The Daily Signal - China Must Be Held Accountable for COVID-19 Pandemic, Arkansas Attorney General Says

Episode Date: June 23, 2020

Eighteen state attorneys general have signed onto a letter requesting that Congress investigate China’s role in the coronavirus pandemic. One of the signatories of the letter, Leslie Rutledge, the��attorney general of Arkansas, joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss why and how China should be held accountable. She also discusses the Supreme Court's decision last week on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, and more.  We also cover these stories: Controversy continues over widespread distribution of mail-in ballots for the November election.  A statue of Theodore Roosevelt is being removed from a New York museum.  The creator of The New York Times’ controversial “1619 Project” tweeted “It would be an honor” for the recent violent riots and destruction of historic statues to be termed the “1619 riots.”  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Tuesday, June 23rd. I'm Virginia Allen. And I'm Rachel Dutuz. Leslie Rutledge is the Attorney General of Arkansas. She joins me on the Daily Signal podcast, discuss a letter she signed onto with 17 other Republican attorneys general to Congress requesting an investigation into China and the coronavirus and much more. Don't forget, if you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure to leave a review or a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and encourage you. others to subscribe. Now under our top news. Controversy over widespread distribution of mail-in ballots for the November election continues. On Monday, President Trump tweeted, because of mail-in ballots,

2020 will be the most rigged election in our nation's history, unless this stupidity is ended. We voted during World War I and World War II with no problem, but now they are using COVID in order to cheat by using mail-ins. States across America are expanding their ability to vote by mail in November due to concerns that visiting the polls might be dangerous in the case of a resurgence of COVID-19 during flu season. Attorney General William Barr joined Fox News Sunday morning futures over the weekend and expressed his concern over widespread mail-in voting. I'm also worried about undermining the public confidence in the United States.

integrity of the elections. The thing we have going for us, especially when there's intense division in the country, is that we have peaceful transfers of power, and our way of resolving it is to have an election. But when government, state governments, start adopting these practices like mail-in ballots that open the floodgates of potential fraud, then people's confidence in the outcome of the election is going to be undermined. And that could take the country to a very dark place if we lose confidence in the outcomes of our elections. A statue of Theodore Roosevelt is being removed from a New York museum. New York mayor Bill de Blasio said in his statement obtained by NPR that the American

Museum of Natural History has asked to remove the Theodore Roosevelt statue because it explicitly depicts black and indigenous people as subjugated and racially inferior. President Trump voiced his displeasure after the announcement that the statue would be removed, tweeting, ridiculous, don't do it. The creator of the New York Times 1619 project says it would be an honor for the recent violent riots and destruction of historic statues to be termed the 1619 riots. The latest riots in the wake of the killing of George Floyd have targeted statues, including sculptures of founding fathers Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. On Thursday night, rioters thought to be Antifa

activists set fire to a statue of George Washington in Portland, Oregon, and pulled it to the ground. Spray painted on the statue was the year 1619, which is the first year slave ships arrived in America and the name of the New York Times Project, which steaks to establish 1619 as the actual year of America's founding, instead of 1776. Charles Kessler, Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College, responded to the actual year of America's founding, instead of 1776. Charles Kessler, Professor of Government, responded to the recent destruction of the statues with an op-ed in the New York Post entitled Call them the 1619 Riots. Hannah Jones, the creator of the 1619 Project, tweeted that it would be an honor for the violent riots to be named after her work.

The tweet has since been deleted, and the New York Times did not respond to the Daily Signals' request for comment. Attorney General Bill Barr and now former Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Berman are at odds due to their perspective of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. The day before Attorney General William Barr abruptly announced plans to replace Jeffrey Berman as the Manhattan U.S. Attorney, supervisors in Mr. Barr's Justice Department asked Mr. Berman to sign a letter criticizing New York Mayor Bill de Blasio for the city's enforcement of social distancing rules to block religious gatherings but not recent street protests, people familiar with the matter said. The Wall Street Journal reported. Senate

minority leader Chuck Schumer is calling for an investigation into Berman's firing. As the Attorney General was not truthful when he initially represented that U.S. Attorney Berman was stepping down, this corrupt firing cannot be explained by cause and gives the impression that the president interfered in ongoing criminal investigations into himself and his associates. Schumer wrote Monday to Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Harrowitz and Office of Professional Responsibility Director Jeffrey Ragsdale, the Washington Examiner reported. To help restore confidence in and prevent further abuses to the administration of justice, the American people deserve to know the truth, he wrote. Now stay tuned for

my conversation with Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge on coronavirus, holding China accountable, the Supreme Court's DACA decision, and much more. We need standard bearers in Washington, D.C. I'm so proud to work at the Heritage Foundation, where our mission is to have to have a have sensible solutions to every issue that arises in this nation. The coronavirus is no exception. That's why the Heritage Foundation started the National Coronavirus Recovery Commission. The Commission's goal is to save lives, but also the livelihood of millions of Americans impacted by this virus.

To do this, the Commission has released several recommendations to help our nation's leaders navigate us through this crisis and move toward a recovery. Log on to www.com.com to track the commission's recommendations and to see what our recovery plan looks like. Again, that's www.com.com. I'm joined today on the Daily Signal podcast by Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge. Attorney General Rutledge, it's great to have you on the Daily Signal podcast. Well, thanks so much for having me on the Daily Signal podcast. What a pleasure. Well, it's great to have you with us. So you recently signed onto a letter with 17 other Republican

Attorney Generals asking Congress to hold an investigation into China on the coronavirus. Can you tell us a little bit about this letter? Sure, absolutely. You know, the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted every aspect of life with over 2.1 million deaths worldwide, 118,000 American deaths. With Arkansas unemployment rate now at 9.5%, our economy's been decimated. Arkansas is actually, though, faring better than the national average. The national average is 13.5%. So the reason why we sent this letter and the coalition of AG's did is to ask Congress

to investigate China and China's role in hoarding that personal protective equipment You know, it's time for Congress to act by investigating China's failed actions when they were aided by the World Health Organization, which, you know, essentially led us into this pandemic. Well, in the letter, you write that layers of deceit began last year with the censoring of Chinese health officials and the muslin of Taiwanese complaints. What are some of the complaints that you would like to highlight or just some of the grievances in the letter that you want to bring out for people to know? You know, again, this letter is to make certain that Congress acts on it and holds China accountable. Specifically late last year, China censored their health officials from alerting the world about this new and contagious disease and its ability for human, human transition. Instead, using Chinese media, they blamed the West xenophobia and cast doubt on the origin of the virus.

And this horrible disease could have and should have been stopped in Wuhan, China, rather than spreading across the world and causing such devastation, both in terms of lives lost, economies lost, and potentially crippling some economies across the world. Well, in the letter, and as you mentioned just now, you were talking about holding China accountable. How do you think China should be held accountable? Are there practical ways that even the other AGC as this is how justice can be served? Well, my good friend, Senator Tom Cotton from Arkansas, proposed legislation last month in May that would hold China accountable by allowing Americans to sue China in federal court to recover damages for death, injury, and financial harm as a result of the coronavirus. Two states, the states of Missouri and Mississippi, have already filed a suit against the Chinese government, the Chinese Communist Party. However, at this time, Arkansas is not making moves to take that action, but I think it is important to give Americans as a whole the opportunity to hold China accountable for this. How would you rate Congress's response to the letter?

Well, we know that Congress has a lot on their plate. However, we want to encourage them to take it seriously that when you have chief legal officers from this many states, asking Congress to take action. Congress must take action. When we are seeing day in, day out of this pandemic, as each state is addressing, again, lives lost, health impacted, the economies that are being touched by this, we must hold China accountable for their deceit. And one of the, I think, facts that we look at and why we believe that there is deceit is their hoarding of the PPNE. In the first two months of 2020. So it's January and February for those of you all who aren't looking at the same calendar I do. So January and February of this year, American companies sold China exponentially more

PPE. They sold again to China in January and February, $58.3 million worth of P&E to China. This isn't us buying masks here. This is American companies exporting this to China. China knew it had a problem that was getting out of control and it failed to warn the rest of the world and instead of something that could have been kept there in Wuhan, China. It was released out into the world. So many lives loss. So many families impacted, companies impacted, futures impacted. Well, switching gears here a little bit, last week the Supreme Court decided that it won't make dreamers be deported, kids who were brought to the U.S. illegally us. children. And backing up from that in 2017, you had joined a lawsuit asking the Obama administration

to halt the program. And so given your involvement with DACA, what is your perspective on what happened with the Supreme Court in DACA and then what should happen following their decision? Sure. So as you correctly stated, the Supreme Court held five to four that the rescission of the deferred action for childhood arrivals DACA violates what's called the Administrative Procedures Act. However, the court had a limited review to the contemporaneous explanation given by then Secretary Duke, which rested on the fact that DHS, Bartma Pumlin Security, believed DACA violated the Immigration and Naturalization Act. It largely rested on the fact that, or rather on the Fifth Circuit's reasoning, and concluding that the DAPA program was illegal, and that was for parents.

that was the adults. And so what I think that we have to look at now is as a country, as officials, we want these childhood arrivals who have come to the United States, perhaps with parents or adults. Quite honestly, we want them to become citizens. And we want them to be engaged and productive members of our community. And I think that's as we move forward with this decision in the background now, that we as states and state leaders must recognize.

recognize that this is what the court has determined and that we need to encourage these individuals and their family members to come out of the shadows and to make and to become Arkansas citizens to become American citizens because we want people to be good upstanding members of society. You know, America is the greatest melting pot. It's the greatest land of freedom and salvation that the world has ever known. And so we want people to come. here. But we really want them to come in the light of day and follow the proper protocols and rules in place and not come in the dead of night. And so to the those impacted by the DACA decision, I want them to know here in Arkansas and across the U.S. that we want you to become U.S.

citizens and we want to have incredible, amazing, hardworking people right here in the United States. Well, you came into office of serving as an attorney general. towards the end of the Obama administration. And during Obama's eight years, Republican Attorney General sued him 46 times. And I know that Democrat Attorney General also sued Trump at least 35 times. So I'm curious, given that you came in towards the end of the Obama administration, what is your perspective on how Attorney Generals are working together and the climate of the AGs during Trump versus Obama?

Well, I think the largest difference in President Obama's administration, versus President Trump's administration is the openness. President Obama ran a very tight ship. Attorneys general, Democrat, or Republican were not invited to the table at all. When President Trump took office within the first two months, so this was in February of 2017, of him taking office, the attorneys general from across the country, again, Republican and Democrat, were all invited to the White House to have a meeting with the president. and those sort of meetings have continued. I've had numerous opportunities to visit with the president, the vice president,

and sit on panel discussions with him, those roundtable meetings that the president holds. It is a much different approach. This president, President Trump listens, whereas President Obama and his administration was a very heavy-handed secret, we're not going to include states and local officials on issues. We know better for you than you know for you. and this is a much different approach that I have dealt with in the Trump administration. Well, looking more at news of the day, we've all seen the rioting and unrest that have come in the wake of George Floyd's death. We've seen calls to fund in this pan and police departments.

And as an attorney general and a leader, what do you think of how America has responded? And in light of that, how should America respond? The officer who killed George Floyd had absolutely no business being a law. enforcement officer. And that spark that ignited the civil unrest that we've seen across the country, we must listen to individuals with these concerns. But what we cannot do is allow violent, dangerous protests to occur. We will protect peaceful protests. That is a constitutional protection, and we will protect it all day long. However, we cannot have those who are inciting violence and destruction, hurting other innocent people, and particularly going after our peacekeepers. Our men and

women in blue, 99.9% of them across the country answered the call to serve others, to put their own lives on the line, to stand in that gap between good and evil. And so the idea that is being pushed and promoted that we should defund our police is tearing at the very seams of our democracy. because Americans, we must enjoy our freedoms, and we want to have our kids grow up in safe neighborhoods, but quite frankly, we can't do that if we have a lawless society. When you call 911 because you hear a, you see a strange car pulling into your neighbor's driveway

and someone's sneaking around the house, you want someone to show up. If you have someone approach your child at the park, that's a shaky character, so to speak, you want a law enforcement officer to come out there and talk to that person and ask them why they're talking to a 10-year-old girl at the park. However, if we defund our police, we won't have the resources needed to keep Americans safe and secure. We should be propping up our law enforcement officers. Likewise, if we have a bad law enforcement officer, we need to be able to fire that individual to where he or she should never be able to serve the public and have the ability to do the,

the sort of harm that this man did and taking the life of George Floyd. Well, you recently announced, in light of the tax law enforcement, I've seen that around $2 million would be allocated to your Department for Public Safety for Crime Victims' Reparations Program and to protect Arkansas families. Why is this so important? Well, I allocated that $2.1 million to the Department of Public Safety for specifically for crime victims because this allows families and victims who have been impacted by violent crimes to be reimbursed for some of the costs that they incurred. Perhaps it is actual funeral expenses.

One of the biggest resources, uses of those monies goes to what's called child advocacy centers. And child advocacy centers are critical for young people who have been physically abused, whether by being struck or being sexually abused by an adult. And these children go to a child advocacy center to be interviewed, to have rape tests done. So that way it is a safe environment designed specifically with counselors and social workers to give those children a safe haven to go to because they need to be around an adult who loves them. More so than ever with young kids who are out of school because of this pandemic, I think too many of these young people are at home with absolute monsters.

And they are not around their teachers and principals and school bus drivers who are what we call mandatory reporters. If they see something wrong, they are required by law to say something and report it to a child abuse hotline. Well, these littles are not around those people right now. And they're around adults who don't love them as they should. And quite frankly, they may be living day to day in a house of horrors. And so these funds are going to be available for those children. child advocacy centers, when those children do get back in school or an adult does notice that something's not quite right with that child and reports it to the hotline and we can get that

child out of those circumstances. Well, thank you for sharing that perspective and what you're doing there. Lastly, on a more personal note, you're a very busy woman. You obviously are the Attorney General of Arkansas. You have a young daughter, your wife or a mom. Can you share a little bit about how you balance all of the things that you're doing at once and how you just how you do everything that you do. Well, I am blessed to have an incredible team at the Attorney General's office and a very loving family. So yes, I do have it. My daughter will be two in July. My husband is a row crop farmer and the farms a couple of hours away.

My mother-law is 89 and lives with us. And so we are very busy, but I have an incredible team in the Attorney General's office. and I have a good exercise routine and I pray a lot. And so we just do the best that we can to take care of the people of Arkansas. But it all involves having, again, incredible people around me and supporting me, whether it's the team here at the Attorney General's office or my family and friends at home. And so we're just very blessed to be in this position and be able to serve for the people of Arkansas. Well, Attorney General, Leslie Rutledge, thank you so much for joining us today on the deal.

Daily Signal podcast. Well, thank you. You have a great day. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thanks for listening to The Daily Signal podcast. We do appreciate your patience as we record remotely during these weeks. Please be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or Spotify. And please leave us a review or rating on Apple Podcasts and give us your feedback. Stay healthy and we will be back with you all tomorrow. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. It is executive produced by Kate Trinko and Rachel Del Judas, sound design by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop. For more information, visitdailysignal.com.