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Thanks for joining us. I'm Joe, Matthew and Washington Or of course, there are many questions about our support for Israel without a Speaker of the House, and we're going to get to the speaker's battle, but let's start with what we know here on day seven, as I look to the terminal, the Israel Latest column is being constantly updated and they're doing a really great job on this. Secretary of State Anthony Blincoln touches down in Tel Aviv. We're going to talk about his visit here in just
a moment with Nick Watdams. He's already expanded the trip though with the headline Blink and expanding the trip to Saudi Arabia and Egypt. He spoke a short time ago upon his arrival in Tel Aviv.
I'm here quite simply with one message, and that is the United States stands with Israel today, tomorrow, every day. I think it's almost impossible for any of us to comprehend on a human level what Israel's experienced at the hands of Amas.
He was speaking there extemporaneously after meeting with a group of survivors of the Hamas attacks last weekend. He later held a formal news conference in fact that it may still be underway, in which he was asked about the strike carrier group, the gerald Ford that's heading in that direction, and other potential US military involvement.
Here's what he said, Well, of course, as you know, providing assistance as requested by Israel for its efforts. That will continue, and we're working closely with Congress to make sure that Israel has what it needs to do what it must with regard to the Second Front. As I mentioned earlier, it's our determination and that of Israel as well, that there not be a second front or a third front.
If you're watching us on YouTube, where you can find us by searching Bloomberg Global News, you're seeing video as well of Blinken, who held a joint news conference with Benjaminettnye who earlier. Let's bring in Nick Wadams, Bloomberg National Security team leader. He's our expert on this story and turning a lot of content here out of the Bloomberg bureau in Washington. It's good to see you, Nick. Thank
you for joining the significance of this visit. Maybe you can speak to Anthony Blinkn acting almost presidential as he touches down, speaking from the heart, having an emotional meeting with the survivors, and now this news conference. He seems to be the tip of the spear here for the US.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, this is one of the roles that the top US diplomat often plays before there's even any real agenda for him. It's like, get on the plane, go over there, show that the US has your back, and that's certainly what he wanted to do here. The big question I have is you know, when does this ground war start, and what happens if Secretary Blincoln's in the region, and then what happens to the extent of
US involvement. So you heard him there saying, you know, the US has Israel's back right tomorrow, today and every day. You know, this thing is going to go in a lot of very unpredictable ways in the US is going to have some tough decisions to make as that happens.
For sure, what do you make of the addition of Saudi Arabia and Egypt? Your point, if he's in one of those countries and the ground invasion of Gaza begins, that's going to change the backdrop of this conversation real fast, That's right.
So he's going to four more countries, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, and Cutter, And obviously all four of those countries have different levels of influence on Hamas and Iran Cutter for example. So what he's really trying to show there is that the US wants to prevent this from becoming a wider war. So as bad as it is, you know, if you have further evidence of Iranian involvement in the Hamas attacks, what's Israel going to do to Iran? You know, and so it could get a whole lot
worse and a whole lot bigger. Obviously Egypt has some influence on Hamas on Hezballah. We don't know what's going to happen there. So this is a move where he's trying to push these US priorities. Okay, we have Israel's back, We don't want this to spread wider war. We also have this desire to keep this normalization program on track
Israel in Saudi Arabia. So while they're telling Israel, you know, you guys, go do what you need to do, at the same time they're saying, hey, please don't forget about this peace initiative that we have that we want to keep on trap.
So he's spent in a lot of plates on this trip. Clear, it really is. He was asked about, speaking of the Iranians, the six billion dollars that was part of the recent prisoner swap with Iran. Nick, all of a sudden, the last two days we talked to Republican lawmakers and this is all we're hearing about, right is, you know, refreeze the money. And I'm not sure exactly what that would even look like, as this money has not done more than move to an account that's being run by the Kataris.
Listen to what Anthony Blinkoln had to say about this in the news conference.
None of the funds that have now gone to Cutter have actually been spent or accessed in any way by Iran. Indeed, funds from that account are overseen by the Treasury Department can only be dispensed for you Mediterranean goods, food, medicine, medical equipment, and never touch Iranian hands. We have strict overside of the funds, and we retain the right to freeze them.
What's going to happen to this money? We retained the right to freeze them. This was part of a deal that was made. Would that agitate the Iranians further?
Yeah?
I mean this one is very complicated and has the possibility of going pair shaped really quickly, because you know, the US made this deal with Iran, So if they then go back on that, then what's going to be the status of you know, potential future talks over prisoner swaps.
I mean, the Iran issue has become so politicized in the US it's sort of hard to see it straight, but safe to say that the one issue that is the case is that the US has been pushing this this policy of de escalation with Iran, of trying to use small steps to lead to other agreements to neutralize their nuclear program. Obviously, if Iran is involved in some way in the attack or in support of Hamas, it would cast a lot of doubt over that policy of
de escalation. But I think it is safe to assume right now that whether or not there is a formal policy of freezing those funds, the US, the Treasury Department cutter, they are not going to allow that money to move really quickly, even if it's for humanitarian goods in Iran. I mean, so you know, there is some reporting out there that there has been a formal freeze of those funds.
Secretary Blincoln did not go that far. There may be a legal issue there whether they can actually do that, but safe to assume that money's not going anywhere anytime soon.
Nick, thanks for coming over. We'd like to stay in touch with you to the extent that the cour available. I appreciate it. As always, he runs our national security coverage here in the Bloomberg Washington Bureau Nick Wattams and
his expertise with us today to get things rolling. On Bloomberg's sound on, We're going to bring in General Mark Kimmett here next, as we also hear from the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, held a news conference a bit earlier today and spoke directly to this potential tie this involvement in this attack with Iran. Here's the Secretary.
We've not seen any indication that Iran was involved in the planning or the execution of this attack. We've not seen any of those indications yet, and this is something that we remain focused on. And of course, you know, what we know at this point is that there are no indications that was the case. But again we will remain focused on this.
No indications yet, and there are demands, of course for them to show some evidence here. The other question that the Secretary knocked down was whether the US had some early warning. We spoke yesterday at this time with the Congressman Michael McCall, who discussed the fact that Egypt had given Israel three days notice on intelligence that it had. The Secretary said, don't look here.
In terms of early warning, are our indications and warning that we may have had to that this was going to occur. Of course, will if we if we had those indications, we would share them with Israel, But to my knowledge, we did not see that.
All right, that was Lloyd Austin for those of you watching us on YouTube. As we turn to the general. Now, Mark Kimmitt is with us, retired Brigadier general, of course, former Assistant Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs. It's great to see us here, Welcome back to the table. As always, we appear to be here on the threshold of a ground invasion, and we were talking about it on Bloomberg a couple of days ago. These forces are
still amassing. What do you make of the walk up to this apparently inevitable step.
Well, I think these railers are doing exactly what you would expect a force to be doing pre attack. No doubt. They have their intelligence assets out, no doubt their training, They're going over their plans, they're bringing their logistics up, all the normal things you would expect before you cross what we call the line of departure, the line of contact. It's very interesting to note that Gaza is so small that there is not a place once you cross that
border where you cannot be shot from. So they need to be completely ready the moment they cross that border.
Wow. I have a lot of questions about the form that this may take. But to what extent do you think Israel is allowing time for hostages to be recovered?
Oh, I have no doubt that there is some subterranean conversation going on between Hamas and Israel. I don't expect much to come from that. Hamas certainly understands that the only thing they have right now that can temper the Israeli attack or those hostages. Once they release those hostages, I would expect Israel to go in in a way they have not gone into Goza before.
We're talking about taking buildings down here.
I think they'll stay completely within the laws of war humanitarian law, but I don't think they will hold back on either their tactics and techniques.
So how do you do this when you're dealing with an entrenched enemy that has tunnels to your point, a extremely dense urban environment where they know the landscape better than anyone. This is a very difficult mission.
It's extraordinarily difficult, particularly because of the tunnels, Particularly because you have hostages, Israeli and American hostages inside of Gaza. As I said before, that's the great conundrum. The military has been given a task, which is to go in, uproot and eliminate hamas leadership, bring the hostages back and try to keep the amount of civilian casualties to a minimum. That is an enormously difficult task, probably the most difficult task you can get a milliky terry. If they do
too much, the hostages could be killed. They do too little, the mission may fail.
Are they already there are their special forces in Gaza in preparation.
I can reflect on that, but I would tell you that in the past for this type of operation, you would need to have very very good intelligence. Now, given that it appears to me that the Gaza in former network that Israeli intelligence has had could have been wiped out before the attack, they're going to need to get ground intelligence, close up intelligence, and that can't be done from a satellite, can't be done from a radar.
Is this then door to door, hand to hand combat or will this be coupled by air to ground? What type of a battle are we talking about it? I think we're taking different contours as it rolls.
I think it takes different contours as it rolls. But again, within the laws of land combat and the arms of our conflict conflict, I do not believe the Israelis will hold back.
They obviously have resources, Hamas does not have. What are the most important ones.
They're troops. They have disciplined troops that are completely enraged by the atrocities committed. I would not be I would not want to be on the wrong side of an Israeli rifle right now.
No, sir, the gerald Ford is steaming to the eastern Mediterranean, apparently the ike is as well. Will they take part in commanding control or this is really about projecting power and providing a deterrent.
I think the main mission is to deter other actors from getting involved. That was a clear message from President Biden. However, those aircraft carriers and those strike fleets have tremendous intelligence gathering tru and tremendous planning capabilities. They're also bringing in special units, no doubt, and if, in fact somebody decides to cross the line and make this wider conflict, it is a tremendous defensive capability to terrence capability.
We could see a lot of things take place over the coming days and weeks. Do you have any sense of timeline when they're doing and if I did, I wouldn't tell you. Yeah, well, I'm sure that's probably for the best. Mark Kimmant, it's good to see you. Good to see As always, we learned something whenever we have the General with us here on Bloomberg TV, on YouTube, on radio, whatever the platform might be. Retired Brigadier General,
former Assistant Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs. I'm Joe Matthew in Washington and glad you joined us. We get analysis on everything we've been talking about and turn our attention as well to the battle for speaker here in Washington with Republican House members behind closed doors today. Lauren Tomlinson Republican Strategists is up next.
This is Bloomberg. You're listening to the Bloomberg Sound on podcast. That's the program live weekdays at one Eastern on Bloomberg Radio, the tune in app, Bloomberg dot Com, and the Bloomberg Business App. You can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station, Just Say Alexa play Bloomberg eleven thirty.
Life from Washington as the Secretary of State makes his way to Tel Aviv. Anthony Blinkn touchdown earlier today, has already met with Benjamin et Yiahu and held a news conference earlier with some additional news on the trip as well. He's adding Saudi Arabia and Egypt to the itinerary here, which could get interesting if a ground invasion begins while he's overseas. Anthony Blincoln referring to two paths that the Middle East can take.
Countries in this region and in many ways countries in this world. But here in the Middle East, there's the path of integration, cooperation, normalization and equal measures of justice, opportunity, dignity for all peoples, including the Palestinians. Or there's the path that Hamas has shown to the world in these last few days, terror destruction, nihilisten a path at leads to nowhere for anyone except to the darkest places.
In our souls, the darkest places in our souls. Anthony Blinken sounding and speaking somewhat presidential on the visit here, speaking off the cuff in that case, and making a lot of headlines from overseas as he met as well with the survivors of the attacks from last weekend. We'll have more on that coming up here as we bring Lauren Tomlinson into the conversation. You know her as a Republican strategist here on Bloomberg. It's great to see you. Welcome.
People should also know not only you're a partner at steer PR, but you were also in the national security space for a long time as an official Department of pollmand Security. You help to advise the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the House, and so we appreciate your perspective. I'd like to get to a couple of things today with you, and we can start with this trip. The Secretary of State seems to really be touching people in an effective way here as sort of the representative of
the United States. With the President speaking here yesterday, it's really Anthony Blincoln showing up in person, who seems to be moving people when it comes to our message. What do you make of the trip so far?
I mean, I think the trip is very well timed and needed. And also you know Secretary of Blincoln is Jewish and so he has a deep connection to I think this issue these people and it's coming across as very authentic in a way that I think that other officials probably couldn't connect in that way. So, you know,
I think it's very important that he's there. He's sending a very strong message of United States support for Israel, condemning Hamas in these terrible attacks, and you know, I think right now we have to continue to community Kate
as often as possible. You know, the Biden administration in particular, Biden has got to fill any voids of misinformation and make sure that he is out speaking constantly about support for Israel, you know, diplomatic, you know, economic, militarily, whatever we need to do to make sure that we are supporting Israel in a full force way. And they need to be communicating to the world and the American public
that this is the stance that America will take. And I think this trip definitely shows that that level of support, in that deep connection to Israel.
He's adding the UAE and Quitar to the trip, as well as Egypt in Saudi Arabia, and a lot of talk about the Kataris lately. With this money that is being held in an account, six billion dollars, it's a lot of money that was part of the prisoner swap that we conducted with hern just a few weeks back. Interesting how quickly this has come back into the news. We've had a series of Republican lawmakers tell us on the
air that that money needs to be refrozen. It's hard to tell exactly what form that would take, but the administration has been clear. Anthony Blincoln talked about it a short time ago. Not a dollar has been spent and it has not moved from that account. Iran, as a matter of fact, just said that there's been no change in access to the funds. This a liability for the administration or not.
I think it's splitting hairs a little bit. And when they say that the money hasn't been touched, sure, the dollars are there and they're still in the account. But if you were iron and you knew that you were going to get a giant paycheck and it was coming your way, it's like what every American does, or what any person does, right, you go spend the money before you even get it. So I think there was a
little bit of they knew the money was coming. Palestine, in particular, already had seventy five million dollars in food a that had gone to them. There was a lot of money being funneled in with foreign aid into this region, and you know, they used the opportunity to spend it the way that they wanted to. So, you know, I do think it'll be splitting hairs a little bit. I do think it's important that, you know, we find ways in which to prevent that money from getting to them
and refreezing it. I think Tim Scott, for example, has introduced legislation in the Senate to do something of those of that degree. But I do think that this will be a diplomat conversation that will happen amongst these countries to make sure that we're not unintentionally funding terrorism right through this type of money.
Well, it's interesting because in Tim Scott, boy he went pretty far with this. He said Joe Biden has blood on his hands. I mean, he essentially blamed the attack on Joe Biden, which without any real clear evidence of that, seems to be going a bit far. And then there's the matter of Iran, of course, just overall, whether it helped plan, never mind finance this attack, and we found no link there either. Do we not need to be careful with the way we're talking about this.
You know, there used to be this rule when I was in working in Congress where you didn't criticize the American president when he was abroad, yes, or when you were at war. And I do think that there's restraint that needs to take as far as our domestic politics go, when we are attacking ourselves from within, when we need
to be showing nothing but strength and unity abroad. And I think that's a message that probably needs to be conveyed to both sides of the aisle at during this time is making sure that, yes, there is going to be lots of opportunities after this conflict is over for us to do hot washes and commissions and figure out where the intelligence failures were and what the US could
do better and all of those types of things. But at this moment, we really need to be focused on our response to the terrorist attacks, how we're supporting Israel, and making sure that our government is functioning in a way that we can actually provide that type of aid.
There's going to be a big debate about supplemental funding at some point once there's a Speaker of the House, and we'll get to that. But I wonder what you make of the approach right now, because they're talking about bundling a lot of stuff together, funding for Israel, funding for Ukraine, funding for Taiwan, and border security funding to either make it impossible for anyone to vote no or
somehow mandatory for everyone to vote yes. I'm not sure the psychology here is that a good approach When Republicans have clearly an allergy to an omnibus budget bill like this, You know, I.
Think it's going to be a lot tougher, especially when you throw in border security into this. I think maybe that there could be some horse trading on Ukraine, Israel, disaster aid, that type of thing. But I really, you know, although it seems silly to even have this conversation because the government theory is going to shut down in a few weeks and we don't even have a Speaker.
Of the House, that's a very fair point.
So you know, like step one, fund the government and get through like the next you know, see our crisis and then you know, or really step one, get a speaker, Step two, get us through the government shutdown. Step three, let's talk about aid packages.
You're very ambitious. This is Washington. Well, you know, we spoke to your former boss Michael McCauley yesterday, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He said he was good with that structure. He also said though the first order of business would be a resolution on the floor condemning Hamas and supporting Israel. That may seem obvious to some people here, but you get a sense that this would be front loaded as soon as there is as a speaker.
No, oh, absolutely, I think there's a huge urgency here to make sure that once again that the United States is showing full support. Our government is funding, you know, and helping the Israelis however we can, and part of the strategy too. And you know, McCall probably knows that's better than anyone is. It is going to be imperative for us over the next few weeks to make sure that other countries don't jump into this conflict, that this
doesn't become an all out war against Israel. And you know, I think there was a lot of success today with Jordan releasing the statement that they did. It was very measured and it obviously indicated that they were not going to jump into the fray. There's lots of questions about some of the other countries on Israel's border, but that is priority number one, and part of that deterrence will be a show of strength from the American government that
we will support them in this. So, you know, McCall's right as far as frontloading this and making sure that we take care of it quickly, because the next two weeks are going to be really important for that effort.
The next two weeks indeed, and that's why there are not now one, but two carrier strike groups heading to the eastern Mediterranean, Right will we use them in theory?
And you know, I think that there's a lot of conversations about how exactly we extract hostages if that comes to it. So again, moving assets to the region is going to be a really important part of that, depending on what type of operation they end up doing.
You tend to think some of this stuff is already happening and we don't know about it. Is that just me?
Yeah?
I mean absolutely absolutely, Yeah. There's you know, I have a lot of faith in our national security apparatus, the intelligence community. We have a very capable government and you know, the most capable defense structure in the world, really the most capable government in the world to take care of
this and to do these types of things. So while we talk about things from a political perspective or you know, in open channels like this, there's so much that's going on behind the scenes that will I.
Have no idea about right now. Yeah, it'll all be in the book, as they say.
You're listening to the Bloomberg Sound On podcast. Catch us live weekdays at one Eastern on Bloomberg dot Com, the iHeartRadio app, and the Bloomberg Business App, or listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts.
The US offers charter flights out of Israel. Welcome to our two of sound On as the administration moves to help people leave the country who are looking for a way out, and we're joined ahead by Congresswoman Nicole Maliatakis, who is helping to leave the push to get New Yorkers out of country. The Republican will also give us an update on the fight for Speaker, which continues here.
We'll discuss that later with Bloomberg Politics reporter Mike Dorning and data Today on inflation will be joined from New York by Bloomberg Economics editor Michael McKee. We've got news as well today on the auto strikes in Detroit which are expanding, and we'll have all of that for you over the course of hour two here on sound On Live from Washington. Thanks for joining us. Kaylee Lions is here just back from Capitol Hill and it's great to
see it. As always, Kaylee, you were there. You were as close to the sun as you can get today, and we didn't learn anything really about the race for speaker. The session, I think on the floor lasted about two and a half minutes, and I guess the Republican Conference meeting behind closed doors didn't last a lot longer.
Well, we're still hearing from members who are coming out of the meeting. It's unclear, really, Joe, to your point, how much progress they're actually making in there. It seems like it's generically an airing of grievances about Steve Scalise, Steve Scalese trying to allay some concerns as he tries to get the two hundred and seventeen votes he needs to be speaker. And yet I caught up with a number of members outside of the room who said they
are still not with Scalise. Carlos Semenez, for example, is still McCarthy only there's others like Congressman Miller who are still nos on Scalise, and some who are saying, like Congressman's self, they're going to vote Jordan, even though Jordan said he would give the nominating speech for Scalise. It just feels like it's still math that isn't adding them.
My god, I'm glad you came back because I'll tell you what. Congresswoman Malia Takas is still there, Nicole Malia Takas of New York, of course, back with us on Bloomberg and joining us from Capitol Hill. Congresswoman, it's great to see you. I want to ask you about your efforts here involving Israel, but with regard to the fight for speaker, do you have a popsicle headache yet?
Look, it's very frustrating to me because I just want to move forward, elect a speaker and get back to work, and there's just too many things going on in this place. We have government funding that's going to run out and roughly a month, and we need to pass a remaining eight of the twelve appropriation bills and send them to the Senate so we could begin these negotiations and try to get some wins for the American people who want to see wasteful, excessive spending cont they want to see
secure border. And so I was with McCarthy all the way. I mean, McCarthy was a great speaker. What happened to him was a travesty and it was an injustice. But he's no longer running, and I supported Jim Jordan. Jim Jordan did not come out ahead of Steve scle Steve Scalice won yesterday's vote, and as was reported, Jim Jordan supporting Steve sclee. So I'm with Steve Scleeze. Now, he's a good person, he's an honorable person. He will make
a good speaker. The bottom line is we just need to get in that room, elect a speaker, and move forward. There's just too many things happening in the world, too many threats here at home. We need to get the job done and start protecting the American people.
Well, Congresswoman, you say you think he is a good and honorable person, but does that make him the person within the Republican Conference who can get two hundred and seventeen votes. It just seems like it's very difficult for him at this moment.
Yeah, Look, it seems that I don't know that anyone can get two hundred and seventeen votes. That's the problem. I mean, you know, there's always seems to be a small faction who's opposed to anybody that we put off, and it's not always the same eight people. Right, So we had Matt Gates and his crew were the Democrats to remove Kevin McCarthy was supported by ninety seven percent of our conference and now we have a different ten to twenty people who are opposed to Steve Scleeze at
this time. So it is challenging and it is frustrating for people like me who just want to move forward.
I supported all three of those individuals. I'm sure there's many other people within the conference who can do the job, but we just need to be united and understand that our fight should be with the Senate, with the White House for the conservative policies that the American people want, and that in this time when there's so many global pressing issues that could easily become domestic issues, and they are in many ways right because we have Americans who
are in Israel that we're trying to get evacuated. We have some that have sadly already been killed by Hamas. These are the This is exactly what we should be focused on today is how do we support our ally Israel? How do we get those Americans home? Which is I've been pushing this State Department and finally we've got some good news today. But this is what we should be doing, not sitting in a room, you know, airing grievances.
Yeah, it's got to be tedious. I just wonder to the extent that you engage with your colleagues, Congresswoman, what do you tell your fellow Republicans who disagree when you're behind closed doors in a meeting like that today or is that not the tenor of these gatherings.
Look, I think everyone gets an opportunity to say how they feel, where their support is, what their concerns are, what needs to be changed, And that's fine. But the end of the day, we still need to if it's not gonna be steved, we need to figure out who it is. But somebody has to get the two seventeen that is needed so we can proceed with our legislative business. It's only gonna make things worse if we don't get to pass the appropriation bills that need to be passed
and send them over to the Senate. Now that's delaying a process then and then they're gonna be all upset in a month when we get stuff back from the Senate that we're unhappy with and there's no time to negotiate. So I mean, you just need to get back in there, passed those remaining bills out, send support for Israel, and get on with the legislative business. Like I said, Look, I can support multiple candidates. I've laid out three for you I thought could be good speakers. But at the
end of the day, it's not just me. Right, you have two hundred and twenty one people in a room. Everybody's got a different opinion, and that's just you know, leading to the frustration that we're seeing among members like myself and others. Well.
As you talk about the difficulty of getting two hundred and seventeen Republicans to back anyone individual. Congresswomen, I wonder where you think the Democrats are in this Congressmen, Alexandria Acossio Cortes tweeted or posted on X earlier today. I will read you the quote. Given that the vote for speaker was supposed to be yesterday. It seems much more realistic for five Republican members in Biden districts to vote Jeffreys than it is for mister David Duke without the baggage.
She says that in quotes referring here to Steve Scleice to flip one hundred and seven people in overtime. Congresswoman, what is your respect to that?
But you know, the Democrats are complicit in what occurred with the removal of Speaker McCarthy. They every single Democrat voted with the right fringe of our party to remove a speaker that ninety seven percent of our conference supported. So they are complicit. They are part of the reason why we're in this situation without a speaker to begin with. They said they didn't want to be involved in the Republican a fracture. Well, then they should have all voted
president and then this would have never happened. If they just voted president and stayed out of it, this would have never happened. But they chose to insert themselves, and they voted with Matt Gates, who is among you know, the most right wing member of our conference, whom the majority of our conference wishes he wasn't part of our conference to remove a speaker that was doing a good job.
And why because he averted a shutdown, because he prevented a debt default, and because he averted a shutdown, he was removed from power because he did the right thing on behalf of the American people. The Democrats should have done the right thing and recognized that. And you know, this is something that should be applauded, not punished.
That's why a lot of people are saying, Congressom and I'm sure you hear it if I'm hearing it, that Kevin McCarthy is still a viable candidate and could be speaker. Yet, is that something that you would allow for I'd be all for it.
I think Kevin was a great speaker. He did a good job. We passed a lot of our priorities out of the House. People may be upset that the word is not secure. It's not because of House Republicans. We passed that bill. It's because of Chuck Schumer. They are refusing to do their job. They don't want to pass our bill and they don't want to pass their own bill. So we can reconcile the differences. People are upset about
energy costs. It's not because of House Republicans. We passed our Energy Priority to increase domestic production, to lower the sale, lower the cost of gas and energy costs across America. Senator Schumer has been sitting on it. He refuses to address it. So people have to recognize that they they that we are only one third of the federal government, and that we have to work with the Senate in the White House, and you know, we're not going to
always get what we want. But we were able to get some good things, I thought, in particular capping spending, making sure we had more checks and balances for the president to be able to spend money without congressional support. You know, there's certain things that we were able to negotiate in that debt limit. I had faith that Speaker McCarthy was in the room negotiating the best we could
get for the American people from the conservative perspective. Unfortunately, there's some in our conference that don't understand give and take, compromise, negotiation. Everybody's got to give a little to get some and that's really why we're in this situation we're in today, is because people want to be stubborn and want to be holdouts instead of seeing the bigger picture here that
we need. It's good for the party, it's good for the Congress, the institution, and it's good for the country if we go in and just elect a speaker and move forward with business and recognize the fight is not with each other, it is with the Senate, it is with the White House.
Okay, well, Congresswoman, let's talk about the White House, because we just heard from the White House Press Secretary Korean John here. The President Biden is going to be releasing a supplemental request next week, and we have had reports in recent days that that supplemental request may include funding for Israel along with funding for Ukraine, Taiwan, possibly border measures as well. There's been a lot of talk now about the idea of Ukraine funding and funding for Israel
being tied together. Is that appropriate in your mind?
I think these are separate issues that should be taken up separately. There's already been what one hundred and twenty five billion dollars sent to Ukraine. If people rightfully want to know what's been done with that money, what are the goals to? Where the goals? Should we give more money, What will it be used for. They want to see metrics, they want to see accountability. Israel is imminent right now that we get something to support them, because we haven't
done any package to support Israel yet. Certainly they need more equipment. They need iron dome interceptors, they need precision missiles. So we need to do that, and that is important with the border to ask them us for more money to just continue paperwork instead of actually securing the border.
That should be a discussion because we've passed the Border Security Act that would reinstate many of the policies of the previous administration that was stemming the flow at the border, was making sure we knew who was coming in and out of our country and was doing it responsibly. We need to be very concerned right now that we have an open border and the fact that the Senate and some of the Democrats and all the Democrats from the
House are not taking that seriously as a problem. When we passed the Border Security Act, we're simply saying, look, people should remain in the next safe country, not come to the United States. That's what created this influx that we're seeing. We also don't want people to be just released into the interior without knowing where they're going or where they'll be or if they're going to return for
their court dates. We need to add immigration judges to hear these cases more swiftly determined who's a legitimate asylum seeker from who is not. And we need to put in place what Customs and Border Protection have been asking us for technology, training, equipment. They've been asking us for certain things, and unfortunately, I think I got disconnected here. Unfortunately, we are in a situation where, you know, we need to move forward and pass the border security look just
to make it clear for people. One point seven million individuals have entered into our border, okay, and they are unaccounted for. These are undetected individuals. It's what Customs and Border Protection have estimated. This is an addition to the five six million crossings that we've seen. One point seven million individuals. We don't know who they are, where they are, what their intentions are. They should be very concern and considering what is happening in Israel right now.
All right, if you can still hear me, congresswomen, second, I'm not sure that you can. Let's see if we can figure that out.
This is the Beauty of Life broadcasts.
Absolutely, that's actually happened to me on the air before Congressman, I apologize that's that's happened to me as well.
On the air.
There's there's a it's a horrifying feeling. I just wanted to better understand though your answer to Kaille's question, would that bogged down? Then a supplemental request for Israeli funding? Is that why you want to see that handled as a separate matter.
You know, if you're gonna bring the border into this and you're gonna bring Ukraine into us, there's a lot of questions that members have, particularly we want to see real border security and and we want to see some of the policies that we've passed in our Border Security
Act enacted. So yeah, that could slow down support, you know, and that's probably why the administration wants to insert it in there, because they're trying to just get what they want without having to answer questions from Members of Congress.
But we have checks and balances, we have oversight. We have to hold this administration accountable for what they are and not and are not doing, and so we want to make sure that if there's going to be any anything related to the border that we're gonna see serious border security is stopped. This unsafe and unsustainable flow that is affecting the entire nation, and my mayor is saying is going to bankrupt and destroy New York City.
I've got one more for you, Congress someone. I know this is difficult for you. If you're with us on YouTube, you can see why and you can drop your earpiece after I asked this question. And it has to do with your drive to get flights out of Israel. If we can get back to where we started here the administration today, the State Department is talking about getting chartered
flights together. But you let a letter that was signed on by more than one hundred, one hundred and forty lawmakers to try to get New Yorkers and others out of Israel who need access to that transportation. Where does that stand?
Yeah, so, well, it seems like the State Department has been moving now and that this could begin as early as tomorrow. What we've basically said, and it's a shame that we're already on five days. Other countries, Germany, Poland, Mexico, Canada, they've been there, they've been evacuating citizens, either via a
military aircraft or chartered commercial planes. We believe now that we finally are hearing that the State Department is going to start evacuating individuals via chartered planes as early as tomorrow's or are waiting for that evacuation plan. I think for those who have relatives, loved ones American citizens who are in Israel who are trying to leave, I think the most important thing they could do right now is make sure they're registered with the State Department. They could
do it online. I've posted this information on my Facebook page. People can get it off of there, and you should
call your member of Congress. I think that's really important because my office has been working directly with constituents to try to get them on charter flights through another means, without the help unfortunately of the State Department, but through a Congressman, Corey Mills, who's on the ground right now, and we've been able to get either people to Jordan or now we're working to try to get people to Cyprus.
But I'll say is it is important that you let your congress member know if you are in Israel or you have a loved one. An American citizen is an in Israel, so that way they can help track and expedite the situation and get them on the right path.
It's a really important message. I'm glad you could join us. Congresswoman, thank you for spending some time with us today from Capitol Hill on what, of course, we know is a very busy day. Nicole Malia Takis, Republican from New York. Clearly going through a lot here, Kaylee, and frustrated at the process involving the speaker or a lack.
Thereof Yeah, lack thereof being the state of play at the moment show and it's very unclear at this time how long we're going to stay that way is. It feels like not a lot of progress has been made. And you know, something that members did tell me has been buzzing about. Byron Donald said a number of members have brought this up, even though he doesn't necessarily agree with it, is empowering Patrick McHenry, Speaker pro Tem, to do more in the internet.
We've been talking about that since the beginning. We may start talking about that a lot more again, as yesterday's breakthrough doesn't feel like so much of a break through at this point. Pretty interesting though, Kaylee she said she was still open to a speaker, Kevin McCarthy.
Yeah, we'll see if that actually has to become a reality potentially. See someone's got to get the votes right.
Find us on YouTube search Bloomberg Global News if you want to see Patrick McHenry really slam that gavel. I'm Joe Matthew alongside Kaylee Lines. It's the fastest show in politics. This is Bloomberg. Thanks for listening to the Sound on podcast. Make sure to subscribe if you haven't already, at Apple, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts. And you can find us live every weekday from Washington, DC at one pm Eastern Time at Bloomberg dot com