‘We thought the Iran nuclear deal was irresponsible. No, it was duplicitous.’
Representative Joe Wilson, who is running to chair the House’s Foreign Affairs Committee, vowed to use to post to advance the incoming Trump administration’s foreign policy agenda to combat America’s foreign adversaries.
“The priorities that I very much want to back up, working with Marco Rubio, are the policies of Donald Trump, to have them fully explained and presented in such a way that the American people can understand,” Wilson told National Review in a brief interview today.
“It would be the reverse if it was a Democratic administration; it would be oversight. But this would be promotion of policies, particularly as they develop, to provide for peace through strength.”
House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Michael McCaul is subject to term limits barring him from another two years at the helm of the panel. Other candidates for the post include representatives Darrell Issa, Brian Mast, and Ann Wagner.
Wilson is pitching himself as a conservative arch hawk with the seniority and institutional knowledge to advance Trump’s foreign policy agenda on the hill. He has previously co-sponsored sweeping legislation crafted to codify the Trump administration’s maximum pressure sanctions campaign against Iran and bolster U.S. efforts to compete with the Chinese Communist Party, two stances he reiterated today.
The South Carolina Republican name also checked several of Trump’s senior national security nominees — in addition to Rubio, Rep. Elise Stefanik, Rep. Mike Waltz, and former director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe — as people that he has previously worked with and is excited to see in the administration.
According to Wilson, that team is ready to confront the reality of “an axis of evil, with dictators with rule of gun, invading democracies with rule of law.”
He panned the “naïve policies” of the Biden administration and praised Trump’s first-term foreign policy, including the maximum pressure campaign against Iran, tougher stance against China, and effort to deter Vladimir Putin by providing Ukraine with Javelin missiles and stopping the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
Wilson said Iran’s ongoing plots to assassinate Trump mean that “we should understand that they have every intent to take actions against America and Western civilization. We know that they believe Death to Israel, death to America.” He described a committee agenda that would see the codification of Trump’s maximum pressure campaign, including through new sanctions targeting banks that work with other sanctioned Iranian entities and the investigation of Robert Malley, the Biden administration Iran envoy who was placed on unpaid leave amid an investigation into his handling of classified material. Wilson has previously led legislation crafted to codify the Trump-era approach.
“We thought the Iran nuclear deal was irresponsible. No, it was duplicitous,” he said, citing Malley’s involvement in negotiating the 2015 agreement.
He also pledged a sweeping approach to prohibiting U.S. investment in Chinese tech sectors that are closely tied to Beijing’s military development. “I’m the first co-sponsor to block the outbound investments that actually are used where American companies, technology, and equipment are being provided to the People’s Liberation Army. That’s just inconceivable,” he said, referring to legislation authored by Representative Kevin Hern.
Wilson said that this approach was important considering recent revelations that Hezbollah possesses advanced Russian military equipment, which he said was “financed, substantially, by the Chinese Communist Party.”
He said that, overall, Biden’s handling of foreign policy has yielded disastrous consequences. “Our enemies, they really tell use what they’re going to do, and we need to pay attention and take it seriously. That’s why I appreciate Donald Trump and his efforts of peace through strength. And we know that sadly, during his four years, no war. And then we see the weakness of Joe Biden,” Wilson said.
“I never would have imagined a land war in Europe ever again, but it’s occurred. I never would have imagined the October 7 mass slaughter. I’ve been to Kibbutz Nir Oz. I’ve been to the Nova Music Festival site. I’ve been to Bucha to see the mass murders there.”
House members will vote on the new Foreign Affairs chairman on December 4.