want to make this confirmation about race or gender. We don’t look at judges that way. Most Republicans believe in what is called strict construction, that is, judges who make their very best effort, as Justice Scalia put it, to follow the law. And Scalia used to say that if you weren't happy with the outcome you get, that sometimes happens when you follow the law.
“I think all indications are that Judge Jackson is going to be a liberal activist from the bench. But the good news for people like me, is the Court is still 6-3. We made massive changes over the last four years that I think put the court in a very solid position with a great number of judges who believe in the quaint notion that maybe a judge ought to follow the law.”
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Related Issues: Taxes, Energy, Inflation, Supreme Court, Judicial Nominations, Senate Democrats, Economy
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