Daines on Fox Business: “We Cannot Slow Down in the Race Against China”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Steve Daines today joined Stuart Varney on Fox Business to discuss the latest on diesel prices and race in AI against China. Watch the full exchange HERE . Daines on diesel fuel prices: We are farm and ranch country in Montana. We pride ourselves on that rich heritage. Look, the farmers and ranchers, they feel the pain at the pump. They feel pain right now with low wheat prices, barley prices, corn prices, soybean prices. But I tell you what, the farmers and ranchers, they’re not into politics. They’re pragmatic patriots. And they look at alternatives in terms of what’s on the ballot. They recognize what’s going on right now is a temporary disruption in supply and demand. Secretary Wright talked about the hit on that Saudi pipeline. The Russians have stopped any diesel exports at the moment and that creates more pressure, upwards pressure, on diesel prices. But let’s not forget the last administration brought into this crazy climate insanity. They wanted to ban combustion engines, they wanted to ban fossil fuels. Our farmers and ranchers know that the alternative to going backwards to the Biden years and that kind of ideology is dangerous for our country. They see that this is a short-term spike in prices, but they know that President Trump and Republicans want to continue to build out North American and American energy supply. That’s a sound strategy for the future. This crazy Green New Deal of the Left is something that will set us back a generation. So I’m confident we’ll have a good showing here in 2026. Daines on the Iran conflict: The regime in Iran, they like to see a weak president. They’d love to go back to the days of Obama and Joe Biden, weak presidents that did not have clarity in terms of foreign policy and making America safer. So, of course, they want to undermine President Trump and Republicans who believe in America first and making sure that America is strong. So, it’s not surprising. I think the Iranians, the Iranian regime, not the people, but the Iranian regime want to undermine everything President Trump is doing between now and election day in November. Daines on the AI race against China: I spent some time in Hangzhou, which is a city that’s larger than New York, that many have never heard of, but it’s the epicenter of a lot of the tech innovation in China. Very impressive. It’s important to understand what the competition is out there. We’re ahead as it relates to the frontier models in AI, thankfully, and we’ll continue to keep that lead as long as we don’t put policies in place that will somehow slow us down. This is a race, Stuart. It’s important that America wins that race. We are not as strong in adoption on AI. The Chinese are second in the world. We’re ranked 24th by Stanford. But in terms of innovation, we’re in the lead today. It’s very important to win this. And this is why we’ve got this big debate in Washington on AI. What is the right plan going forward? I’m just concerned that D.C. is not capable of effectively regulating something it doesn’t understand. We need to make sure we have strong input here, certainly from our best and brightest in this space in America. …Slow down is a mistake. When you’re running a race, last time I checked, Stuart, a winning strategy is not to slow down. ### Contact: Gabby Wiggins