Joe Biden promised to end Donald Trump’s “love affair” with tyrants like the Egyptian ruler Sisi. But now he looks set to approve a super-sized military aid package that helps prop up Sisi’s regime.
and we ll replace stolen or destroyed items with brand-new versions. we put members first. join the nation. nationwide is on your side new developments tonight in the u.s. relationship with egypt. jim sciutto joins us. reporter: let s be very precise here about significant developments tonight. just to start, the white house has released a statement this evening saying that an announcement women coill come i coming days on u.s. military aid to egypt. not all aid will be suspended. but information from u.s. official that is some military aid to egypt will be suspended. certain things will be exempted,
egypt. jim sciutto joins us. what have you learned? let s be very precise here, about significant developments tonight. just to start, the white house has released a statement this evening saying that an announcement will come in the coming days on u.s. military aid to egypt. not all aid will be suspended. but information from u.s. officials that some military aid to egypt will be suspended. certain things will be exempted, counterterrorism aid, security in the sinai peninsula. we ve also been told that the egyptians have not yet been notified. this is a decision that the administration has been struggling with for some time. it s been pushed back a number of times. just to be clear, the u.s. aid relationship with egypt will continue. it s about $1.5 billion a year which encompasses other things beyond military aid. s economic aid, for instance. but still, anderson, a significant decision affecting one of the longest-standing u.s.
after a telephone briefing with his national security team on the escalating violence in egypt, president obama emerged from vacation mode in an effort to jolt that country s interim military government off what he called a dangerous path. the egyptian people deserve people. reporter: cancelling bright star, a long time joint biannual military exercise set for next month. our traditional cooperation cannot continue as usual when civilians are being killed in the streets and rights are being rolled back. reporter: this stepped up pressure comes amid calls to suspend the $1.3 billion in annual u.s. military aid to egypt, something that would be virtually automatic if the white house would call the military ouster of former president morsi a coup. but the obama administration has dug in its heels, insisting it would not be in the best interest of the u.s. does anyone in this building feel that perhaps it was a
tahrir square just weeks after mubarak had left power. we said we shared the democratic aspirations and criticisms of the morsi government that led millions of egyptians into the streets on june 30th. we ve also said that the circumstances of the former government, the president s removal, were a coup. i ask you to give me a definition of political coup. i m not here to go through the dictionary. if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck. referring to a coup. by law, by the way, more than $1 billion in u.s. military aid to egypt would have to be cut off if the u.s., if the president of the united states formally tea chairs that morsi s ouster was in fact a coup. so far the white house has not said that. another couple. stories we re watching in the situation room. day one of jury deliberations