if it does go forward. take a listen. it could be a significant distraction if we ended up in an escalatory situation around taiwan and its status but i have confidence that the speaker will do the right thing at this moment. i do think it risks escalating tensions with china. chinese communist party officials don t want speaker pelosi in taiwan. late yesterday they fired another shot at her team saying they re prepared to meet the challenge militarily. listen. the chinese will take firm and strong measures to safeguard our sovereignty and territory integrity. the u.s. must assume full responsibility for any severe consequence arising from that. here in washington the leak of her planned trip is causing major headaches for the white house national security team. it only escalates tensions in a completely unnecessary
going to talk to xi tomorrow. try to get something out of that call. gillian, thank you. you bet. bret: let s bring in fox news senior political analyst brit hume. good evening, brit. good evening, bret. bret: your thoughts on this. it seems like it didn t have to be this sticky for this trip. brit: looks like we stumbled into a ripe mess here. first of all, there was some publicity, i guess, surrounding the trip. and the chinese decided to make an issue of it, which they have now done. now putting the u.s. in a position where if she goes we re worried that there will be an escalation of some kind as you heard some of those people say and if she doesn t go, it looks like we backed down the face of threat to china. person political figures go to these places like taiwan all the time. there is nothing unusual about it. there is nothing shouldn t be anything provocative about it and, yet, here we are. i can t believe that this is going to end up in escalation of tensions in
bret? bret: china is now warning of military reaction if house speaker nancy pelosi goes through with a planned visit to taiwan ples feeling pressure from people who feels she needs to go and system saying she should not go. here is correspondent gillian turner. there is no change of policy in terms of did american government officials traveling to taiwan. the white house national security team insist they have no say in whether or not speaker pelosi visits taiwan. outside the white house though cabinet officials are all but begging her not to go. i remain concerned. you have heard me say this before. about the aggressiveness of the prcand the kinds of things we he been seeing in the region lately. and so i think we have to be lidge lent. chinese communist party officials definitely don t want speaker pelosi in taiwan. they be now threatening a military response. if the u.s. side insists on making the visit and challenges
china s red line, it will be met with resolute counter measures. the rhetoric coming out of the chinese side here on a trip that hasn t been decided or announced sun helpful and unnecessary. now some of pelosi s own senate colleagues say the trip just isn t worth it. it could be a significant distraction if we ended up in an escalatory situation around taiwan and its status. i do think it risks escalating tensions with china. the timing is sensitive. president xi is about to seek an unprecedented third term in communist party meetings next month. it appears pelosi is undeterred and has asked at least one republican to join her. mccaul was invited but cannot because of prior commitment. he believes any other official should be able to visit taiwan if they would like to. pelosi herself is staying mum, she told us earlier today, quote: i never talk about my travel. it s a danger to me. sources tell us tonight though this trip is one of the primary reasons, bret, why biden is