China Visit Underscores Broader Strategic Competition

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning. Well, it looks like China has gone well. What is today to talk about it? We have a great senator from Jony Ernst from a great state of Iowa, and Senator Ernst, what do you get the pulse of what the heck happened in China? It looks like things went well.

0:22 Speaker 2 Well. I do think things went well, and I want to thank our President Donald Trump for being such a great negotiator and willing to take the time to go visit with one of our not just global competitors, but some of us would say our adversaries as well. It’s important that the President has these discussions, even with people

0:48 that we don’t agree with on a lot of different topics. But trade is really important with China. My Iowa farmers love to hear that we’re going to sell more soybeans to China. We think that’s really important. But as well, the President stood strong on so many different issues, and of course he had our great Secretary of State Marco

1:13 Rubio with him on this trip. And when it came to Taiwan, we heard the Secretary Secretary of Rubio say, quote, US policy on the issue of Taiwan is unchanged as of today and as of the meeting that we had here today, and so we remain strong on standing by Taiwan, and the President is very clear about this. So I’m

1:40 just really glad that, you know, we have had such great success coming out of China.

1:47 Speaker 1 Well, the good news is a president said on on Thursday or Friday, he said We’re not going to allow Iran to have any nuclear weapons, which was good news. And I am hoping that President Trump makes it China’s responsibility to make sure Iran performs the right way.

2:11 Speaker 2 Yes, absolutely, and I loved when they were talking about that, you know, the assistance to Iran or what we had hoped would not be assistance to Iran by China. And of course the issue was raised about those nuclear capabilities, and so I’m glad that the United States and China are on the same page there. And then one of

2:34 the other issues that was brought up as well was the flow of fentanyl. Those precursors that are coming into the United States and China in the past and hopefully not in the future, has been the principal source of US fentanyl and the precursors We’ve seen so many people through our communities, both in New York and in Iowa

2:57 affected by fentanyl, and it really needs to stop. So I’m glad that President Trump has raised this issue and that he will continue to work to protect our communities from the scourge of ventanol.

3:10 Speaker 1 And rumor has it I think it’s going to happen, is that President Putin is going to go to China afterwards. And what I’m looking for is maybe if we can get the world powers of China and Russia in the United States to promote world peace, then I think be a great year in twenty twenty six.

3:34 Speaker 2 I think so too, And it’s always such a noble goal. This is what we strive for, and we really do have the president of peace right now. And even when we see the actions that have gone on recently in Iran, it is because the President is bent on protecting the United States of America from the nuclear capabilities of Iran.

3:57 And so I just thank the President for always looking out and putting Americans first. And we know that maybe it’s not a popular decision out there, but I absolutely believe it was the right decision by our president to engage Iran. We know that we are so much safer now than we were before we saw mid Operation Midnight

4:21 Hammer and Operation Epic Fury.

4:25 Speaker 1 Let me ask you a question, Iowa. I mean, do you have any serious drug problems in Iowa?

4:34 Speaker 2 We do, and when I talked to our sheriff’s departments and our police departments, you know, we do have ventanyl that has been creeping in and oftentimes we see it coming from the major metro areas like Chicago. You know, they’ll run the drugs over the interstate into Iowa and it’s starting to affect some of our smaller communities. So

4:59 fentanyl is an issue. We see a lot of meth in Iowa. I won’t say it’s pervasive or that you know, everyone’s affected by it, but we certainly do have those touch points in our communities and we’ve really got to get a handle on it before it really hurts Middle America.

5:17 Speaker 1 I agree with you. On a Sunday morning. Anything else you want to tell the.

5:21 Speaker 2 American people, Oh, I just want to say thanks so much. John. You always highlight so many of the issues of the day, and of course we know this year is going to be a big election year, and so I just want to make sure folks know and understand that you know, people are working really hard to represent their communities. The Republicans,

5:41 of course, with the one big, beautiful bill, the Working Family’s Tax Cuts Act, did so much to protect taxpayers pocketbooks, and we continue to follow up on our fraud work, so you know, we’re doing really really great work for our taxpayers, and I hope people remember that when they go to the election facilities this ball and cast their ballots.

6:06 Speaker 1 Senator Joni Earnst from the great state of Iowa, thank you so much for everything you’ve done, whether the military or as a US Senator, for our people, America, our country. And let’s catch up again real soon.

6:22 Speaker 2 Sounds great. Thank you, John