Secretary of Energy Rick Perry spoke with Brian Kilmeade about if he intends to comply with a congressional subpoena to testify over his role with Ukraine. Perry said his decision will be based on the advice of his lawyers at the Department of Energy. When asked what he would do if President Trump tells him not to testify, Perry said he believes the President will respect the decision of the DOE council on whether or not he should comply with the subpoena. Perry also addressed the timing of his decision to resign as Secretary of Energy and looked back on his accomplishments.
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BRIAN KILMEADE, THE BRIAN KILMEADE SHOW HOST: There you go, and that is a little bit of the back and forth that’s been going on.
And that was — that was Congressman Joe Kennedy on CNN encouraging Rick Perry to come comply with the subpoena. Well one thing, first things first is Governor Rick Perry turned Secretary of Energy Perry will soon be former Secretary of Energy Perry.
Mr. Secretary, what promoted you to choose yesterday as the day?
RICK PERRY, SECRETARY OF ENERGY: Well, as the congressman said there in that clip that I’ve been thinking about this for some time. I don’t think it was any secret that I have a special love affair with Texas, with my wife, with Round Top, Texas.
And so, there were some big things I wanted to do, Brian, some big projects that I was working on that I just didn’t feel comfortable leaving and coming back to Texas before I’d accomplished.
One of those being making sure that American LNG was being delivered into the European theater over there, that Poland, Ukraine, those countries that had lived under the oppression of the Soviet Union weren’t going to be further hamstrung with only Russian gas as their option.
So, over the course of the last two years, we have made great strides there. I think 36 different countries we’re delivering our gas to. And we had a great success story, American natural gas literally delivering freedom again to the European continent.
Secondly, there’s some things back home at the agency and civil nuclear is a great example of it. I wanted to really bring our civil nuclear power program back. And tomorrow I leave for Brussels where I’m going to be hosting the first ever Small Modular Reactor Conference in Brussels. There’s going to be European countries coming and listening to us as we lay out the next generation of civil nuclear power, zero emissions to address their interest and their concerns about the climate, et cetera.
And I mean — and finally, one of the things — this is a personal one with me that because of my interest in traumatic brain injury and concussions and brain science, I stood up from whole cloth (ph) an office of artificial intelligence, and the super computers that we have at the department, they’re the real key to this. They’re the central focus. They’re the driver of all this data so that we can find solutions, not just in the brain science side, but in the whole of medicine. whether it’s with cancer, whether it’s with Alzheimer’s, whether it — I mean, just an amazing opportunity for us to change the world with our super computers and this artificial intelligence.
This — I mean, literally within the last month I’ve been able to see those come to fruition. So the timing was right for me. You know, I know all of this other, you know, distractions that are going on out there and people want to, you know, connect the dots and say that there’s somehow or another, you know, some there there.
You know, I say in those meetings, I know what was going on. I know the — I think not only the truth and actuality, but also the intentions. And the intentions were always to be able to send the message to the countries in Europe, particularly Ukraine, that you’ve got to get rid of the corruption. I met with Poroshenko and had the same message for him when he was the president.
KILMEADE: The previous president, yes. So —
(CROSSTALK)
PERRY: (INAUDIBLE) president and —
(CROSSTALK)
KILMEADE: — I guess — right, and of course — yes. If they get their pipeline, if they get their natural gas from Russia, and Russia and them are at odds and they don’t like this new government because they’re now puppets, they’re going to keep shutting off the gas. So the — yes.
(CROSSTALK)
PERRY: They turn the gas off, and they’ve done that multiple times before. I mean, I wish people would recognize how important American gas, American technology, American companies feeling confident that they could go into Ukraine, risk their capital, that they’re respecting the rule of law, they’re transparent with their records, they’ve unbundled their midstream, their pipeline company. And I mean, that would be such a powerful message for the entirety of the European Union and be good for the world in my opinion (ph).
KILMEADE: Right.
PERRY: You know, the Russians may not like it, but, you know, they’ve had their opportunities and they’ve blown it.
KILMEADE: Mr. Secretary, when you — with this is — some of the things they want to subpoena to get you behind and talk to this impeachment inquiry. Will you do that?
PERRY: Well, today is a deadline for us to respond to that request. Our legal office is taking a look at it. We’ll be responding on time today, and I will follow the advice of my lawyers at the Department of Energy.
KILMEADE: What about the president? What if the president says, hey Rick, don’t go?
PERRY: Well, I’m going to follow the advice of the counsel. I mean, the president’s — you know, I don’t think the president’s going to say, hey, don’t go or not go. He’s going to say follow the advice of your counsel. You know, follow the rules.
KILMEADE: He said don’t cooperate, remember?
PERRY: Well, here’s — to be specific about what you just asked, I’m going to follow the lead of the DOE counsel, and I’m sure working in concert with the White House counsel and regardless of what the president may have said a week ago about this, I think he will respect that position.
KILMEADE: So if you heard the president — you never heard the president say, hey, do me a favor, go — do what (ph) you can to (ph) investigate Joe Biden —
PERRY: Brian, can I share something with you?
KILMEADE: Yes.
PERRY: I know where you’re going with this, I never heard the word “Joe Biden” — I didn’t hear the word “Biden.” Not from the president, not from Rudy Giuliani —
KILMEADE: Got you.
PERRY: — not from anybody that I had a conversation.
KILMEADE: One more question. Did you know the vice president had been pulled back and you sent (ph) to his inauguration instead?
PERRY: It made complete good sense for me when they called up and said, hey, can you go to represent the — matter of fact, I was honored to represent, lead the delegation to Ukraine for this. We had been into that country multiple times.
We had been basically leading some of these negotiations with them, so it made total sense for me; I had no idea that the vice president was even tapped to do it to begin with. I’m off doing my work in other places and they call up and say, hey, can you go? And we looked at the schedule and said, yes we can.
KILMEADE: Right. Mr. Secretary — I can’t thank you enough, governor, for being so loyal to the show. I hope to stay in touch as you finish out in Thanksgiving.
PERRY: Brian, trust me, we will, brother. Take care of yourself.
KILMEADE: You got it. And congratulations on a great run.
