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Washington, D.C. – House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul joined Margaret Brennan on CBS’ “Face the Nation” amid leading a bipartisan congressional delegation to Israel to discuss the Israel-Hamas war and Congress’ ongoing efforts to fund the federal government.

 

WATCH HERE.

 

On the delegation’s trip to Israel and the threat of Hamas:

“I will say Margaret, when we walked in, the first thing we saw was the horrific Hamas video showing the gruesome killings [by] these barbaric terrorists. And it was a very intense, kind of powerful moment. You know, the Prime Minister was in tears, really teary eyed, about what happened. And remember, this is sort of like their 9/11, and they want to eliminate the threat – you know, as they should. And I think we talked a lot about the ground-game operations, humanitarian [aid], and we also met with the Minister of Defense as well.”

On American hostages taken by Hamas in Gaza:

“I’m meeting – right after this interview – with a bunch of families of the hostages, and I met with them in the United States. Very dicey issue, and I think what Hamas wants will be a swap of prisoners in Israel.”

On passing aid for Israel through the House: 

“Our aid [to] Israel is urgent and time is of the essence. We have to deliver this package. Now I know that we have offsets, and that’s fair, but I don’t think we can play political games with this to support our ally because if they fail and we fail, it would have a very bad effect across the Middle East. Now, into Ukraine, that’s vitally important as well. So is Taiwan and so is the last line of defense, the southern border. So really, if you think about all these threats, [they] are really tied together.”

On government funding:

“Well, you know, we have the power of the purse. We need more time. The [continuing resolutions] always hurt the military, always hurt our national security.”

…

“I mean, there’s no choice here. I mean, the world is on fire from where I sit. It is too urgent. We can’t sit back and do nothing. And talking to Prime Minister Netanyahu, they needed this [aid] ‘yesterday’ in his words. Ukraine needed it yesterday. The border for certainly needed it yesterday. We know that Chairman Xi is threatening Taiwan and the Pacific.”

 

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