GOP Rep. Brady on Biden: 'For some reason he simply refuses to confront China'

Rep. Kevin Brady, ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee, said on Thursday that President Biden is not doing enough to "confront China" on a host of major issues.

"For some reason he simply refuses to confront China, to hold them accountable, even when American companies in China play by the rules," Brady said during a press conference with House GOP leaders in Texas.

Brady said the Biden administration hasn't ensured that China meet its obligations agreed to under former President Trump's "historic phase one agreement to end China's brutally unfair trade practices."

"President Biden hasn't insisted, so China hasn't complied," Brady said at the news conference. "And as a result, today, China continues to steal America's intellectual property with impunity to force U.S. companies to transfer technology simply because they're doing business in China. They manipulate the currency."

House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Rep. Michael McCaul said trade is one of the best ways for the U.S. to compete with China.

"Biden has lifted trade barriers on batteries and solar panels from China that are made, guess where? In the Xinjiang province where they commit genocide and slave labor against the Uighur Muslims in gross violation of human rights," he said. "It's just amazing, you can't make this up."

McCaul said fentanyl from China is now the number one killer of "our youngest generation" in the U.S.

"It's all coming from precursors from China into Mexico cartels. They cook it and make it and ship it across the border," he said. "My daughter personally has gone to five funerals, of friends of hers not knowing what they were taking had fentanyl."

Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw cracked a joke during the news conference about how House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is not able to charge his electric car in California under the leadership of the state's Gov. Gavin Newsom. 

"If you let Texas energy lead the way, you let let American energy lead the way, we will reduce emissions, we will have energy security. People won't have to worry about their air conditioning coming on or the heat coming on in the winter and Kevin can charge his electric car in California. I had to," Crenshaw said.

"Not this week," McCarthy, a California Republican, responded.

The California Independent System Operator asked residents not to charge their electric vehicles over the holiday weekend due to the heat wave.

Crenshaw continued, saying, "Gavin Newsom doesn't want you to charge your electric car because their energy grid is failing; that cannot be our future. We have to be smarter than that. And letting the Chinese produce and export our energy to here is the last thing that we need."

McCarthy's office told Just the News that McCarthy and Crenshaw were joking and he does not own an electric car.

McCarthy has been outspoken on the California government's decision to ban the sale of gasoline vehicles by 2035.

"First, Democrats banned the sale of gas-powered cars by 2035, forcing Californians to buy unaffordable EVs. Now, they tell us not to charge them after getting home from work to prevent 'rotating power outages.' We must repeal the gas car ban & embrace all our energy resources!" McCarthy recently wrote on social media.