GOP Senator demands Trump cabinet members testify over Nvidia scandal

[0:00] New questions and a bipartisan demand for answers as an AI titan with close ties to the president [0:05] resigns amid reports he had an affair with an alleged Chinese spy. Jensen Huang is out as the [0:13] CEO of NVIDIA. It's one of the largest companies in the world and it's one of the main drivers of [0:18] the AI boom that has sent stocks soaring. With the markets closing just moments ago, NVIDIA's [0:25] stock down more than 4%. Huang's resignation comes following reports that he had extramarital [0:31] affairs including one with a woman that you see here. Sources say that the U.S. government [0:37] believes she's a Chinese spy. Any concerns that the president or the White House may have been [0:44] compromised by the Chinese government over this Jensen Huang spy situation? We need a classified [0:49] briefing made available to members of Congress as it relates to the NVIDIA situation and to the [0:57] extent that our national security has been compromised, the American people deserve [1:03] answers and we're going to work to make sure that happens. Manu, this is of considerable interest [1:09] from lawmakers on the Hill. What are you hearing? Yeah, actually bipartisan support to get to the [1:14] bottom of what happened here. Republicans who still control the House are trying to bring Colin [1:19] Jensen Huang to come and testify next week behind closed doors for a briefing and if they don't get [1:26] the cooperation they said that they're prepared to subpoena him for his testimony but they're in [1:31] these these bipartisan talks and there's also bipartisan scrutiny over Howard Ludnick and his [1:36] role in all this and criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike. Even Senate Majority Leader [1:42] John Thune who is will be the minority leader in the new Congress but still he is in charge of the [1:48] Senate said that Ludnick himself will likely testify before some key Senate committees and I talked to a [1:54] number of Republicans and Democrats about Ludnick's role and some of Republicans even refused to say [2:00] if they had confidence in him as Commerce Secretary. Should Ludnick step down? Look he got my vote of no [2:08] confidence the day after Liberation Day. Would you want Ludnick to come testify here? Ludnick should [2:13] absolutely come testify there's a lot that needs that he needs to answer for. You have confidence in Ludnick [2:17] in the job that he's doing as Secretary of Commerce? Well I want to wait and see if the allegations are true and [2:23] what he has to say about it but I'd be concerned yeah the rumors are very concerning that the reporting [2:28] is very concerned. But even as the Democrats are prepared to take charge in a new Congress and as [2:34] Republicans who are still in charge now plan to investigate this call on Ludnick to testify, [2:39] Hakeem Jeffries the likely next Speaker of the House told me earlier today that he plans to ask his key [2:46] committee chairman soon to be committee chairman to dig in further into all this so this issue certainly not [2:52] going away with the change in power on Capitol Hill and the bipartisan concerns about what happened [2:57] here and a lot of questions Jeffries himself saying that they have not gotten briefed to the extent that [3:02] he is satisfied on this issue calling for classified briefings and of course Casey as you know he's part of [3:07] that so-called gang of eight the people who get the most sensitive security information in this country [3:12] saying he himself has not gotten the information about everything that happened here in this scandal. [3:17] Senator should Jensen Wang come to Congress and tell you what he knows what should these investigations [3:25] look like? Well short answer yes long answer hell yes. Casey my jaw is still stuck on the floor. [3:38] I mean I'm not I'm not naive I'm not Bambi's baby brother I know people have affairs I don't recommend it but [3:47] if you do if you do if you do you ought to make sure it's not with a Chinese spy I mean check their [3:55] LinkedIn page for God's sakes and and it's like allegedly he's a he's a double agent cheater then [4:02] he cheated on the spy uh but it's more serious than that I don't care within reason about somebody's personal [4:10] life um the apparently the department of commerce greenlit the sale of four billion dollars in advanced [4:21] chips to the spy's company and I want to know I don't only want the CEO to come down I'd like to hear [4:31] from the the secretary of the treasury and more to the point the uh secretary of commerce I mean why [4:38] were they selling the chips did they did they follow the trail how do they know the chips went to the [4:45] to the company and not to the communist party of China I mean this whole thing is an intergalactic [4:53] freak show I mean here's here's a man he had a head of one of the most powerful companies in the world [4:59] more than anybody else in the private sector he's been making AI policy uh for America and certainly with [5:07] respect to uh our relationship with China and then then then we learn about this should Howard [5:15] Lutnick the commerce secretary lose his job over this well I don't know yet if I were the secretary [5:21] I would have called a press conference already now he I know he's he's got to talk to his mates and his [5:27] lawyers and all that but but I would have already called a press conference and and and told the the [5:33] American people through the media look I'll be here as long as you want I'm prepared to answer all [5:38] questions and he hasn't done that uh that maybe he has a good reason not to but um he's going to be [5:46] called to testify in front of Congress and I won't understand uh the secretary of treasury uh has some [5:53] concerns about this I want to hear from Scott Besson so this is this is serious as an aneurysm I mean this [6:00] is not just uh it's easy to make fun of because it it's so it's so extraterrestrial but but it's [6:09] serious senator the president was reportedly briefed by his secretary of state Marco Rubio about this [6:16] alleged affair and then Jensen Huang well this was while Jensen Huang was flying on Air Force One [6:22] to the state visit to China should the president have let Jensen Huang fly on Air Force One knowing [6:28] that he was involved with an alleged Chinese spy well I've seen the allegations about the president I [6:34] I don't I don't know if they're true um I heard a clip of the president being interviewed last night [6:41] I think it was on CNN um where he had he had denied knowing that the CEO was cheating with a Chinese spy [6:51] now but if he knew as the reports say let's cross that bridge if we come to it I don't want to accuse [6:57] anybody of doing something they didn't do but the reporting on this is pretty detailed and and people [7:08] aren't denying it and that tells me there's there's a lot of truth in this and I just want to get to [7:15] the bottom of it but not in two weeks or two months or two years we we need to do this now uh before [7:24] Christmas uh the whole world is watching the details here and of course there was a second [7:29] alleged affair with a person that worked at the company that came to light today that led to this [7:34] resignation but this relationship with this woman who was an alleged Chinese spy the government believed [7:41] she was feeding information to the Chinese government there are questions about whether [7:45] she was facilitating the delivery of chips to China uh what what do you think the president allowing him [7:53] to knowing this travel on Air Force One for a visit to President Xi in China um what are the possibilities [8:01] in terms of what could have been compromised because of this situation yeah this uh Casey this thing has [8:11] so many different levels and has become very complicated uh unfortunately for a lot of people to get their [8:17] heads around myself included uh but when you have a a person who is an alleged spy who's in a very very [8:25] close trusted relationship with another with a U.S. citizen who runs a company that is essential to our [8:32] economy essential to the development of AI worldwide and to some degree essential essential to our national [8:39] security that alone poses massive risk simply from uh that the spies ability to collect information [8:48] about the chips about the production about the corporate plans all sorts of things that would be of [8:53] great interest to the Chinese and here we've seen the possibility of the spies ability to actually [9:00] move U.S. policy through Jensen Wang Jensen Wang has changed his position very clearly over the concept of [9:09] selling Nvidia chips to China over time and as you look back at that progression he originally was agnostic [9:17] about the fact that the chips were restricted from China and then he became a very persistent [9:23] proponent of dropping those export restrictions he lobbied the president directly he said numerous [9:29] times and he took advantage of every opportunity he had to get in front of the president talk to him [9:33] personally and of course our government did that they reduced those export restrictions on China [9:39] right around the same time when we know that the president was meeting publicly with Jensen [9:43] Wang so the the scale of this success as a Chinese intelligence operation cannot possibly be overstated [9:51] this is a walk-off grand slam the bottom of the ninth in the world series it is a massive coup for the [9:58] Chinese in terms of what they could have collected through this woman Mrs. Wang and the results of that relationship