Cornhusker State News

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, joined Your World with Neil Cavuto on Fox News yesterday to discuss artificial intelligence and the importance of boosting domestic munitions production.

At an Armed Services Committee hearing yesterday, Senator Fischer questioned President Biden’s nominee to serve as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. Air Force General Charles Q. Brown, Jr., about America’s munitions supply and the need to expand domestic munitions production.

Click the image above to watch video of Sen. Fischer’s interview

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Following is a partial transcript of Senator Fischer’s interview:

On Artificial Intelligence:

Neil Cavuto: What do you think of this, Senator — the back-and-forth as to artificial intelligence? Some people are thinking there's got to be a pause, including some of the biggest boosters of it. China isn't pausing. So, what do we do?
Senator Fischer: You know, Neil, what we were looking at today and listening to from our defense and intelligence people were really the threats that we face to our national security. Now, we have to understand what our adversaries, what kind of capabilities they're exploring that are a threat to our homeland. And then, we also have to be able to figure out how are we going to defend against those. So, to get the basic knowledge there — to be able to listen, learn from the experts, from our defense, as I said, and our intelligence communities. I think that gives us a really good basis to be able to move forward on this.

On Ukraine:

Neil Cavuto: Well, you know, Senator, seeing as you sit on the Armed Services Committee — very influential in foreign policy matters — I wonder what you make of the president's decision right now to hold off on pushing NATO membership for Ukraine, the gist of it, because we're in the middle of a war, and now is not the time to be doing that? How do you feel about that?

Senator Fischer: We are in the middle of a war. We're providing munitions, which is a whole 'nother issue that I have a deep interest in and deep concerns about. But we're helping Ukraine with their war. Now is not the time to offer them membership in NATO. When we see a conclusion to these hostilities, when Russia withdraws from the sovereign land of Ukraine, that's the time then to talk about admission into NATO.

On Munitions:

Neil Cavuto: What about some of these more dangerous weapons, these cluster munitions and the type that the president could be considering? Others say that actually goes too far. What are your thoughts?

Senator Fischer: The Russians have been using the cluster bombs since the beginning of this conflict. The Ukrainians also have used cluster bombs as well. That's one thing that we can send them. But, Neil, we have to look deeper into our own production capacity of munitions. We have been sending over a lot of things to help the Ukrainians help themselves in conducting their defense against the Russians. We don't want to lose our capacity to defend our country. We want to make sure we have production lines up and running, that we are able to have a budget that recognizes the needs that we have for our own country, for our own security. We had a hearing this morning with General Brown, who is nominated for Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. I brought up those concerns to him, and that's something I'm going to continue to focus on. One thing we have seen with Ukraine is, you can really move through a lot of munitions in a short period of time. And we don't want to be caught flat-footed here. We need to make sure our production lines are up and running. 

Original source can be found here