McCaul: Xi, Putin, Ayatollah Are “Threats to Democracy” – Not Republicans
Washington, D.C. – House Foreign Affairs Committee Lead Republican Michael McCaul joined Martha Raddatz on “ABC This Week” to discuss President Biden’s recent attacks on Republicans, the DOJ’s unprecedented raid on President Trump’s home, and the latest on Ukraine and Iran.
On President Biden’s Speech:
“If this was a speech to unify the American people, it had just the opposite effect. It basically condemned all Republicans who supported Donald Trump in the last election. That’s over 70 million people…Saying that Republicans are a threat to democracy is really a slap in the face. This was not a presidential address by the way. It was a political speech that wasn’t even carried by your network or the other two major [broadcast] networks…It was a campaign speech before the midterm elections.”
“Republicans are not a threat to democracy. I see the threat to our democracy being Putin, Chairman Xi in China, the Ayatollah in Iran – who [President Biden] is currently negotiating with for an Iran deal – and Kim Jong Il of North Korea. Those are the major threats to democracy.”
On DOJ Raid on President Trump’s Home
“On the heels of the Russia investigation and the Steele dossier, there’s a certain ‘distrust but verify’ attitude when it comes to the Department of Justice and the FBI…I have a lot of questions. Why didn’t they enforce the subpoena before they did this unprecedented search on a former president of the United States?…If this was such a national security threat, for God sake, why didn’t they brief the Gang of 8 on this? The relevant committees on the Hill have asked for briefings on this to find out what was so important from a national security standpoint that would merit such an extreme measure to have a search warrant on the former president of the United States.”
On the War in Ukraine
“I support Ukraine. And we need to support these freedom fighters who have really amazed the world and inspired the world for freedom and democracy against a brutal dictator, Vladimir Putin…Congress will review this package…We will make sure we got the right weapons going in. But also, Martha, you know my view, we should have done this a year ago – well before the invasion – and given the Ukrainian people the weapons they need to win this fight. Which they are. They have a counteroffensive right now in Kherson going into Crimea. The weapons need to go in – they should have gone in a long time ago.”
On the Threat from Iran
“You can’t trust [Iran]. I would say if I were president for the day, a nuclear Iran is no acceptable. That is the policy of the United States – and they will understand what that means.”