Fox’s Bret Baier Torpedoes Trump Claim ‘We Don’t Need’ Strait of Hormuz

Fox News anchor Bret Baier torpedoed President Donald Trump’s assertion that “we don’t need” the Strait of Hormuz as he grilled Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) about the Iran war’s effect on gas prices and farming.

Trump has repeatedly asserted that the United States doesn’t “need” the waterway as he has tried to get other countries to help secure the waterway, most recently at a Cabinet meeting on Thursday.

On Thursday night’s edition of Fox News Channel’s Special Report, Baier played those remarks for Johnson, then proceeded to tick through the ways the U.S. does need the strait:

BAIER: You mentioned the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump says the U.S. is not affected by the closure. Here’s what he said. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The amazing thing is we don’t need the Hormuz Strait. We don’t need it. We don’t need it at all. We don’t — we have so much oil. Our country is not affected by this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: So that’s what he said. The national average of gas prices, currently at $3.98. A month ago, $2.98. Year ago, $3.15. That’s definitely true for oil, the percentage that goes through the Strait for the U.S. But obviously a lot of other countries get large, large percentages that go through the Strait. And that affects the trade that we do with them and what the cost is of those items, plus about 50 percent of the world’s urea exports go through the Strait. That’s fertilizer.

JOHNSON: Yes.

BAIER: That’s a big deal for farmers.

JOHNSON: Yeah, that’s a big deal.

BAIER: How concerned are you about this?

JOHNSON: We’re concerned. And that’s why we’ve got to get it resolved quickly. Our farmers have had a tough road to hoe. We’re trying to get the farm bill done here. We’re going to need Democrats to help us on that, by the way. And we hope that they will.

But we can get control back over the price of fertilizer, the price of fuel, if we get that — that Strait straightened out. And I think, again, our Arab neighbors, our friends in the region, have a direct interest. That’s their neighborhood, so to speak. And all of our NATO allies do as well. Because it’s about the stability of oil prices worldwide. What the president said is not inaccurate, it’s just all of these things can be true at the same time.

Watch above via Fox News Channel’s Special Report.

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