Sen. Joe Manchin: On Iran and Is There a Future in 2024

Meanwhile, we're going to talk about 2024 too. We have some polls in that Donald Trump's not going to like. We have some polls in that Joe Biden is going to absolutely hate. Also, what I saw at that tech conference yesterday on the Senate side was absolutely alarming.

I love the fact that there were parents and grieving families there to tell their side of the story so it wasn't just politicians against tech experts. I think something's going to come out of this. And we're also going to talk about what's happening with Iran and when are we going to get serious about the series of strikes.

We have a it's seemingly a closely out of control Middle East. With us right now, a man who's seen it all as governor in Virginia knows so much proven he can run a state and as Senator he has no problem taking on his own party when he thinks they're wrong. Senator Joe Manchin is also considering a run for the presidency because he's not going to run for another six years in the Senate. He's chairman of energy and natural resources appropriations armed services and veterans committee and veterans affairs and believe me his plate is always full.

Senator Joe Manchin, the first thing the most important. I understand your wife was in an accident. How is she? She's doing well Brian. Thank you.

It's good to be with you but it was very scary. She was on her work assignment. She's with the head person with the Appalachian Regional Commission. She was in Birmingham and they were driving from the airport to the Sheraton Hotel when they got kind of broadsided t-boned if you will and someone running the red light.

Wow. So God bless her. I mean it's the grace of God is a miracle and she's bruised up pretty good but she's going to survive and she's home in West Virginia resting right now. We got her back out of the hospital.

Wow that's fantastic. I'm glad she's okay. It's scary.

You never know. I mean it's nothing to do with her. You're just driving. Let me just tell you how tough she is. She calls me and she says honey I was in an accident but I'm okay I think and I said where are you? She said I'm laying on the green. They're putting me in an ambulance. That's my first call I got. Wow. I know. What were you thinking? I took off and went down there so we got everything and the UAB hospital, University of Alabama trauma center in Birmingham was just fantastic.

All the people were great in Alabama. Very very good. So you were just traveling together? No no I was here in Washington getting ready to speak.

I had a phone call it was four o'clock her time five o'clock my time in Washington. I was getting ready to go to dinner to speak at a dinner and I got that phone call from her and just got a plane as quick as I could went right down and stayed a couple days with her and got her stabilized and she's back home resting but they took her and observed her and checked everything up and down and a couple times over. All right that's awesome. I'm glad she's going to be okay. Thank you.

So I know that so I know she'd want you back in action and back in action you are. First things first, we see that the president says I've decided on an answer when it comes to Iran. I've decided on an hour of operations and then NBC publishes the story that we're going to hit IRGC bases as well as different malicious sites and they basically according to Jennifer Griffin have now vacated these bases. Is this the way to handle Iran in the region?

Well I haven't seen that. That's on armed services right now we're to get you know to get a secured hearing on this and a briefing. I have not seen exactly and I understand you know sometimes you would like the element of surprise but boy I'll tell you if some news gatherings have already received this it's alarming there that's being played out in the news media before we've able we're able to see it here in in Congress but we've got to we have got to strike back and we will strike back I'm sure. You've got to build the coalition and keep a coalition together. I understand how important that is so I know he's been they've been criticized for taking too long to respond and you may you I mean it's just imperative that we keep our our coalition together and UK has been right there with us. We're bringing others on and I'm just anxious to see the Saudis and UAE's in that part of the world get into the fight also. So you want them actually committing troops to take on the Houthi rebels? You want them committing troops who? I would like us in their neighborhood it's it benefits them it's their neighbors they need to clean up that neighborhood we can help them with the technical technical support that we're doing and also trying to keep the shipping lanes and doing everything that we can to keep commerce and the world order if you will to a certain extent so the pricing is not gouged all the way around the world and is felt in America too but with that that's what we're trying to do but with that they have to clean up that neighborhood and only the Saudis UAE's and the Bahrain's have been doing a great job they've engaged and we just need others in that part of the world to say enough is enough. I used to be in briefed I used to be in briefed on things like this from Republican and Democratic administrations because there's been some frustration on both sides I think because they seem in the dark about what they're doing and you know we were in the dark about where our Secretary of Defense was for a while. We've got briefings we get we get all what we call all member briefing which is 100 senators Democrats and Republicans sitting there they're always very very good briefings we can ask questions sometimes people are frustrated sometimes that we're hearing things that we already heard in the press and that's very frustrating and then but most times we get we get the straight skinny of what's going on the challenges we face they never give us and they're not going to at that time divulge what their strategy is they have three or four options they'll lay out for us you can circle you know you can surmise yourself what would you think be the best and then we see it happen but with with that I've been I've been pretty well impressed with the briefings I'm receiving and also the answers I get when I'm a little bit concerned and confused about things sound a little bit muddled and you're wondering why haven't we hit why are we taking so long and then when you sell the coalition you can't put a coalition together overnight it just doesn't happen that way but if anyone's going to hit Iran and their assets it's going to be us and now they're hitting us directly they killed three of our guys they wounded 40 in tower 22 in that region so they were not be able to be protected some confusion about drones coming in and out not sure yeah but if you're one of the families of the 2,500 sitting in Iraq with a few hundred sitting in Jordan today you feel as though you're unprotected and you cannot get on the offensive because the word is you can knock down the rocket but you can't down knock take out the guy that shot the rocket well I think you're going to see that change I think you've seen that change down in Yemen and they've taken out not only the areas of concerns that we have with the radars and all that but they've been hitting strategic posts and strategic places where there's been damage and you just you I can assure you they're getting hit and hit hard and we're going to take out all the leaders that we possibly can I think you know and I've said this this is something that Bryant right now the politics get to a fever pitch and that's what's happening we've got to calm it down in the United States we have got to be united in our fight against terrorists anywhere in the world and you have to be committed to wipe out terrorism and I've described terrorists this way civilized countries who have disputes and they go to war you have basically the rules of war and you adhere to that but when you have a terrorist organization they use their people to protect their war machines civilized countries use their war machines to protect their people you've got to eliminate that because you're not going to change it their values are completely different and this is what we're fighting and it's not just us it's people know all over the world that are fighting terrorists and that part of the world where it's breeding and basically incentivizing this type of terror by activity has to be eliminated so center right now in Iraq and Syria and all the places where we have troops we can't leave those areas but we have to be strategically how we protect but also how we not only defend ourselves but eliminate the terrorists where we can center mentioned just no one's afraid of us in fact the Iranian said if we hit them we're prepared they're prepared to hit us again so they're warning us before you even retaliate and they're basically responsible for killing our people so there we got to get on the front foot and I want to be the toughest kid on the block again we pay a lot of money for that for that title I want to show everyone we deserve it but I want to talk about something else that you and I feel the same about we're going to hit we're going to hit hard and trust me they are scared of us they can tell you all they want to they can speak tough but I can tell you one thing the United States of America they're scared they should be scared because we can't do unbelievable damage to them but we don't want to escalate if we can help that that's why strategic strikes making sure we hit the right people in the right place right to send a clear message you will not put any American in danger or harm and you will not basically be attacking us without absolute I mean absolute response is going to be deadly something else we agree on is not using our natural resource especially at this time especially with natural gas especially when Russia has cut off Europe voluntarily they've cut off their relations with them we could provide all of that and out of nowhere the president not out of nowhere the New York Times wrote the story that there's pressure from the green side of your party to cut back on this fossil fuels one of which they look at is is a natural gas so they stop all new contracts on natural gas look at what Senator Kennedy is going to do because of this listen well I could be but I won't be I'm going to be very selective in who I block but the truth is that and trying to stop exporting of liquefied natural gas the president is committing energy suicide for America and he's hurting the environment at the same time and I think he's doing it frankly just to pander to the moon wing of his party how do you feel about that is Kennedy right well let me make sure you understand I'm chairman of the energy committee today we are producing in the United States of America more energy than ever in the history of our country no matter who the president has been in the past Republican or Democrat Obama Trump Reagan whoever you want to pick we're producing more energy today than we ever have and people can't believe that and come to grips this administration won't acknowledge that basically through the IRA we forced them to produce more oil and more gas cleaner energy in America to help stabilize the world order if you will but also make us energy independent we're able to help our allies in 2016 we were not basically producing any LNG exporting it at all not zero today is 13.8 billion billion cubic feet a day that is going to go to 26 billion and they're putting the pause at 26 so we're not stopping anything from going I'm having a hearing right now to find out if it's prudent or not and if it's based on it that is based on the economy it's based on the reserves that we had and what we do to our own economy do we have enough energy to produce for America and keep our economy moving and also help our allies around the world that's what we have to do now I think they're pandering to the left I do and I've been absolutely critical of what's been going on and I'm going to call that meeting and I'm going to I'll have the facts and we'll just call it the way it is Brian but right now make this no we're not in jeopardy it's not going to happen today we've got another 13 billion we're going to double the production we have right now with everything that's in the queue what they're saying is they're going to throttle back and not put any more permits out I think that is premature we ought to have this hearing we ought to find the facts out and forget about the politics and the people that want no energy whatsoever as far as to do with fossil I'm sorry it's called the global climate it's not called the United States climate and I can guarantee you we have reduced our footprint with our emissions more than any country in the world in the last two decades and we're doing it better and cleaner than anywhere else but for the administration not to say this is an energy security bill that we have we're producing more energy today 37 trillion cubic feet of gas was produced last year we'll do 38 trillion this year 4.6 billion barrels of oil was produced last year I think we're going to do more this year but Europe as you know was their number one supplier and that was Russia if we could be their number one supplier to win for everybody and if we curtail it if we curtail it now it's bad well we're not curtailing it now I just don't want to curtail the 26 at 26 billion cubic feet a day we're going to double we're producing about 40 we picked up 40 to help our allies in Europe so they don't have to go back to Russia the next 13 that should take care and we should make sure make sure that they never go back to Russia or these rogue nations that use their revenue to do harm to us but with that where is it 30 or 40 you don't want to get over the scale to where we don't have enough reserves to take care of America that's the balancing act we're looking right now but they are playing knee-jerking and they're re and I think their statement said that they were concerned about the climate I'm concerned about the climate I'm concerned about the energy it takes to run the country and defend the country so that comes energy security if you want to be the superpower of the world Brian you better have energy security we've got it and we need to keep it and we can't let politics being played with it and the knee-jerk from the left or right or any other direction so I can tell you wait till the February the 8th I'll have this hearing I guarantee you'll get answers I hope so and then hope they listen to you because they still can do their own thing Senator Joe Manchin I guess Senator I had the head of no labels on the co-chair of the labels on this week he said he's on about 16 states you said you want him on 30 34 by Super Tuesday for you to jump in are they getting closer RFK Jr feels as though he's going to get on all 50 states I talked to him yesterday where are you guys out with no labels and where are you at with your decision well let me say I'm not I haven't been out campaigning I've been out basically listening and talking to people and they're scared to death of what we see right now the country is divided they're wanting you to pick a side the only sides American side it's not a Democrat or Republican side and I agree and disagree with both parties at certain times and I've been the most independent person out there that's been voting here in Congress trying to hold everyone's feet to the fire and doing the right thing for our country no labels is a venue that started back in the end of 2010 and it gave a venue of bipartisanship you could come and talk to your Republican friends and Democrats could discuss different concerns that we had and different challenges that we had that's fine now all they're going into they want to make sure that they have an opportunity for a option that we come down and Super Tuesday's over and it's decided and it's handicapped let's say right now if you're handicapping and you have former President Trump and President Biden back in a two-way race do they want an option right now both parties don't seem to be over enamored with what they have and it can an option have an opportunity to succeed well you can't succeed unless you're in all 50 ballots and you can't succeed if you're only on half of those so I think no labels as challenge is making sure that the 34 states that they can get on that they have done that ballot sequence you know sequestering that and then the can't has to be on about the other 16 on their own that can be done but the attraction of having someone who's laid out the framework that we're on 32 or 34 states I'm not sure if it's 32 or 34 that you have to be on and it has to be an organization and that would be a platform and then whoever they want to choose or whoever they think can get on that and be give an option that that's what would be decided but that's that's down the road here right now let's see what plays out Senator Joe Manchin oh it's great to talk to you I since you're going to get in if I'm a betting person Senator Joe Manchin is going to be in after Super Tuesday I'll do whatever it takes to help the country Brian that's all I can tell you come together and please tell uh tell your wife to get better soon we're all pulling for her I will Brian I'll tell Gail and she she appreciates the concerns and your prayers thank you go get him Senator Joe Manchin take care take care Brian bye-bye listen to the show ad free on Fox News Podcast Plus on Apple Podcast Amazon Music with your prime membership or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts