Daines Discusses Upcoming Trip to China As Well As President Trump’s Tough Actions on Venezuelan Gangs and Houthi Terrorists

Provides highlights from today's Fox News appearance

Press Release from Senator Steve Daines’ office

Screenshot from today’s interview

U.S. Senator Steve Daines today joined Fox News’ Harris Faulkner for a live interview in studio. They discussed how President Trump is cracking down on Venezuelan gangs, including those in Montana, and the President’s strong actions to counter Houthi terrorists. Daines also previewed his upcoming trip to China, where he’ll address the deadly flow of fentanyl into the U.S. and market access for Montana producers.

Watch the full clip HERE.

Daines and Faulkner talked about how Biden’s open southern border enabled violent gang members to flood American communities:

Daines: Would you ever think they're right there in Montana? Our local law enforcement across Montana, we've been battling the Mexican cartels for years, but to have these TDA gang members in Bozeman, Montana-- six of them arrested by ICE and deported. These are the worst of the worst. Of course, this gang began in a Venezuelan prison. This is a multinational crime operation involved in drugs, in murders, in prostitution. Six of these gang members were in Bozeman, Montana. Thank God for President Trump's leadership in getting these guys off the street and deported out of this country.

Faulkner: So Senator, moments ago you had shared with me that ICE knew about the six TDA in Bozeman, Montana, but because of the Biden administration's policies had not moved on them.

Daines: Yeah, they were just kind of leaning back. Once President Trump was elected, they’re leaning in and not afraid to deal with this. President Trump understands he's got to keep this country safe and one of the important responsibilities is getting these hardened criminals off of our streets and out of our country.

Daines applauded President Trump for cracking down on Houthi terrorists:

Daines: All I’ve got to say here is thank God for President Trump and his moral clarity. America's strength is back. The Houthis-- their motto includes "Death to America, Death to Israel." They've been launching missiles at Israel, been launching missiles at important to navigational seaways there- the Strait of Hormuz, the Red Sea. You've got to keep these navigational areas free and open and the best way to go after terrorists is to kill them. And I'm grateful for President Trump. I'm grateful his team-- Marco Rubio, all -star Secretary of State. Pete Hegseth, taking the woke craziness out of the military. You've got Mike Waltz as National Security Adviser, a Green Beret. These are exactly the kind of leaders we want to have in America keeping this country safe.

Faulkner: You talk about moral authority. That's not a political thing. I mean, protecting America should not be political. Why have we gotten to this point? I mean, why didn't the previous president -- and I was talking about this right at the start of the Israel war, when Hamas savages invaded that country and killed so many innocent Israelis, they were hitting us as if Iran was saying, look, we can hit too. We can do this. We can do that.

Daines: Well, there's only one way to deal with terrorism. You don't negotiate, you kill them. And that's what President Trump is doing, whether it's Hamas, whether it's Hezbollah, whether it's the Houthis…I'd say you've got to take the fight to the terrorists, or they bring the fight to us on our homeland.

Daines previewed his upcoming trip to China this week, where he’ll address the flow of fentanyl:

Daines: What we know is it’s the Mexican cartels that are producing the fentanyl but those precursors, the raw materials, come from China. It's the leading cause of death for 18 to 45-year-old Americans. We lost nearly 100,000 Americans last year to fentanyl poisoning. I will be talking with the Chinese leadership about what they can do. They can do a whole lot more to shut down the flow of these chemicals that go to Mexico and then fentanyl comes in the United States...

When I was working back there [China] back in the '90s, in fact, we had two children born in Hong Kong. Back then, it was about a $500 billion economy. Today, it's $15 trillion, the second -largest economy in the world. In fact, it’s four times larger than the third-largest economy, which is Germany and Japan. So it's a massive economy. We have the largest trade deficit with any country in the world, and that's with China, about $300 billion. This will be about fentanyl. It will also be about this $300 billion trade deficit that we have with China, what we can do to change the trade practices. Big opportunity.

…We could sell a whole lot more into China. Think about Boeing. We'd love to sell 500 new airplanes to China. Why? That will help American jobs. That's going to help an American company. We need access to their market. Think about our American farmers and ranchers. It's the second largest beef market in the world. My cow guys out in Montana want more access to that market. My wheat producers, my barley producers, the soybean producers. There's 1.4 billion consumers over there, we need better access to those markets.