The governor of North Dakota, Doug Burgum, reportedly stated over the weekend that the United States must utilize energy policy to win the cold war with communist China.
The comments were made by Burgum, a candidate for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, in an interview with Shannon Bream on “Fox News Sunday.”
“I mean we don’t just need course corrections on the economy, energy, national security, we need 180 degree turn because on the economy, whether it’s inflation, taxes, spending, deficit, trade, all in the wrong direction. On energy policy, we should selling energy to our friends and allies instead of buying it from our adversaries.” Burgum said.
“And on national security, that starts with border security. And right now we’ve got an open border. I’ve been down there with the National Guard troops of North Dakota, and it’s completely unreported what’s going on down there. And all of these things are affecting every American.” he continued.
“When Ronald Reagan was leading this country and we were in a Cold War with Russia, Russia had a small economy, they weren’t very connected. And we were able to just outperform them with our economy. And with our strong economy, we’re able to have a strong military.” he added.
“Now in our cold war with China, we’ve got to get our economy sprinting. It’s crawling right now. And part of the reason it’s crawling is this incredible red tape. I’ve seen the red tape as an entrepreneur, as a small business person. I’ve seen it running large global businesses.” Burgum said.
“And I’ll give you one horrible example: Putin likely doesn’t even invade Ukraine, if not for having all of Western Europe dependent on his energy. Well, then belatedly, the Biden administration says we’re going to put sanctions on Russian oil. And that takes some Russian oil out of our markets. But Russia selling oil 20 to 30% off to who? To China. China, the world’s largest importer of oil and gas in the world. And we’re over there with Blinken, Yellen, Kerry, and nobody’s even talking about how we can use energy policy as a lever in our relationship in the cold war with China.” he concluded.
Despite supporting former President Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020, the 66-year-old said that he is running for the GOP nomination in 2024.
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