back, and we are not looking backward. we are looking forward together. maria: and together we watched bad policy create bad outcomes. record high inflation, record crimes, record low approval for president biden. how much more damage can they do? coming up, wyoming senator john brass e sew on what gets done during the countdown to year end. plus, our adversaries on the move. tens of thousands of russian troops at the ukraine border right now, a record number of chinese military gents entering taiwan s air defense zone. coming up, former secretary of state mike mike pompei on why the u.s. mike pompeo on why the u.s. adversaries are getting aggressive right now. and why is china pushing fentanyl onto to american shores after 700,000 have already died from covid-19? the realities of the wide open southern border with enough
back, and we are not looking backward. we are looking forward together. maria: and together we watched bad policy create bad outcomes. record high inflation, record crimes, record low approval for president biden. how much more damage can they do? coming up, wyoming senator john brass e sew on what gets done during the countdown to year end. plus, our adversaries on the move. tens of thousands of russian troops at the ukraine border right now, a record number of chinese military gents entering taiwan s air defense zone. coming up, former secretary of state mike mike pompei on why the u.s. mike pompeo on why the u.s. adversaries are getting aggressive right now. and why is china pushing fentanyl onto to american shores after 700,000 have already died from covid-19? the realities of the wide open southern border with enough
fly our planes in force through china s air defense zone. it s international air face but it sends air space but it sends a message. we have the operations on the surface of the sea, the u.s. navy and coast guard participate in those. we should be doing those, instead of single destroyers, they should very well be fleets going through the taiwan strait. china will back off if they believe that the united states will use force. now, this is exceedingly dangerous but some really bad taiwan policy of the last three decades has put us into a position where there are no safe options. benjamin: now, defense secretary austin has said that the u.s. doesn t fear competition as china advances hypersonic weapons. take a listen. america isn t a country that fears competition. and we re going to meet this one with confidence and resolve. and not panic and pessimism.
yeah, well, i think that s part of it, as i suggested. but putin does have strategic objectives, and that is the, as i mentioned, he wants the foreman soviet union statements under his sphere of influence as much as he can with the non-aligned states who are not part of nato. he was very frustrated that most of these state thes when the soviet union collapsed became a part of nato. that s why he put his troops in georgia. he doesn t want ukraine anywhere near nato or even having economic integration with the european you on. so he has strategic objections that are real, but he s always got his domestic audience in his rearview mirror to make sure he s calculating what their reaction s going to be. eric: and, general, finally on the other side of world, china. there s incursions in the taiwan air defense zone, there s hypersonic missile, the real
growing tensions between china and taiwan. beijing sends two dozen war planes into the taiwan air defense zone . thanks for joining us. the world health organization is taking stock of the covid-19 omicron variant and says the over all risk is very high. as the world races to understand and contain the new form of covid-19. u.s. president biden is set to speak later today about what the u.s. knows about the variant. remarks come as u.s. travel restrictions take effect on south africa where the variant was first detected and several neighboring countries. medical experts say if it isn t already in the u.s., it probably