U.S. SENATE – U.S. Senator Steve Daines joined Newsmax’s National Report today to talk about the work he and Ambassador David Perdue are doing to halt the flow of fentanyl precursors from China to the U.S., as well as his hopes for upcoming trade talks with China.
Watch the full interview HERE.
Daines praised President Trump for nominating David Perdue as Ambassador to China:
Let me compliment President Trump by selecting, nominating David Perdue to be the next ambassador to China. Truly, there’s not a better leader to be our ambassador to China than David Perdue. David Perdue and I were both working in Hong Kong and Guangzhou back in 1992 as business leaders, launching American brands to access the Chinese market and Asian markets. So, David and I bring a lot of business experience to Washington. We were both elected to the Senate back in 2014. David’s been one of my closest friends for many years. In fact, I was with him at his swearing-in yesterday. He understands China, he understands the importance of America first policies, and he’s very close to President Trump. President Trump entrusts full confidence to David Perdue. So great pick, thrilled to see David Perdue now in that important role. He’ll fly to Beijing next week.
Daines emphasized the need for China to stop the flow of fentanyl precursors to the U.S.:
I’m optimistic about this development in Geneva. As you know, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and our United States Trade Rep, Jamieson Greer, are going to be in Geneva, meeting with the vice premier of commerce, He Lifeng. I met He Lifeng in Beijing five weeks ago talking about some of the very same issues you’ll be talking about in Geneva. We need to have the Chinese stop the fentanyl precursors that are coming into the United States. Those go to Mexico, the cartels, manufacture the fentanyl, and it comes into the United States. It’s poisoning, killing 100,000 Americans a year. That’s something I talked about in Beijing with the Premier, as well as Vice Premier He Lifeng. I know there’ll be a topical conversation in Geneva, but we’ve got 42 percent of the world’s economy. If you take the United States and China, the two largest economies in the world. It’s 42 percent of all the GDP in the world right now at a triple digit, basically embargo, trade war. I’m hopeful that because of President Trump’s strong leadership, we’re going to see some concessions from the Chinese and work to try to reduce these tariffs but get some great outcomes for the American people.
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Contact: Matt Lloyd, Gabby Wiggins