Speaker 1: Yeah, we apologize. Um, you know, you know we love Chinla.
Speaker 1: We love you know, playing there. I know for for
Speaker 1: both of us individually, we go there, you know once
Speaker 1: its twice a year. They showed us the most important love.
Speaker 1: So you know, we appreciate it as a fan base
Speaker 1: and we love everything you know they're about. And you
Speaker 1: know we appreciate the support that they give us individually
Speaker 1: and as an organization. So you know we love that.
Speaker 1: Was James Harden NBA start talking about how he and
Speaker 1: Lebron love China. This was back during the flap where
Speaker 1: the the what the what the one of the owners
Speaker 1: or general manager or whatever from the Houston Rockets lost
Speaker 1: his job for saying something anti something sane, saying something
Speaker 1: anti China. And when when we found out there was
Speaker 1: a U. S. Senator that wanted to talk to us about,
Speaker 1: among other things, the NBA's relationship with China. Man, we
Speaker 1: jump at that opportunity because we're big on that thing.
Speaker 1: We will indeed to deal with that in moments with
Speaker 1: Marcia Blackburn, the U S. Senator from the Great State
Speaker 1: of Tennessee. UH Senator Blackburn, how are you. I am
Speaker 1: doing great, and thank you so much for caring about
Speaker 1: this issue with the NBA in China. Well, it's it's
Speaker 1: absolutely horrific to hear the criticisms of the US on
Speaker 1: a practically a daily basis, meanwhile making love to the
Speaker 1: worst regime on earth. But before we get to that,
Speaker 1: we're kind of surprised you're not in the Senate chamber
Speaker 1: voting on what you're calling and I love this Biden's
Speaker 1: Blue State bailout bill. What's going on with that? Well,
Speaker 1: they we have the debate going on right now and
Speaker 1: the for Bernie's been down there begging for a fifteen
Speaker 1: dollar an hour federal minimum wage, and of course that
Speaker 1: is very unpopular in states like Tennessee. The minimum wage
Speaker 1: is you've got your federal minimum and then states make
Speaker 1: adjustments because it's a different in different areas. And we
Speaker 1: think that that's the way it ought to say. But
Speaker 1: what we have to realize is that the Democrats are
Speaker 1: in overreach mode. They know they're going to lose the
Speaker 1: House and Senate in two So what they're trying to
Speaker 1: do is get in that race car and loop around
Speaker 1: the track, get to the finish line, and take away
Speaker 1: a lot of your freedoms. When it comes to your job,
Speaker 1: your children's education, where you work, how you work, how
Speaker 1: you live your life, how you use and consume energy.
Speaker 1: They're just ready to take those freedoms away. This is
Speaker 1: almost a two trillion dollar piece of legislation. Giant things
Speaker 1: like this didn't used to pass that weren't bipartisan. We're
Speaker 1: just into a new era, I guess well. And we
Speaker 1: have done five bills that have dealt with COVID relief.
Speaker 1: And these five bills have all been overwhelmingly bipartisan. I mean,
Speaker 1: like they would get ninety votes. And now the one
Speaker 1: bill that the Democrats are doing will be a party
Speaker 1: line vote. And of course we're looking for one Democrat
Speaker 1: that will vote with us and will stop this because
Speaker 1: out of this two trillion dollars, nine percent nine percent
Speaker 1: goes to COVID or COVID related relief. One percent of
Speaker 1: this bill goes to vaccinations. The rest of it it
Speaker 1: goes to blue state bill outs, to humanities, to art,
Speaker 1: to infrastructure, to loan forgiveness for certain loans for certain people.
Speaker 1: It's full of ear marks. It's even going to pay
Speaker 1: federal employees to stay home with their children for fifteen
Speaker 1: weeks because the teachers unions are not going back to
Speaker 1: the classroom to teach the children. Well, and listen, if
Speaker 1: I were to call you a liar, Senator Blackburn, say
Speaker 1: nine percent, that's ridiculous. That's twice as much. That would
Speaker 1: be less than one fifth had anything to do with COVID.
Speaker 1: It's just an excuse. You don't we all need to do.
Speaker 1: Who oppose this sort of thing. We need to come
Speaker 1: up with one name to call this a blue state
Speaker 1: bailout bill. That's that's not bad. But because anytime a
Speaker 1: newscaster calls it the COVID relief bill, they're perpetuating an untruth. Well,
Speaker 1: it's all total pork. It's what it is, and it
Speaker 1: is just disgusting what they are doing to future generations.
Speaker 1: They're capping our children's economic opportunity because the taxes to
Speaker 1: pay off all of this debt are going to be
Speaker 1: so high on our kids and grandkids. Amen to that.
Speaker 1: You know, you made the point that you only need
Speaker 1: to get one Democrat senator to not vote for it
Speaker 1: and it doesn't pass. How does it work there in
Speaker 1: the Senate? Like do you personally go and talk to
Speaker 1: to Bernie who say Bernie, you shouldn't vote for this.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have the minimum wage stuff in anywhere, or
Speaker 1: Joe Manchin, who's you know, who's uh leans more conservative?
Speaker 1: You have personal conversations with these people trying to convince them,
Speaker 1: or how does that work with your friendships? Sure, and
Speaker 1: we're going to have a string of amendments that we're
Speaker 1: going to offer that would reduce spending. And of course
Speaker 1: we're talking to them trying to get their support for
Speaker 1: these things, giving them the opportunity to be more fiscally
Speaker 1: prudent and responsible. Marsha Blackburn, U S Senator from the
Speaker 1: State of Tennessee is on the line. I want to
Speaker 1: make sure we have time for this because we'll keep
Speaker 1: banging the drama on the giant bailout bill. But it's
Speaker 1: been suggested that the NBA actually teamed up with the
Speaker 1: communist Chinese to ban players from discussing human rights abuses.
Speaker 1: But what do we know about this? What should you
Speaker 1: know about it? Well, we don't know a lot, and
Speaker 1: that's why I've sent another letter to Commissioner Silver saying, hey,
Speaker 1: we understand that you have come to an agreement and
Speaker 1: have a contract with China TV. By the way, China
Speaker 1: TV is primarily owned by the Chinese Communist Party, and
Speaker 1: China TV will censor anything that is not favorable to
Speaker 1: the Chinese Communist Party. So we're seeking to find out
Speaker 1: some of the details of that NBA agreement. Have they
Speaker 1: agreed to certain speech or not, because the Chinese have
Speaker 1: a series of very egregious human rights violations. Look at
Speaker 1: what they're doing to the Hong Kong freedom fighters, the Tibetans,
Speaker 1: the Taiwanese, the genocide they're carrying out against the Wagers,
Speaker 1: which is the minority Muslim population. How they're using these
Speaker 1: people as slave labor to make products there in Xinjiang
Speaker 1: Province where the NBA has their practice facilities, and this product,
Speaker 1: NBA licensed product is sold through Nike and different sports companies.
Speaker 1: So yeah, we want to know what have they agreed
Speaker 1: to say and how are they tolerating this genocide that's
Speaker 1: being carried out against the weakers. We also want to
Speaker 1: know the financial impact to the NBA. A couple of
Speaker 1: years ago, we found out that broadcasting their basketball games
Speaker 1: in China was worth about three billion dollars to the NBA.
Speaker 1: So since they've constructed this agreement, we want to know
Speaker 1: what the details are. We also would like to know
Speaker 1: what the participation of Michael ma is in all of this.
Speaker 1: Now his dad, Jack law is who is one of
Speaker 1: the owners of China TV along with the Chinese Communist Party.
Speaker 1: So we would like to have some of these details
Speaker 1: of what the NBA is doing with China TV and
Speaker 1: the Chinese Communist Party. That's really interesting. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: willing to give a pass to to all of us,
Speaker 1: really because Republicans and Democrats and administration after administration for
Speaker 1: what fifty years has has believed that if we even
Speaker 1: though we let China participate in the global economy and
Speaker 1: help them along, they'll will come around our side. We
Speaker 1: all realized that was a mistake. Are we entering an
Speaker 1: era now? Where are you? Big? US companies just aren't
Speaker 1: going to be able to do business with China. What
Speaker 1: we have to do is look at unraveling our relationship
Speaker 1: and being very thoughtful and then trusting and verifying, always
Speaker 1: verifying what you're hearing from China, whether you're producing a
Speaker 1: consumer good, uh manufacturing a semiconductor chip, are looking at
Speaker 1: any type of participation. Most businesses in China are owned
Speaker 1: by the Chinese Communist Party. Most members of the Chinese Parliament,
Speaker 1: our leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, and by the way,
Speaker 1: the bulk of them, they're multi multi millionaires or billionaires.
Speaker 1: Senator Blackburn, I apologize for jumping in right there, but
Speaker 1: we're up against a hard break. U S. Senator Marsha
Speaker 1: Blackburn from Tennessee, A real pleasure to talk to you.
Speaker 1: A good stuff. We hope we can do it again.
Speaker 1: You got it, take care, bye bye now, thank you.
Speaker 1: You know, I wish we had just a little more
Speaker 1: time because I was going to put things in a
Speaker 1: rather difficult way for about decoupling with China. I appreciate,
Speaker 1: you know, the trusting and verifying, but can we be
Speaker 1: enriching a regime that is utterly, indefensibly evil. Well, I
Speaker 1: thought it was interesting the U. S. Senator saying we
Speaker 1: need to be in the process of detangling with China
Speaker 1: or decoupling with China. That's that's that's a major policy
Speaker 1: change by the United States of America. Are strong and
Speaker 1: getty