ICYMI: McCaul Joined Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union”
Washington, D.C. – House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul joined Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union” today to discuss the latest on Russia’s unprovoked war of aggression in Ukraine, the NATO Vilnius Summit, and his investigation into the Biden administration’s catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
On the idea of Ukraine joining NATO:
“I think it should be incremental, Jake… We cannot admit Ukraine into NATO immediately. That would put us at war with Russia…”
“But I do think just to talk about it does provide deterrence against Russia…We have to put it on the right path for not an immediate ascension into NATO.”
On sending cluster munitions to Ukraine:
“All the Ukrainians and Zelenskyy are asking for is to give them the same weapons the Russians have…they want these as self-defense to use against Russians in their own country.”
“As you look at the counteroffensive, it’s been slow, tremendously, because this administration has been so slow to get the weapons in… [Cluster munitions] are highly effective, and particularly hitting flanks of troops inside of Ukraine. They would be a game-changer in the counteroffensive.”
On Secretary Yellen’s trip to China:
“I think it’s good to have diplomacy. I think it’s good to have discussions moving forward. But what has China done? Their response is export controls on rare earth minerals. As a result of [Secretary Yellen’s] meeting, they’re going to cut exports of rare earth minerals to the United States in what would be considered a trade action or a trade embargo.”
On Biden’s outrageous claim that al Qaeda is no longer present in Afghanistan:
“It is devoid of reality…The President of the United States would have [to] be so disillusioned about what is happening on the ground in Afghanistan… His own secretary of defense and Joint Chiefs of Staff… [have] said al-Qaeda’s on the rise in Afghanistan.
“What happened right after he withdrew? … You got Haqqani, the Taliban, harboring Zawahiri of al-Qaeda, Bin Laden’s number two guy in Afghanistan right after the fall… It’s a bit bizarre to me that a president would be so devoid of his own foreign policy and he just really wants to sweep Afghanistan under the rug.”
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