Washington, DC – Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-WY) joined “The Guy Benson Show” on Fox News Radio yesterday to discuss America’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Biden Administration’s dangerous negotiations with Iran.
Listen to the full interview here and see the transcript below:
Cheney: We Must Unleash Our Own Domestic Energy Production
GUY BENSON: With us now is Congresswoman Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming. Congresswoman, good to have you back here.
REP. LIZ CHENEY: Hey Guy, great to be back with you. Thank you.
BENSON: I saw a clip, during the commercial break actually, of Jen Psaki, the White House Press Secretary, being pressed earlier on the issue of importing oil from Russia, which we are still doing hundreds of thousands of barrels a day, millions of dollars. The question was, “Aren’t we funding this war? Aren’t we helping Putin in that respect?” Doing plenty on the other side, of course, but what gives here? And Psaki’s response in part was, “Well, it’s only 10% of what we’re importing.” “Why is it not 0%?” I guess is the follow up. They don’t seem to have a great answer to that. They also don’t have good answers about domestic oil production, which they are hostile toward as a matter of ideology. I just wonder what you make of what seems to be a pretty significant contradiction here and this pickle that they’ve put the United States in, by virtue of their so-called green policies.
REP. CHENEY: Well, you’re exactly right, Guy. And what we’re watching happen is – it’s absolutely clear that we ought to stop all imports of Russian oil, and we ought to unleash our own domestic production here. You know, during World War II, FDR described America as the “arsenal of democracy” for the world. We ought to be the arsenal of energy for the world, and we know we can. And the problem the Biden Administration has right now is that their policies with respect to the Green New Deal are directly at odds with being able to unleash our own domestic production. So, several colleagues of mine and I have sent a letter to President Biden just today laying out the series of steps he needs to take, you know, to roll back, for example, to lift his ban on leases on public lands, to lift some of the just overwhelming regulatory, the heavy-handed regulation that the domestic fossil fuel energy is facing. And it’s a national security issue, and it’s an economic security issue. So, we absolutely ought to be doing far more in terms of our own production. And we should not continue to import Russian oil, which, as you said, funds the unbelievable and horrific assault on the Ukrainian people right now.
BENSON: Are you satisfied with the level of support that the U.S. government is giving to Ukraine right now?
REP. CHENEY: No, I’m not. I think we have had a tremendous unity around the world in terms of being very clear and imposing sanctions across the board at a level we haven’t seen before. But having said that, the United States is not moving fast enough, and we haven’t done enough. And a number of the sanctions that have been announced, for example, they don’t take effect for 30 days, or we’re dealing with, you know, the SWIFT system where we’ve only cut off certain banks. We need to be doing much more, much faster, immediately. And be, you know, absolutely clear – we ought to be leading the rest of the world. And I think, look, you know, we’ve done an unprecedented amount, but it is not enough given the brutality that Putin has decided to unleash on Ukraine.
Cheney: “Exceedingly Misguided” To Lift Sanctions And Negotiate A Nuclear Deal With Iran “At This Moment”
BENSON: Which apparently is going to get worse, according to almost all indications at this point, which is extremely disturbing. I want to ask you, Congresswoman, about something that’s related. We spent a fair amount of time in our second hour about it today. I think it’s a story that is vastly underplayed. My guess is it’s not underneath your radar, though, because you pay attention to this stuff pretty closely. It’s Iran and this negotiation that’s been happening in Vienna for a while now, where the United States is negotiating with the Iranian regime, through the Russians and we continue to. I mean, given what Putin has done and is actively doing, we are still relying on his diplomats to try to broker this deal with Iran to get us back into an even worse nuclear deal with the Iranians. I mean, from our perspective, it’s a great deal, apparently, the concessions from Iran’s perspective, but I just saw a tweet – a clip of the Russian negotiator saying that he believes they’re within 24 to 48 hours of reaching an agreement. Congress, to my understanding, has no briefing on this. They don’t know what would be in the deal. There is reports and rumors leaking out that the concessions are extraordinary, even more preposterous than happened in the Obama-era. Again, Congress and the American people right now are in the dark on this. And there could be billions of dollars in sanction relief just going out the door should the Biden Administration, through the Russians, strike this deal with Iran. I mean, terrorists off the terrorist list, a bunch of sanctions relief in exchange for reportedly virtually nothing at all coming from the Iranian side. It’s been so bad, The Wall Street Journal reported recently, three of Biden’s own team members have resigned in protest. I just wonder what you make of that. To me, this is very urgent, because it could potentially get done over the weekend, according at least, to this Russian negotiator. And that is still a hugely important issue, even though there are obviously a lot of things happening in the world right now. This is one of them, and it does tie into Russia as well.
REP. CHENEY: Yeah, it is exceedingly dangerous and exceedingly misguided. The idea that, you know, at this moment, we’re going to lift sanctions on the Iranians, which means that they’re going to have access to significant additional resources which they will use for terrorist activity as they did before. The idea that we’re going to get back into a nuclear agreement which gives them a pathway to a nuclear weapon. You know, when the Obama Administration entered into this agreement, and don’t forget that Jake Sullivan, who’s the current National Security Advisor, was the one conducting many of the secret negotiations with the Iranians during the Obama Administration. But when they entered into the agreement, we were promised by then-Secretary Kerry–
BENSON: And by the way, now they’ve outsourced that to Russia, right? So, it was Americans negotiating a bad deal back then, now it’s Russians doing it for us. It’s just amazing.
REP. CHENEY: Right, so that, you know, Russia – number one, Russia needs to be treated like a pariah state across the board because of the assault that they’ve launched against Ukraine. At the same time, the idea that we’d be using them to negotiate this deal, which is going to make America much less safe, and which is completely indefensible, when we’re clearly at a moment where American security is threatened in ways that it has not been. We have not seen the kind of assault on the continent of Europe since World War II that we’re watching today. And in the idea that we would now give Iran a pathway to a nuclear weapon. There’s no verification. There’s no, you know — we’ve seen this before. It’s all a fantasy. And it’s a fantasy that results in us giving the Iranians the kind of sanctions relief that is going to make them even more dangerous on the world stage. So, the notion that they’re using the Russians to negotiate it is an absolute, just, insult and travesty to the Ukrainian people who are being killed and slaughtered right now, and to the American people whose security is going to be much, much at risk if this deal is agreed to.
BENSON: Yeah, it’s the substance that’s leaking out through these whistleblowers is just quite frightening, actually. And it’s insult to injury that it’s the go between here is a Russian diplomat, as if, you know, “just business as usual, let’s figure out how to get a funnel a bunch of money to this terrorist state.” Is there anything Congress can do though? Because what these whistleblowers are saying, including it seems people who resigned from the negotiating team, they’re saying that it’s being done in such a way, and would potentially be agreed to in such a way, that Congress would have really no role until it was too late. Can you think of something that could be done now? Because it seems like this might be relatively imminent.
REP. CHENEY: Yeah, I mean, I think that one of the – obviously, the power that Congress has. Certainly, the Senate is supposed to provide advice and consent. I think it’s clear that the Administration is unlikely to provide this as a treaty to the Senate. I think highlighting the danger of what they’re doing and remembering that Congress has the power of the purse, and looking for ways to prevent the expenditure of any resources, with respect to anything to carry out or implement this agreement is something that certainly we’re focused on. I think making sure the American people understand and that, you know, the Biden Administration is going to have to pay a significant political price. And it’s a significant price right now, if they’re going to go down the path of entering into this agreement, which, again, is just, you know, incomprehensible that you would make America less safe, that you would empower the Russians by letting them negotiate this, and that you would empower the Iranians, who are funding terrorism around the world.
BENSON: Yeah, I mean, it’s almost – it reads like a caricature of what not to do, but is apparently what is being done actively right now. And a lot of the Ukrainian stuff is getting tons of attention, and it should, this also merits attention, which is why we’ve been shining a spotlight on it today, and we appreciate your help in breaking it down. It’s Congresswoman Liz Cheney, Republican Wyoming. Congresswoman, thank you so much.
REP. CHENEY: Thanks, Guy.
Original source can be found here.
