After Rep. Chris Stewart said in a recent interview that he believed America might be four to six years away from war with China, a senior officer called him and told him he was wrong: ‘[He] said Chris, I think you’re wrong. I think it’s closer to two years.’ No matter the timeline though, Rep. Stewart says China IS preparing for war against the United States now. So, if it happens, what will that war look like here at home? In this clip, Rep. Stewart details the economic consequences we may be facing that are SO severe, they’re ‘hard to imagine.’
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: We have congressman Chris Stewart on with us.
Hello, Chris. Always good to have you on.
CHRIS: Good morning, Glenn Beck.
GLENN: You are, of course, a national award-winning author. You're really good.
I tried to hire you as a writer. And then you're like, no. I think I should go to Congress. What a mistake that was.
You're a world record Air Force pilot. You're a former owner and CEO of a small business, and now you're in Congress. And I'm sorry for that.
Chris, you were on all kinds of committees.
And I've got all kinds of questions. So let me start with the latest. Did you read the Washington Post today?
CHRIS: Not yet, this morning. What I did I miss?
GLENN: Okay. They said, they have one source. But they did talk to their mom before they put him on record.
A kid says he knows who the leaker was. He was a guy in this group of about a dozen kids.
He worked a military base. And would go in and just leak these documents to the kids.
I find that a little strange.
But I wanted to ask you, because he worked on a military base. And he said, he had access to documents and servers, that he could get in and see all these secrets.
How hard is that, with the documents, that you know, and I know, have come out?
How hard -- what kind of classification would you have to have? And do we have those kinds of skiffs on military bases. That would allow access to anything?
CHRIS: Yeah, well, a couple of things, Glenn, if I could. Number one, is you said did I read the Washington Post this morning?
I got to tell you, I don't read the Washington Post most mornings. With all sorts of information. So let's at least consider that. I think there are probably two elements of this, that are worth commenting on. Number one, most of the stuff that we've seen, in fact, all of it, is classified top secret.
Which is actually one of the lowest classifications. So it probably, there's thousands of people who probably had access to a lot of these documents.
And the second thing, Glenn, the whole presumption of the classification. Number one is we overclassify a lot of things.
And that's another topic, but some of these things, if you read them, you think, well, that doesn't seem terribly classified, and it seems fairly obvious, and I think that's the case with some of these documents.
Although, not all of them. My point is, the whole process only works if there's a presumption of trust. And, of course, there's some people that you can trust, and you shouldn't trust.
But it seems to me, that there's a breakdown more broadly, and that is someone somewhere had enormous access. And -- and over a long period of time, and it seems like with just extraordinary ease was able to have access to these documents. And then walk out of the building with it.
They didn't -- you know, they didn't break down through computers, and get electronic access. It looks like they had physical access. They were walking around. That is actually quite surprising to me.
GLENN: So we're seeing now with China. Some of the leaks are about China.
And us not being able to have war with them. The Taiwan thing, where are we headed on that?
Is China -- I mean, if I were China, with this president and this Pentagon, man, I wouldn't -- I would, if it looks like someone else would win the White House. I would make my moves right now, on Taiwan. Can they?
CHRIS: Well, you know -- well, they're close to that.
They're not quite where they want to be militarily.
But militarily isn't -- military isn't the only consideration they have.
One of the primary considerations, of course, is what you just indicated.
What do they estimate the United States will do?
What do they estimate the leadership of the president and the United States might be?
And it's very, very clear.
And everyone talks about Afghanistan. But you really can't overemphasize the importance of that, Glenn.
As I've traveled the world since then, I've heard it all the time. And not just from our friends. But our adversaries as well.
They look at that and think, what filling, naïve, weak leadership that was.
And, by the way, by the way, it's not just President Biden. It's General Milley and Austin. They're the ones who presided over that.
And so there's no question, that President Xi looks at that and says, well, maybe now this time -- and if I could share one -- one personal experience I had, I had on another interview.
And they asked me, well, what's the time line?
And I said, well, it's hard to say. The analysts predicting the future.
I said, I think it's probably four to six years.
And that weekend, I was called by the former national security adviser. Robert, a friend of mine.
And then he said, no. Chris. I think it's probably closer to two years. Then an hour later, I got a phone call from another very senior officer. And said, Chris, I think you're wrong. I think it's closer to two years. Having been in the region recently, I think this much is clear. China is preparing for war, against the United States. Over Taiwan. And the South China Sea.
They're preparing urgently.
And I don't think the time line is a decade for sure. It's probably not five years.
It probably is some time between now and the next election.
GLENN: What does that mean for us, Chris?
What does a world with the United States at war with China and most likely with Russia, what does that look like?
CHRIS: Yeah. And that's really the key question.
So I was in Ukraine last week, and, well, it was an interesting -- an interesting trip, I'll tell you that, Glenn.
But one of the impressions I left there with was, to those in the United States. Who we've sent them.
As you and I have talked about -- tens -- perhaps more than a hundred billion dollars.
But most Americans, you know, they -- they may say, okay.
Well, we want to support that. It's a lot of money.
But as far as the fact, we live day to day. It does not. I mean, we're completely unaware of it. Now, president Biden will blame the price of fuel on the war in Ukraine. But that's nonsense.
That's not the reason for that. It's because of his own policies.
But when and if there's a war in -- in -- over Taiwan, every single one of us will feel it every single day.
And I'll give you one illustration. There's recent analysis that said, we would have the 9 percent reduction in our GDP, the first year from only -- only from the ability to access the chips and especially the exquisite chips.
Nine percent. The Great Depression reduction in GDP the first year was 7.5 percent.
GLENN: Oh, my gosh.
CHRIS: And, Glenn, that doesn't count -- because we haven't yet finished the analysis on the reduction in GDP from the fact that you're not going to have container ships leaving China. And coming to the United States. Or coming to the West.
We simply to do trade with them.
When you ask, what does it mean?
The economic consequences of this, are hard for us to imagine.
GLENN: Chris, why are we not having these conversations?
Why is it, it just seems like everything just happens. They just continue on with their -- I think diabolical plans.
And nothing -- nothing happens. I mean, Merrick Garland, I know you're on the weaponization committee.
Merrick Garland has lied, lied to the committee, about, you know, who they're surveilling. And who they're trying to rope in, as FBI informants. He said, we're not doing this as Catholics. We're not targeting. And now we find out that, yeah. They are targeting Catholics.
And he's not going to pay a price. When does someone pay a price for any of this stuff?
CHRIS: Yeah. Glenn, I've been asking myself that question for six years. Could you go back to the initial Russian hoax, and the fact that Director Comey lied to Congress again and again and again.
And listen, when he was finally put under oath, on deposition, you may remember, something like 257 times, he said, I don't remember.
That's nonsense. Of course, he remembers. That's a nonresponsive witness. If that would have been anyone else, they would have been charged with perjury for saying that.
What about McCabe, what about Lisa Strzok? You go down the list, it just keeps going. And all the time we're asking, where is the accountability?
Now, there is some good news. And I don't want to be Pollyannish about it. It is a positive step forward. That is we have to reauthorize 702, and FISA this fall.
We're simply not going to do it.
And as strong as an advocate as I am for the national security, as someone who understands the value of intelligence. I would rather lose the tool, than have the tool continue to be weaponized and continue to be used against the American people. There's a number of us in Congress who are saying, we simply won't reauthorize us, unless there's enormous reforms put in place first. And it's one of the primary things we're concentrating right now on the intelligence committee.
GLENN: Oh, man, I hope you guys stand firm on that. And it would have to be enormous reforms.
Because that whole thing is a cesspool. And with these leaks. The story out today is that Biden is looking again, at, you know, different ways he can monitor and capture all the information on the web. And surveil.
I mean, we know what they're doing dependence the United States. The people of the United States.
PAT: You know, two talks, Glenn.
Number one, we subpoenaed the director and others yesterday on a weaponization committee regarding this absurdity of targeting Catholic Diocese. Catholic congregations. Show me any reasonable person in the country, who thinks that one of the -- one of the threats to you're security are believing Catholics for heaven's sakes.
It's beyond absurd. And that's -- and that's good.
We need to bring them in, under oath, once again. And have an ability to question them. The second point, Glenn. Is this. The United States has extraordinary power to surveil by themselves.
But they also have brought in the entire industry around them. You know, Facebook, Twitter. Et cetera, et cetera.
As a partner.
And if, for example, it's illegal for the United States to assassinate someone. They can't target a foreign leader, for example. And -- and tell the CIA, go and assassinate that person.
That's illegal, they can't do it.
But if they hired someone to do that. And they did it for them. It would be exactly the same thing.
And it would still be illegal. That's what the government has done essentially with surveillance, and suppression of free speech.
With the weaponization of many of these tools. Is they don't do it themselves. They go to these Ted companies. And saying, we want you to do it for us.
And we're going to compel you.
We're going to intimidate you. We'll threaten you.
Now, they don't have to threaten them very often or very hard.
Because it turns out these tech companies are more than willing to do this for the United States government.
GLENN: I know.
CHRIS: But the fact that they work with a partner is still -- is still a sense of wrong.
As much as if they had done it themselves. So once again, it's one of the things that we're trying to address, and trying to expose.
GLENN: So one more question, and I've only got 90 seconds max on this.
Tell me, are we standing firm on Congress bringing back the power of the purse?
Are we going to fold again?
CHRIS: Yeah. We'll see, Glenn. I mean, you have the Republican House. And many of us are saying that that is the only tool that we have. And that is to say, we just won't fund you.
But we don't control the Senate. The House will push a lot of these things.
For instance, I won't give a penny to the new FBI headquarters until Christopher Wray comes in and answers a boatload of questions.
GLENN: Under oath, in a way where he has to go to jail.
You know, you -- you just said Comey answered, you know, I don't remember. When he was under oath.
Well, he was under oath in Congress. But nobody cares!
Nobody cares about that oath it seems.
CHRIS: Yeah. It does seem like that's something different. But back to the original question.
The House will fund some of these efforts. And I think we will be broad and deep in some of those. Of course, then that budget goes to the Senate. And we'll see what Schumer does. Because you know what he'll do. And he won't.
And that's where the fight will take place. That's -- you know, we won't know the answer to that, until sometime this summer or this fall, when we actually have to fund the government, and we'll see how strong Republicans will stand.
GLENN: Chris, thank you very much.
I can't imagine being any of you guys who are trying to do your best in Washington. I just can't imagine the frustration, but thank you.
CHRIS: Glenn, I should have taken a job and come and worked with you.
GLENN: I know you should have.
Huge mistake. I told you. All right. Chris, thank you so much.
