BUCK: Clay and Buck going strong here, and, as promised, joined by Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, who is just back from a visit to Taiwan. Senator Blackburn, appreciate you making the time for us.

SEN. BLACKBURN: I’m so happy to join you all. Thank you so much.

BUCK: So, why’d you go to Taiwan, and what’d you find when you were there?

SEN. BLACKBURN: Well, I went to Taiwan. It wasn’t my first visit. It was a return visit. And I did it because it is so important that we stand with Taiwan as they seek to preserve their freedom and push back on the Chinese Communist Party. And, of course, we’ve seen the communist Chinese really become so aggressive, globally, yes, but specifically in that Indo-Pacific region, with those Pacific island nations.

Taiwan is a free and independent nation. pic.twitter.com/DQvwsSPABG

— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) August 27, 2022

So, for Taiwan to know that we stand with them, we support them, that we are doing our part to make certain that they have what they need to defend themselves. It is important, it’s an important step for us. And, you know, the more we support Taiwan and encourage our allies to support Taiwan, the harder it makes it for the Chinese Communist Party to say, “Oh, no, they’re part of us, we are going to go in and we’re going to overtake them and no one should care.”

CLAY: Senator Blackburn, thanks for coming on. Do you think that China is going to try and invade Taiwan, based on your knowledge, obviously, as a senator and also the trip that you just made, do you think they will do that? Certainly, they want to do it. Do you think they will?

SEN. BLACKBURN: Well, they want to do it, Clay. They want to be globally dominant by the time we get to 2050. But the more we push back on them and encourage our allies to push back on them to support Taiwan and Papua New Guinea and the other islands where I visited during this trip, the harder it makes it for China to do that.

Now, we do know that China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, they compromise what I call the new axis of evil. They’re intent on taking down the U.S. So, it is something that we should keep our eye on, that we should push back and make it very, very difficult for China to take these moves and for those moves to be accepted by freedom loving nations.

BUCK: Senator Blackburn, do you think that there should be an official shift away from what has been the U.S. policy with regard to Taiwan of strategic ambiguity? Essentially, should we have a more ironclad promise to them, or do you think the current situation, the status quo is the better option?

.@MarshaBlackburn was lauded by Minister Wu during a welcome banquet for her spirited defiance of #China‘s coercion. The #US🇺🇸 Senator’s support for the freedom & democracy loving people of #Taiwan🇹🇼 brimmed with warmth & respect for our shared values & ever-closer relationship. pic.twitter.com/owGkYUPkH8

— 外交部 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ROC (Taiwan) 🇹🇼 (@MOFA_Taiwan) August 26, 2022

SEN. BLACKBURN: I think it is certainly something that we should discuss. And I would encourage people to recognize Taiwan as separate. You have to look at the fact they have a founding father, they have an Independence Day, they have a constitution, they have a president, they have a military. And all of this, we recognize — think about it like this.

The USSR breaks up. So, countries declare their independence. Do we recognize those countries? Absolutely we do. And we applaud those countries. And in Taiwan they would like for us to recognize them and applaud them. And it’s appropriate to go back and look at the steps that Richard Nixon took, that President Carter took, and bring this back up for review.

CLAY: Senator, we’re in a 50-50 Senate right now. We’re a little bit over two months out from the midterms. There’s a lot of battleground states out there. There are many people listening to us right now in those battleground states. As a senator, how much different is there for you if it’s a 51-49 Republican majority versus the Democrats having any kind of majority at all? We know Kamala breaks the tie 50-50. But in terms of what you guys are capable of, what does that majority mean?

SEN. BLACKBURN: Oh, that majority means so much because whomever has the majority in the Senate sets the agenda. And having that majority means that we can stop bad judges that are not appropriate for the bench, that do not have the background or the expertise. We can put a halt to some of those nominations that are just not appropriate.

We can also begin to work to get inflation under control because we would be able to control the budget with a Republican-held House and Senate. That would help to curtail some of this federal spending. I think we should put a freeze on hiring these federal employees, a freeze on federal salaries. We should begin to work to rein in this bureaucracy, keep them from hiring 87,000 IRS agents to go after small and mid-size businesses in this country.

BUCK: Senator Blackburn, is it a little bit of a shock to you when you see the current president, Joe Biden, going around referring to Trump voters as semi-fascists and openly stating that he has no respect for MAGA Republicans?

SEN. BLACKBURN: Oh, it is so disappointing to hear someone that’s the president of the United States use that type of language. And I know he feels like it is political free speech, and he can do it. It is just inappropriate. The president of the United States is there for everyone.

When you’re in elective office, you represent everyone — Democrat and Republican, independent, Green Party, whatever. And for him to hold that disdain, when he said his step was going to be to seek to reunite people in the country, makes you wonder if the speech was platitudes written for him that he did not mean or if he has changed his opinion.

CLAY: Senator, do you think that the Biden Justice Department is going to charge Donald Trump with a crime based on their Mar-a-Lago raid? And if so, what do you think would happen?

BUCK: I have no idea what they’re going to do, if this is just political posturing. What I do know is this is unprecedented; this has never happened to a former president. I do know that they seemed very unconcerned about Hillary Clinton’s laptop with 30,000 emails or her staff members with their devices that also contain those confidential, top secret emails and transmissions.

I know they were not that concerned about her using BleachBit or about staff members taking a hammer to their devices. They weren’t concerned about Hunter Biden. We even find out now the FBI went to Facebook and I would say probably likely others and said, “Hey, beware about this, we’re not sure about this, you might not want to put this up, might not want to get that out there.” And we do know that that has affected the way people viewed the Biden family and the way they ultimately voted.

CLAY: Yes.

SEN. BLACKBURN: So, we have to be aware of those things.

BUCK: Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, always appreciate you joining us. Thanks so much.

SEN. BLACKBURN: You got it. Take care.