Face questions any moment now, we expect john kirby to join Karine Jeanpierre on the podium after a busy weekend on the international front. More on that in just a moment. Sandra the briefing comes amid renewed questions about President Bidens age and the 2024 election. Well see if The White House gets pressed on any of that. John welcome back as America Reports rolls into hour number two. Im john roberts in washington, off to a rolicking start this week. Sandra we will be monitoring that Press Briefing and will bring the news as it comes in, but first this fox news alert. John major powers testing the United States on The World State yet again, starting with saudi arabia after the oil rich kingdom announced more cuts and threatening another summer of high gas prices. Sandra China Making Waves in the taiwan strait, a Chinese Navy Ship cutting across the path of an american destroyer. John dont forget about russia, Vladimir Putin leaning on the back of the Chinese Communist party as he ramps up attacks on ukraine. Sandra all big issues the next Commander In Chief will have to handle day one. Vivek ramaswamy is here, and him on the record in just a moment. But Fox Team Coverage begins now. An update on chinas aggression. John first Americas Energy dependence put to the test, jeff flock in new jersey, how is this going to impact us here at home, jeff . As the tracks go by to the refinery, john, yes, pbf refinery, always the perfect time this. Is where they are bracing for what could be an increase in oil prices, certainly they were up this morning on the cme in chicago, up by about 3, down a little bit now from that high, but still higher and why is that . Well, thats because of the saudi Production Cut. Take a look at gas prices, what we mainly care about and of course as you know, gas prices have moderated lately. We are at 3. 55, the average gallon of regular in the u. S. Its been that way the last month, and thats a whole lot cheaper than it was this time last year. The problem with that is now with this Production Cut by saudi arabia coming at the opec meeting in vienna, when production goes down, prices often go up. The saudis decided to sort of fly in the face of all the other opec ministers, you know, they could not agree to collectively cut so what the saudis did is said we are going to cut on our own, a Million Barrels a day. That means within the last nine months we have cut 4. 6 Million Barrels a day out of production, and that usually means a Price Increase down the road. We talked to folks in the industry, they say a Price Increase is almost certain and thats just the way it goes when they squeeze like they are squeezing right now. Administration response, well, Biden Administration on background gave our White House Team this, says we are focused on prices for american consumers, not on barrels. And prices have come down significantly from last year. The problem as you both know when the price of the barrel goes up, its quite simply the price at the pump goes up. Not sure what they are thinking there. Back to you, john and sandra. John interesting relationship between the cost of the raw material and the finished product. I dont know that anybody ever really thought of it that way. Thanks, jeff. Apparently not at the administration level. John good to talk to you jeff as always, thank you. Sandra not rocket science. Chinas aggressive Military Tactics toward the u. S. Playing out near taiwan the past few days, as two incidents are raising concerns that beijing is attempting to push the u. S. Out of the western pacific. And pave the way for an easier takeover of taiwan. Eric shawn has more from the New York City newsroom. Today there is new ominous warnings about chinas escalating aggression. That chinese warship intercepted a Guided Missile Destroyer in the taiwan strait, it happened on saturday, crossing dangerously across the bow of our ship. This alarming maneuvering just days after this happened, you are looking at a chinese jet fighter crossing the path of a u. S. Surveillance plane. That caused our plane to shake from the chinese jets wake turbulence. All this comes as wisconsin congressman mike gallagher, chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist party says the brazen stunts are all part of chinas strategic efforts to challenge the american presence in the pacific. He says President Biden has to do a couple things, increase the military presence in the region, Ramp Up Arms Sales including antiship missiles, and cut ties so beijing feels the sting. They are not interested in being friends or interested in peace and stability. They are increasingly aggressive, revisionist power displacing us as the dominant power in the pacific and i believe globally. Gallaghers committee is looking at the Tiananmen Square massacre, 1989, troops opened fire and killed hundreds if not thousands of them. The committee will hold an event honoring those who were killed and some of the chinese activists who were veterans of the Tiananmen Square protest will be at the event this afternoon in washington. Beijing today, state Department Officials meeting with some chinese counterparts. State department saying this about that, the two sides exchanged views on the bilateral relationship across strait issues, channels of communication and other matters, made clear the United States would compete vigorously and stand up for u. S. Interests and values, despite that optimism and statement, chinese officials did rebuff u. S. Requests for lloyd austin to meet the Chinese Defense minister despite the brazen military maneuvers. Sandra thank you. John. John bring in republican president ial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy who is here in washington, d. C. So the newest demonstration of belligerent, as president , how would you deal with it . I think one of the great risks that we face is a consequence of our own policy, john. Divest to invest policy. I dont think that makes any sense. That puts us at our nader of naval capacity around 2026 or 2027, when china would be in prime position to go after taiwan. I think the number one threat we need to Pay Attention to, and also brewing as we speak, is closer ties between russia and china. The alliance, codified in 2001, amped up last year in the no limits partnership that xi jinping and Vladimir Putin announced. We need to focus on driving a wedge between that alliance, single greatest Military Threat we are going to face and what gives xi jinping the confidence that he needs to risk war with the u. S. Over taiwan on the bet that the u. S. Wont want to actually go after two different Nuclear Superpowers at the same time. Thats the focus of my foreign policy. Sandra with it being your goal then to make it into The White House and you look at what is happening with china and their aggression there, do you believe any u. S. Corporations should be doing business in china . How far are you willing to go . Im willing to go the direction of total decoupling. Ban most u. S. Businesses from doing business in china unless and until the ccp reforms behaviors. Talking about actual real measures, no data theft, no intellectual property theft, no Turning Companies to geopolitical pawns. Sandra serious economic consequences in the country. I think we can make those sacrifices if we know what we are sacrificing for. And also when you are most willing to make a sacrifice that you dont actually have to make one at all. I would call that more churchill, a little less chamberlain in the foreign policy. I think xi jinping will fold if we mean it, he will meet our conditions. And reopen Trade Relationships with japan, south korea, philippines, india, talk about thailand, talk about vietnam, brazil, i think that makes this a lot more tractable than we make it out to be. Its achievable, yes it will involve some willingness to make a sacrifice, but if we are willing to make it, i dont think xi jinping will go the distance of calling that bluff. John at the beginning you said you are concerned about the partnership and you need to drive a wedge through it. You said yesterday one of the ways you would try to drive a wedge through it is make some concessions to putin on ukraine. You brought up neville chamberlain, he tried to do it with hitler, it dont work very well. Why would it work better with putin . If we can disrupt the germanjapan alliance, we would have done that if we could. Reverse maneuver what nixon did with mao. He is not a paragon of democracy, i dont trust putin any more than nixon trusted mao, but putin is the new mao. Move from the bilateral International Order that favors china to an International Order. John talk about making concessions and letting putin have donbas. What makes you think he would stop there . Almost every Military Analyst says you give them donbas, give him time, regroups, rearms, and goes after the rest of the country. Carrot and the stick. Exit the treating with china back to 2001, no more joint Military Exercises or otherwise, and if he renegs, no ukraine admission to nato, and now we are talking about a maximum Pressure Campaign in terms of economic sanctions. Now immediate admission of ukraine to nato, and that will be worse off for him and putin has no incentive. Right now he does not like xi jinpings Little Brother in that relationship. So if we are actually reopening economic relations with russia, if we are committing that ukraine is never going to be part of nato and freeze lines of control, yes, those are major concessions but service of a bigger u. S. Interest and that is disrupting that partnership between russia and china. You combine them, you are talking about the Largest Nuclear stockpile in the world in russias hands, combined with chinas economy and economic might, that fuels xi jinpings ability to be aggressive in taiwan and beyond. Sandra at the top of the last hour got general kelloggs reaction to china and over the weekend, and this about the currents administration policies. They look at us and we dont have a plan and because we havent played had a plan or played hard with the chinese, the chance of something happening that is going to be really serious, look at taiwan, is very, very real into the near future. Sandra into the near future. What is your level of urgency on Something Like that becoming a re reality . The needs is high. Powers our modern way of life, makes it closer to the American National interest than anything that relates to ukraine at all. At least until we have full semiconductor selfsufficiency, its an urgent priority to deter aggression against taiwan. Taking out russias backing out from china, make xi jinping think twice before he goes after taiwan. But the taiwanese election in 2024, and frankly the u. S. President ial election in 2024, candidates like myself or others taking the positions we are, xi jinping may accelerate his policies sooner. John come back ashore and talk about big Tech Interference in politics. You claim that you are en interfered with, your linkedin account restricted, Bobby Kennedy said he could not create an account on instagram because of the antivaccine stance, is this big tech with thumb on the scales again . Beginnings of Tech Interference we are going to see in the election. And they have learned their lesson last time around. They are less transparent this time. So though i think linkedin was sloppy, and microsoft owns linkedin, locking the account of a u. S. President ial candidate for making fact supported statements of Climate Change policy. John and saying it was a mistake after they sent you multiple emails that said why you were restricted. A version of shadow banning, they are using algorithms to deamp or amp down what they dont want to see, and Election Interference is underdiscussed, the ability for the corporation to say make what is the largest version of inkind Campaign Contribution they could make to a political candidate, tilting the scales of debate itself into the direction they actually deem appropriate. So i think its time to look at all kinds of laws, look at antifraud laws, telling consumers that you are doing one thing, when in fact you are doing note. Election interference, constructive Campaign Contributions, and abuses of government authority. I want to know what instruction they are getting from The White House as they have censored over the last few years, the single greatest risk of Election Interference coming here at home. Sandra if you could hold with us for a moment, john kirby is taking questions on china and answering one right now. Prepared to address it. You heard Secretary Austin speak to that this weekend and we will continue to keep the lines open with the chinese to make it clear how unacceptable the interceptions are. I think you know we have two officials in beijing right now. Senior director for china, and dan, from the State Department are in beijing as we speak. Careful about the words you choose, but what is in describing this, what is the best way to describe what china is doing in the air and on the seas . Ill try to give you an answer, but i sure would like to hear beijing justify what they are doing. These are intercepts. Air intercepts happen all the time. But the difference is, when we feel we need to do it, its done professionally and done inside the International Law and done in accordance with the Rules Of The Road. These two that you saw recently, and theres they have happened with more frequency than we like, not all are unsafe and unprofessional but these two were. The air intercept, forced c135 to basically good through the jet wash, that you saw the bump in the cockpit, that shows you how close the chinese fighter was to our jet. And in the Maritime Intercept in the taiwan straits, 140, 150 yards. Speaking as an old sailor myself, thats close when you are in open waters like that and you can see the head of steam that chinese vessel had on as it crossed the bow of one of our destroyers. No call for that. Unsafe and unprofessional. As to why they are doing it, again, i think thats a great question to ask them. What i would tell you from our perspective is we are flying, we are sailing, we are operating in International Air space and International Waters and both of those incidents were in complete compliance with International Law. Absolutely no need for the pla to act as aggressively as they did. It wont be long before somebody gets hurt. Thats the concern with these unsafe and unprofessional intercepts. They can lead to misunderstandings and when you have pieces of metal that size, when its in the air or the sea and they are operating that close together, it wouldnt take much for an error in judgment or mistake to get made and somebody could get hurt and thats just got to be unacceptable. It should be to them as well. John, you said this, these two incidents are part of a pattern of increasing level of aggressiveness. Why was it appropriate to send two senior officials to visit china on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. First of all, it was not timed to the anniversary of Tiananmen Square. Number two, it was not timed specifically to deal with these intercepts. You can imagine a trip to beijing by u. S. Officials takes some time to plan, it was not timed to these events. That said, both these u. S. Officials used the opportunity to raise our concern over these two intercepts i just talked to ed about. Absolutely raised concerns we had. We had raised those concerns through our embassy as well, it was not a new message. But particularly when times are tense, a risk of miscalculation, and acting as aggressively as it is, thats the time you want a conversation, whether it