administration? in there is an imminent attack, they can defend the ship. but these attacks have been going on since early december, as the president s own statement says. and we have gone to the united nations. we ve gotten resolutions. not once have they come to the united states congress to discuss what the appropriate response would be. if you talk to our saudi allies or uae, the saudis tried to bomb the houthis for eight years. and they regret that war. it did not deter the houthis. it actually made the houthis stronger. they would caution against getting into a conflict with the houthis. what they would tell you, the qataris would tell you is we need to work with de-escalation. we need to work towards a cipher in gaza to try to make sure that gaza does not get caught up in a war that puts up oil prices and puts our treasure and our troops at risk. a senior official tells cnn that these airstrikes, quote,
stability in a statement. why are they so concerned about this tipping into a wider war? well, the saudis have been very concerned, as have others in the region that the growing tensions at the northern border of israel with hezbollah and lebanon, and the fact that iran is a proxy behind hezbollah, behind hamas here. and a real proxy behind the houthis creates the concern that iran is manipulating behind the scenes to try to stoke tensions. and in a way, it s beginning to achieve that. the saudis are particularly concerned about that broader regional conflict. but the red sea is a vital economic interest to them. they have an important port there, jizam, jeddah. targeting saudi for many, many
seems to be describing, is this a communications issue for the biden administration, or something else? it s far more than that. i love jim clyburn, respect him immensely. but this is far more than a campaign of misinformation or disinformation. let s just call it again what it is. black folk did not just save joe biden s campaign in a very real way. black folks saved this democracy. on more than one occasion, we have been called upon as black people to save this democracy from itself. we ve done it in every war, in the civil war, in world war i, world war ii, black soldiers having to sit on the back of the train behind nazi war criminals coming out. and yet we put ourselves, our lives on the line to save this democracy. so black women in particular in south carolina, again, didn t just save this campaign, they stepped up to save this democracy. here is the question with all respect to congressman clyburn, who i love dearly. what is the return on investment? we continue to be called
position some to be out at walter reed at this point in time. and on the prospect here of a broader conflict in the middle east, that s looming over all of this. how does this move tonight bring the united states closer to a potential broader war, that frankly, they don t want? well, look, on one hand, it s an escalation because we ve conducted what strikes against 12 targets, using surface, subsurface and air capabilities. we did so with our allies. all that s good. so it s a significant increase. but on the other hand, look, i ve been arguing for a few weeks on this network that if we didn t act, it was going to continue to escalate because the houthis just weren t going to stop. i mean, they promised that they weren t going to stop attacking commercial ship manage the red sea until israel withdrew from gaza. and that wasn t going to happen, isn t going to happen any time soon. you have not just the security concerns of commercial shipping going through there, of course,
may not be the last word. do you think that the united states is on the verge of engaging in a broader war here? i hope not. but i think this has increased the risk of retaliation against our embassies, retaliation against our troops. and that s why i don t understand how they did not come to congress. how did they at the time to talk to the canadians, the british, but not to members of the congress when article i says congress needs to have that role? and we know the american people don t want another conflict in the middle east. they don t want us involved. and there has not been enough effort at de-escalation, which is what the qataris are telling us, what the uae are telling us, what the saudis are telling us who suffered for eight years in a war in yemen. congressman ro khanna, thank you very much for joining us tonight. thank you. and up next, we ll speak more about this breaking news