Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio News. Joining us now with
Speaker 1: her reaction live from Capitol Hill. An important voice when
Speaker 1: it comes to geopolitics. Democratic Senator Jean Shaheen of New
Speaker 1: Hampshire is with us, the ranking member on the Senate
Speaker 1: Foreign Relations Committee, also a member of the Senate Armed
Speaker 1: Services Committee and Senator. It's great to see you. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to Bloomberg TV and Radio. I hope the year
Speaker 1: is starting out well for you with regard to what
Speaker 1: the President is talking about here, what Marco Ruby was
Speaker 1: talking about. I know that you received a very important
Speaker 1: classified briefing earlier today from members of the administration. Were
Speaker 1: you satisfied with what you heard as a basis to
Speaker 1: justify these actions?
Speaker 2: Well, as your reporter pointed out, there's still a lot
Speaker 2: of unanswered questions. And as I understand, our ability to
Speaker 2: control that Venezuelan oil depends a lot on the embargo
Speaker 2: and having our ships in the waters off the Venezuelan coast,
Speaker 2: our effort to see ships. Well, I certainly think whatever
Speaker 2: we can do to shut down the shadow fleet that's
Speaker 2: allowing oil to continue to fuel Russian China and their
Speaker 2: efforts is important. It does put at greater risk our
Speaker 2: men and women in the military. We now have fifteen
Speaker 2: thousand service members in the Caribbean area of operation, and
Speaker 2: it's not clear how long they're going to be there,
Speaker 2: how long the symbargo is going to continue of Venezuela,
Speaker 2: and ultimately how we're going to see a transition to
Speaker 2: a democratic government there.
Speaker 3: Well. The US Energy Secretary of Christopher Right earlier today
Speaker 3: at an energy conference put a little bit more of
Speaker 3: a finer point on what you're talking about when it
Speaker 3: comes to this leverage and using the oil and bargo.
Speaker 3: Take a listen to what he had to say earlier today.
Speaker 4: If we control the flow of oil, the sales of
Speaker 4: those oil, and the flow of the cast that comes
Speaker 4: from those sales, we have large leverage. We need to
Speaker 4: have that leverage and that control of those oil sales
Speaker 4: to drive the changes that simply must happen in Venezuela.
Speaker 3: There's been talk and reporting that the sale of Venezuelan
Speaker 3: oil could go on indefinitely. That's the word that we
Speaker 3: keep hearing being used. Our lawmakers prepare to monitor that revenue.
Speaker 3: Had there been any sorts of conversations on Capitol Hill
Speaker 3: about what that would look like in practice.
Speaker 2: No real specifics on that, and again the challenge there is,
Speaker 2: we can only continue to control the oil that's coming
Speaker 2: and going from Venezuela if we have twenty percent of
Speaker 2: our fleet off the coast of Venezuela, if we are
Speaker 2: able to interdict those ships that are coming and going
Speaker 2: that are part of the shadow fleet that we want
Speaker 2: to stop, and that's going to cost a lot of money.
Speaker 2: It's going to put service members continue to mean service
Speaker 2: members are going to stay in that Caribbean are operation,
Speaker 2: and it means that the focus is going to be
Speaker 2: on that as opposed to on healthcare. The millions of
Speaker 2: people in this country who are losing their health insurance
Speaker 2: because those prices premiums are going up with the expiration
Speaker 2: of the tax credits. It means that the affordability of
Speaker 2: the cost of living that people are facing is not
Speaker 2: being addressed. And that's what I'm hearing from my constituents
Speaker 2: as a concern.
Speaker 1: Well, Senator, there's another matter that I know you were
Speaker 1: briefed on earlier this week, and that's the matter involving
Speaker 1: Greenland and the President's designs on taking it over as
Speaker 1: he suggests Stephen Miller the president's advisor has been saying
Speaker 1: that it is our right, it is our rightful place
Speaker 1: to occupy Greenland, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, from
Speaker 1: what we understand and his briefing with your Committee with
Speaker 1: Armed Services, said that President Trump plans to buy Greenland.
Speaker 1: Is that how this ends?
Speaker 2: Well, I think that's a crazy idea. Greenland is an
Speaker 2: important place, and the fact is our ally Denmark has
Speaker 2: Greenland as a protectorate of Denmark, and Denmark has been
Speaker 2: very clear that they're willing to partner with us on
Speaker 2: anything we want to do in that area. So the
Speaker 2: fact that the President and his advisors would be talking
Speaker 2: about undermining the Transatlantic Alliance NATO over his notion that
Speaker 2: Greenland needs to be part of the United States makes
Speaker 2: no sense at all. It's a crazy notion and it
Speaker 2: needs to be stopped. Now.
Speaker 1: You're going to be meeting with the Danish ambassador tomorrow, Senator,
Speaker 1: what will be your message.
Speaker 2: It will be a bipartisan meeting, and I think we
Speaker 2: are going to try and reassure the Danish ambassador that
Speaker 2: we think this is a crazy notion, that it doesn't
Speaker 2: make any sense, and that we are very appreciative of
Speaker 2: the work that we have done with our allied Denmark.
Speaker 2: It's been one of historically one of our strongest allies.
Speaker 2: It's been a strong member of NATO, and it makes
Speaker 2: no sense for the President to alienate our ally Denmark,
Speaker 2: as well as other allies in Europe, undermine NATO, the
Speaker 2: strongest security agreement in history, because he wants to be
Speaker 2: a strong man and thump his chest and talk about
Speaker 2: how he's going to take control of Greenland.
Speaker 3: Are there any active discussions about what a US Denmark
Speaker 3: bolstered alliance would look like. Are there talks about economic
Speaker 3: cooperation deals, critical minerals, maybe the US moving more forces
Speaker 3: into the region in order to avoid the escalation that's
Speaker 3: been put on the table.
Speaker 2: Well, the Danish Prime Minister has suggested that Denmark is
Speaker 2: willing to work with the United States and Greenland are
Speaker 2: willing to work with the United States in a variety
Speaker 2: of areas that we may be interested in partnering with.
Speaker 2: So I think yes, there is a willingness to do that,
Speaker 2: and what we've heard, we haven't heard anything from the
Speaker 2: White House in terms of their willingness to talk to
Speaker 2: our partner Denmark about how to move forward in a
Speaker 2: way that works cooperatively instead of trying to take over Greenland.
Speaker 1: Senator, we'd be remiss if we didn't ask you about
Speaker 1: a domestic policy for a moment, because there's an important
Speaker 1: vote in the House today on extending Obamacare subsidies. A
Speaker 1: floor vote following the procedural is set for tomorrow, and
Speaker 1: there are big questions about whether this is going anywhere
Speaker 1: in the United States Senate. The President said something pretty
Speaker 1: interesting here asking Republicans yesterday for flexibility around Hyde, and
Speaker 1: I'm wondering what you're hearing from your Republican colleagues if
Speaker 1: a deal might be at hand.
Speaker 2: Well. I think the President's comments on Hyde were helpful.
Speaker 2: What I hope is that the House is going to
Speaker 2: give a strong vote on those extension of the premium
Speaker 2: tax credits that will send the bill over to the Senate.
Speaker 2: A group, a bipartisan group, has been working on trying
Speaker 2: to come up with a compromise on addressing the extension
Speaker 2: of the premium tax credits. I think we've made a
Speaker 2: lot of progress. Hopefully we'll get that House bill and
Speaker 2: have a vehicle that we can then pass out of
Speaker 2: the Senate and send it back to the House. And
Speaker 2: I hope the President will finally get engaged on this
Speaker 2: issue in a way that will allow us to make
Speaker 2: progress and get this done, because we have thousands of
Speaker 2: people in my home state of New Hampshire that are
Speaker 2: going to lose their health insurance, that are already seeing
Speaker 2: their premium spike in a way that they can't afford,
Speaker 2: millions of people across the country.
Speaker 3: All right, Democratic Senator Jean Shaheen of New Hampshire, thank
Speaker 3: you so much for joining us.