Senator Steve Daines on Pipeline Cancellation and Impeachment

Montana Senator Steve Daines was on the Montana Morning News show on Wednesday to discuss a variety of topics, but at the top of the list was President Biden’s cancellation of the Keystone XL Pipeline.

“If you don't believe that elections have consequences take a look at what happened within six hours after Joe Biden took the Office of the oath of office,” said Daines. “He killed the Keystone XL Pipeline one stroke of the pen. This is all part of Biden's ‘make America unemployed again strategy’. He's declared war on American energy. This is about putting Saudi Arabia first and America last.”

Daines said he got an up-close-and-personal look at the consequences of Biden’s decision as it relates to Montana counties.

“I was on the phone last night with a couple of our county commissioners in eastern Montana,” he said. “Specifically Valley County and Fallon County; counties that are going to lose millions of dollars a year in tax revenue, and that’s every year. These counties were going to get up to $80 million of tax revenues every year to help pay teachers, to help deal with plowing roads, to pay for law enforcement and other basic government services.”

Daines then switched topics to the upcoming impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.

“Trump is a departed president,” he said. “He's a private citizen. The Constitution is very clear in Article One, Section three, where it says when the President of the United States is tried, well, who's the President of the United States? It's actually Joe Biden, not Donald Trump. Second, it says the Chief Justice shall preside over that trial in the Senate. Well, the Chief Justice is not presiding. Chief Justice John Roberts said I'm not going to preside. We actually have Senator Leahy; a Democrat Senator from Vermont is going to preside.”

Daines said the next two election cycles will be vital in attempting to rein in the excesses he’s already seen since Biden took office.

“It's a dangerous moment,” he said. “We've got a fight in our hands back here in Washington, and that's why in 2020 and 2024 we've got to reverse course. I've got a bill here for the XL pipeline and I'm hoping to get Senator Tester on that bill with me. We've got to have bipartisan pushes on this. This is something that cannot be done by just one party.”