Daines on Beef Prices, Vaccine Mandates and January 6th Riot

Montana Senator Steve Daines called in on the KGVO Newsmakers line on Wednesday morning to brag on his Montana State Bobcats headed to the FCS championship game, as well as other topics of interest to Montanans.

Daines is working with other senators to investigate why beef prices have soared since the Biden Administration took office.

“I've been working on this issue of addressing the unfair practices of the four largest meat packers that are hurting our Montana ranchers and dominating the cattle market,” said Senator Daines. “If you look what's going on, you see the high prices of beef in the supermarket and yet you take a look at what our ranchers are receiving and there's a gap. They're not seeing higher prices at the same rate that we're seeing at the supermarket, and that money is not going to our ranchers.”

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Daines said President Biden is looking into the matter, but he wants more direct action from the administration.

“So this action plan we've seen from President Biden is a good step forward, but it's not sufficient,” he said. “President Biden needs to go all in and conduct a full and thorough investigation into the meat packers and these allegations of price fixing and market manipulation, and that investigation needs to be led by the Department of Justice as well as the USDA.”

Daines said the courts have helped to knock down several Biden-imposed vaccination mandates.

“We got some good news on Head Start, and we got some good news for our Navy SEALS,” he said. “Thankfully, we've got some judges that were appointed by the Republican Senate and nominated by President Trump and these are the judges that are reining in some of this tyranny that we are seeing right now from the Biden administration.”

Daines also recognized the first anniversary of the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6.

“We need to move forward,” he said. “I think it disappointing that Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats have chosen to politicize that day and further divide our country. Remember, there was a thorough bipartisan investigation completed by the Department of Homeland Security that came back with 30 recommendations, and 65 recommendations for the Capitol Police as a result of that. That is where we should be focusing our efforts, not politicizing it further and dividing this country as we're seeing from Nancy Pelosi and the Biden administration.”

Daines and a Senator from North Dakota have a wager on Saturday’s FCS Championship game between the MSU Bobcats and the NDSU Bison. Each must wear the other’s jersey if their team loses.