Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) joined the Faulkner Focus to discuss Putin’s ongoing war in Ukraine, President Biden’s war on U.S. oil and gas producers, and the need to unleash American energy.
Watch the full interview here, or read highlights from the conversation below:
On Biden’s war on domestic energy production:
“As we wage this global economic war against Putin — which I support — we cannot maintain the war on American oil and gas production. That is the fatal flaw in our approach. Right now, the President is going around the world, begging Venezuela, potentially Iran, to produce oil and gas. But you know where he’s not going? He’s not going to producers in Texas, Pennsylvania, or Louisiana. We’ve effectively had sanctions on our own domestic producers for the past year. We need to lift the sanctions on American oil and gas. That’s how you undermine Putin strategically over the long term: by unleashing the power of American energy. “
On Biden’s gas price blame game:
“Gas prices were skyrocketing prior to the outbreak of war in Ukraine… And the incontrovertible fact is on day one, when Biden took office, he launched this war on domestic energy production. He canceled the Keystone pipeline, he put a bunch of radicals in at FERC. And on top of that, democratic donors on Wall Street launched a global ESG campaign, which has made investing in energy in America toxic. It’s been incredibly counterproductive. That’s what’s been driving up gas prices and has also been putting us in a weak geopolitical position.”
On lessons we need to learn from failed deterrence:
“We need to understand why we delayed lethal assistance to Ukraine, why we abandoned the Black Sea, why we launched this war on American energy that was a gift to Putin. Because if we don’t learn the lessons from that failure, I fear we’re doomed to repeat it in other parts of the world — that a country like China will take advantage of us while we’re distracted, while we’re weak, or while we’re too preoccupied with woke domestic priorities. This is an important issue. We want to do everything we can to support the people of Ukraine, but also learn the right lessons of deterrence failure for future conflict.”
