Sen. Pete Ricketts Talks Greenland, Inauguration, & More

Sen. Pete Ricketts Talks Greenland, Inauguration, & More

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's go ahead and start with the start of a
new congressional session. What's that like. I know that there
are many people who've spent decades in the Senate and
it's a little bit different probably every time that you
bring in every couple of years some fresh faces into
the chamber. But what's that like as somebody who's returning
to kind of get things started with some new faces

(00:21):
that are involved in trying to learn about not just
how things operate, but also trying to get some stuff done.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Well, that's going to be the exciting part about this
year is with the White House going to be in
Trump's hands starting January twentieth, and both the House and
the Senate and Republican hands starting on last Friday, we've
got the opportunity to a rare window and time to
get some work done here to try and do the
damage of the last fight administration and all the horrible

(00:48):
things they did in this country and really get this
country back on track. So we've got a little bit
of period of time here. We're going to work to
get the border secure, go off to the drug cartels,
keep American safe, unleashed American energy, start bringing prices down
for consumers. We've got to extend the Trump tax cuts
so that everybody doesn't see like a four trillion dollars
tax increase. And then of course we've got to get

(01:10):
Trump's cabinet nominees approved and through the Senate as well
so they can get to work at the agency. So
we've got a lot of work to do here in
a very short period of time.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Yeah, So in the two weeks here between, you know,
everybody kind of settling in after they're sworn in and
that inauguration, What exactly kind of foundational work are you
guys working to do that you can do before the
president actually takes office.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Well, some of it's administrative, like getting our committee set
up so we can actually do the hearings for Trump's
cabinet nominees and that sort of thing. But for example,
we're introducing to the legislation already like the Lincoln Riley Act.
This is the act that require ICE to deport illegal
immigrants through criminals. Right. Remember, Lincoln Riley was murdered by
joseah Bara. He was a venezuela that came across the

(01:53):
border illegally. Biden led him in. He went to New York.
He was allowed to, you know, roame the country freely,
and there he was arrested for child endangerment and was
just let go because of New York's sanctuary city policy,
so he didn't get supported. Then went down to Georgia
again actually for a misdemeanor on chocoliping or something like that,

(02:13):
and was still not deported, and then commanded the heinous
crime of killing Lincoln Ryland, a young nursing student at
the University of Georgia. So we want to prevent this
kind of tragedy from happening in the future with the
Lake and Riley Act, to tell if you've got to
de court people. And so this is something I think
should have broad support. I'm Americans. I can tell you

(02:34):
it should have broad support here in DC. We'll see
what the Democrats decide to do with it, but this
is really one of the ways that we can help
protect America. So we're working on stuff this week to
start voting on it. And then of course we've got
another thing other things to do with regard to, like
I said, helping get Trump Staminie through. I met with
one of them today as well, so getting we're getting

(02:57):
that whole process.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Rolling Senator Pete Ricketts on the phone lines here into
the Lake and Riley Act. I saw forty eight Democrats
of the House supported it, so it passed with flying colors.
It would be interesting. We saw John Fetterman, a Democrat
from Pennsylvania, who said, if we can't get seven Democrats
to join on and get this thing pushed through with
over sixty votes, then we know why the Democrats are losing.

(03:21):
So it's interesting to hear a Democrat talk like that
when this He talks about this being something that's common sense.
Why would anybody oppose this? I think that's pretty powerful stuff.
And the exact thing that you're talking about speaking of
something that seems to be pretty common sense. I know
that you and Senator Tommy Tuberville from Alabama together introduced
to something yesterday to help protect girls who are trying

(03:41):
to be student athletes. Can you explain kind of what
this bill looks like?

Speaker 2 (03:45):
I got it's shocking in this world that we have
to introduce this, But it's basically a bill. It says
men can't participate in women's sports. This should be fairly
straightforward in common sense, and yet here we have to
have legislation because of the world policies is a Biden
Harris administration and the far left who are trying to
push this again no other word but woke agenda of

(04:07):
allowing men to participate in women's sports, that they would
then go go into women's bathrooms, that sort of thing.
Really trying to protect women. You know, the title nine
has come a long way in the old fifty years
to be able to give women and an opportunity, to
be able to participate in sports, to be able to
get scholarships established, careers been an important thing. And this

(04:31):
whole policy allow men to participate in wins sports is
underlining all of that, and it just doesn't make any sense.
And so that's what coach Tuberville is introducing a bill
that I'm a co sponsor of to be able to
help protect that night. I think Kathleen was going to
try and do the same thing in the legislature in
Nebraska as well. I mean to me, it seems pretty
common sense, and frankly it's common sense to know vast

(04:55):
majority of Americans as well.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
Consider I want to jump to the nomination process, like
you mentioned that Senate has to confirm what Donald Trump
wants to do. For his cabinet. Do you anticipate I
know a lot of eyeballs are on Pete Haigsith and
is he going to have the proper support for a
variety of issues. There are some people that have been
brought up as their question marks about their experience or

(05:18):
whether or not that they're the right person for certain jobs.
Is there anyone that you think is going to have
trouble getting confirmed? Is there any hurdles that you think
are unforeseen in that regard?

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Well, every nominee is going to go through a process,
and I think that's one of the important things that
people who you need to allow have happened, is there's
going to be a process. For example, I had a
chance to sit down with Piece Except and we had
a chance to talk about a lot of this stuff
and of what he wants to do in the Department
of the sense I think you've got a lot of
the right ideas. Now he'll go on and have a
publication hearing, and that's part of the whole way we've

(05:53):
met these nominees. So I don't want to get out
ahead of that process because it's an important process that
needs to play out. And you know when people are
talking about experience or whatever. I think one of the
things we've got to keep in mind is, first of all,
President Trump's a disruptor, and that's why the American people elected. Remember,
he got the popular vote as well as like Trunk
Colline vote. People wanted somebody to go in and shake

(06:15):
up Washington, DC. And you see a lot of the
people that he's appointing are disruptors as well. So of
course the establishment's going to hate these people. And you know,
you talk about, well, have you had the experience running
a large organization. I got to say, We've put people
like Force, our generals in charge of the Defense Department,
and we didn't get necessarily very good results of that.
So I don't know what we're hold on to From

(06:36):
that standpoint. Trump's going to appoint disruptors. He's going to
be successful with these folks. I think that we have
to let the president to you know, work through this
process and his nominees to work through this process and
see where it leads.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
We're talking to Senator Pete Rigus on the phone line.
You mentioned President ELEC. Donald Trump is a disruptor, and
he loves to disrupt, not just in you know, create
like who he's a pointing to these positions, but also
in some of the things that he just says. And
I'm sure you're fully aware of some of the stuff
that he was talking about at his press conference in
mar A Lago yesterday, and I just wanted to touch

(07:11):
base with you on, you know, kind of your thoughts
on some of it. He's talking about renaming the Gulf
of Mexico the Gulf of America, talking about trying to
take back control of the Panama Canal, trying to get
control of Greenland from Denmark because of national security, and
then of course all this Canada stuff while they're in
political turmoil north of the border. A lot of people
who are Trump opponents say, this is the kind of

(07:33):
chaotic stuff in that you can expect from this guy.
And this in so much for not trying to create,
you know, wars or trying to create these issues with
other countries. So I'm just kind of curious, how does
somebody who's in Washington, DC, who knows how this kind
of game works a little bit, what's your reaction to
hearing some of the stuff that was being said by

(07:54):
Donald Trump at his presser yesterday.

Speaker 2 (07:56):
The mainstream media is totally missing the bigger point of
what the President is trying to get at. He talks,
for example, about Greenland or the Panama Canal, what he
is thinking about is long term, how do we protect
our country in the Western hemisphere. For example, we know
that Russia and now basically China is trying to play
in the Arctic, and that's putting us at risk from

(08:18):
places like Greenland. Russian's coming across through Greenland in that area,
So we need to be thinking about how do we
protect ourselves. And so he's thinking long term about making
sure that we're secure here in this country. And the
same thing for the Panama Canal. You know, a Chinese
company both owns two parts, want to each kinde of that,

(08:38):
and if there's a future conflict with China, you don't
think that they're not going to try and shut that
thing down on absolutely. So the President is trying to
think about how do we protect ourselves here in the
Western hemisphere. So this is frankly just an extension of
the Roe Docs on which is over two hundred years old.
So this is nothing new that we should be thinking
about how we protect ourselves as the United States, And

(08:59):
that's what the president supposed to be doing. And when
you talk about Canada, let me tell you Canada has
been free riding on trade with US for a long time,
trying USMCA, and they're still not letting our Nebraska dairy
products into Canada, right, So we have some war to
do on that. And frankly, they're also not pulling their
weight when it comes to defense spending, which we just
talked about, is going to be important with the threshold

(09:20):
faces from Russia and the People's Republic of China. I
think Canada spent one point three percent of their GDP
last year. They agreed in two thousand and six to
spend two percent. They haven't done it yet, so they
need to step up their game to be able to
help defend this hemisphere. And so I think the president
is thinking about how do we make sure we're safe

(09:40):
here in our country And that's the kind of long
term thinking you want to see out of a president.

Speaker 1 (09:46):
Last thing for you, Senator, With that all being said,
he's going to get inaugurated in twelve days and that
is going to with that have sweeping implications with what
he's going to attempt to do on day one, and
then his first full day in the first few weeks,
while he tries to prioritize things, I know it's the

(10:06):
executive branch belongs to him and the people that are
in the cabinet that you guys are going to move on.
But he's going to need Congressional help on a lot
of the things that he's hoping to accomplish early in
his presidency. What do you think are two or three
of the most important priorities that he is going to
want everyone in America to know is being fixed or
resolved early on in his presidency.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
The first two things that are going to be very
secure in the border. Everybody is unhappy about what the
Biden administration did, even the New York Times. This is
the biggest period of immigration we've had since the early
nineteen hundreds, and it's not legal immigration. Right There are
people coming across the border illegally, and again we see
that the bad effects of that and things like the
murder of Lake and Riley. So we've got to secure
the border. Second thing is every knows thetician has been

(10:51):
a problem. Prices broadly and or Biden were up over
twenty percent, and nobody likes one of the grocery store
anymore because it doesn't feel to spend them during your groceries.
So this is not something that anybody should be surprised,
but the President wants to bring prices down, specifically starting
with energy. Start unleasing our American energy in this country. Well,
not only bring down the ps at the pump, but

(11:14):
get all the impacts and does to transporting because we
need into our grocery stores, for example, or the inputs
on our farms that grow the food that we eventually
buy in the grocery store. So those unleasing our energy
potential and getting the border secured to me two big things.
And then of course we're to be working on increasing
our national defense to be able to keep us safe.
And then of course, finally I talked about the Trump

(11:36):
tax cuts. That's a big tax increase that's hanging out there.
We've got to make those permanent. We've got to make
sure American families are not bearing the brunt of the
tax increase, and that will be a big thing, I think.
So I think you look at those four things and
those are the top priorities for the Trump administration, and.

Speaker 1 (11:53):
We will see and we will let people know as
that gets accomplished in the first days and weeks of
the Trump presidency and to interpet Rickets, we really appreciate
the time. As always, thanks for all the great work
and we'll chat with you again, I'm sure very soon.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
All right, great, well, thanks Avery, I appreciate you. Have
a good one