Sen. Blackburn Urging US to Maintain Tariffs on China

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., on Sunday said the United States should keep tariffs on China right where they are.

In an interview on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures," Blackburn pushed back on the Biden administration's consideration of lifting some tariffs that were put in place by former President Donald Trump.

"You have to keep the tariffs in place," Blackburn argued. "I was visiting with a Tennessee wire manufacturer this week; I said, 'Hey, did the tariffs help or hurt?' They said, 'Marsha, it keeps China from dumping into the U.S. You have to keep those.'"

She also warned that "China getting a million barrels of our strategic petroleum reserve… is dangerous. It's a national security issue."

"It would lead you to believe Hunter Biden is out here negotiating these deals because Unitech is tied to a company that Hunter is doing some business with," she claimed. "This is wrong, and people are fed up with this. It is a China-first policy, not an America-first policy. It has got to end."

Blackburn also called China's celebration of the death of former Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe part of "malign influence campaign" because he was "anti-China dominance" and helped to support Japan-Taiwan relations.

"He was a stabilizing force in the region. He was pro-U.S., pro-Taiwan," she said of Abe. "He was anti-China dominance. He was very helpful with the North Korean aggression. And he did so much to do Japan-Taiwan relations, economic normalization."

According to Blackburn, "we know that the Chinese Communist Party is intent on this malign influence campaign that they are carrying out against elected officials."

"Last fall we were informed that they were carrying out one against me. The FBI is following these, [Department of Justice] should be paying more attention to these, but you see what they were doing against Abe and against the Japanese government and the Abe policies — the economic policy, his opposition to China. So this is a form of their, as they call it, soft propaganda. They are seeking to influence not only the Japanese people, but the U.S. people. They are seeking to break down not only the Japanese institutions, but U.S. institutions."

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