Their aggression they cause more chaos and death. And he calls on congress to fund both wars. We cant let petty partisan angry politics get in the way of responsibles of a great nation. Now the urgent effort to free more hostages as two americans are released. Will the u. S. Be able to build support for staying in the fight . Ill ask secretary of state Antony Blinken and former Vice President mike pence. Plus, house in chaos. A speaker has not been elected. We need to come together and figure out who our speakers going to be. The house of representatives remains leaderless as the republican fight over who will become the next speaker drags on. The crazy the amount of damage they have done to this party and to this country is insurmountable. Is there a solution to this dysfunction . Will anyone be able to get the gavel . Ill talk to the former House SpeakerKevin Mccarthy and admission of guilt. Guilty. Guilty. Two former Trump Lawyers plead guilty in the Georgia Election case. What will it mean for Donald TrumpsLegal Defense . Joining me for insight and analysis are. New york times chief White House Correspondent peter baker. Amna nawaz, a coanchor of pbs news hour. Washington post columnist, David Ignatius and Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise institute. Welcome to sunday. Its meet the press. From nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history. This is meet the press with kristen welker. Good sunday morning. The u. S. Is stepping up its military readiness across the mideast citing escalations by iran and its proxy forces as the u. S. And israel prepare for a widening war. American israeli hostages judith and Natalie Ranan spoke to President Biden on saturday after being released by am hamas. They were abducted in the terror attack two weeks ago in southern israel. Hi, judith. Hello, president. I am so glad youre home. Not home, im glad youre out. Thank you so very, very much. Hey, how are you . God love you. I appreciate your support for israel. According to the israeli military, 212 hostages are still being held captive. At least 30 of them under the age of 16. The first 20 trucks carrying aid moved through the rafah Border Crossing from egypt into gaza saturday, but did not include fuel critical to keeping hospitals running and water. The threat of a widening war. Prdz and his top aides have been urging leaders against carrying any major strike against hezbollah and lebanon which could bring israel into a twofront war and a growing threat to iran. Two drones targeted garrison in southern syria injuring several u. S. Personnel. Drones targeted bases with u. S. Troops in iraq this week resulting in several more minor injuries. Thursday, a u. S. Navy ship in the Northern Red Sea downed four cruise missiles and more than a dozen drones launched from yemen by proiranian huthy forces that seemed to be headed toward israel. Moving a Carrier Strike group to the persian gulf and putting additional u. S. Troops to prepare to deploy orders. President biden is linking a request for aid to israel to ukraine formally asking congress for 105 billion for emergency funding. On thursday night the president pressed for american engagement at a time of growing global instability. History has taught us that when terrorists dont pay a price for their terror, when dictators dont pay a price for their aggression they cause more chaos and death and more destruction. They keep going, and the cost and the threats to america and the world keep riding. And joining me now is secretary of state Antony Blinken who recently returned from a whirlwind diplomatic trip to the middle east which took him to egypt, bahrain, qatar, the united arab emirates, jordan and saudi arabia twice. Good morning. Welcome back to meet the press. Thank you, kristen. Good to be with you. I want to start with the hostage situation. As we reported those two american hostages have been released this morning and hamas has come out with a statement saying they are prepared to release two more hostages. What can you tell us about that . Do you see this as a credible offer coming from this terrorist organization . Well, first, kristen, weve been working on this from day one, engaged from different partners in the region, sending clear messages about the need for immediately and unconditionally release all of the hostages and it was gratifying to see that judith and Natalie Ranan were released yesterday. I had a chance to speak to them, as well. They sounded strong of mind, strong of spirit, but there remain many others and we are hopeful that more are released, but the bottom line is this. They need to be released. Each and every one of them, now, unconditionally. Do you take this word by hamas that they are potentially prepared to release two more hostages seriously. Is the u. S. Government working with qatar to make that happen as we speak . Well, acts speak, not words, particularly coming from hamas. Weve been engaged with partners and one of the first things that i did after the horrific attack of october 7th and hostages were taken. Men, women, young children, elderly people. Its extraordinary was to talk to everyone we could who might have influence with hamas in terms of releasing them. In the instance of judith and natalie, i again want to thank the government of qatar for playing a very Important Role in getting them out and now on their way home to see their loved ones. I want to ask you about their release. Can you tell us why those two were released and why now, mr. Secretary . I cant. We dont know why hamas chose to release natalie and judith first. I use the word first advisedly because again, we are hopeful that more follow. I cant speak to that. What i can speak to is our incessant efforts from day one to try to get people home, to try to get them out of gaza back with their families and loved ones. That is continuing as we speak. This is something we are engaged in virtually around the clock. Do you believe that all ten unaccounted for americans are being held hostage . Kristen, we dont know. As you said, we have ten unaccounted for americans. We believe that some significant number are hostages, but you know, whats happening is and it just underscores the horror. Israel continues to discover, uncover people who were killed, who were slaughtered and i use that term very advisedly. Slaughtered on october 7th. So what we dont know for sure is whether some of the unaccounted for are dead and have simply not been uncovered yet or a hostage, but we have a pretty strong idea that some number of the ten are being held in gaza by hamas. I want to the talk to you about the ground operation in israel. I spoke to an idf spokesperson earlier this week who said they are not planning to change their strategy despite the fact that two hostages have now been released. I want to ask you, does the u. S. Want israel to wait on its ground operation until more hostages can be freeded . Kristen, lets first step back. The attack of october 7th, the slaughtering of men, women, children, the rocketing of israel that continues to this day, no country, no country could accept that, and so israel has not only the right, as we said, but the obligation, to defend itself. We are not in the business of second guessing what they are doing. We are talking to them on a regular basis about how they do it. Its vitally important that every measure be taken to protect civilians, but humanitarian assistance gets in to people caught in the cross fire of hamas making and of course, both of us want to make sure that the many hostages that have been taken come home and thats why we are working on it, as i said, virtually every minute of the day, but these are decisions that israel has to make. We can give our best advice and our best judgment again about how they do it and also how best to achieve the results that theyre seeking. I want to try to get some clarity from you about the water situation in gaza. As you know, israel decided to cut off water to gaza along with the fuel electricity that powers the water and sewage plants in the territory, and that has exposed residents to all sorts of potential contaminated water and sickness as well. What was the strategy behind that and can you clarify, has any of the water been restored, mr. Secretary . So this is something that weve also been working on from virtually from the beginning. When i was in israel and throughout the region as you mentioned a little while ago, one of the things i was very focused on was making sure that people in gaza, innocent people who are caught in this through no fault of their own, in this cross fire of hamas making get the assistance they need. Whether its food, whether its medicine, whether its water, and so we were able has any of it been restored, mr. Secretary . In short, yes. In short, yes. Two things. First, there are multiple pipelines. Israel turned on one of the pipelines six or seven days ago so that was an important step and there are a couple of other pipelines that we would like to see restored. In addition, water is coming in. We had the first 20 trucks of assistance come in, that includes water. We are getting more that we hope will be moving as early as today. In fact, we were just told that some of the convoys had started to move again and are moving as we speak. At the same time, there are other things that need to happen. There are desalination plants that need to be powered in order to make sure that the water people are drinking is clean. We do have concerns about the spread of disease as a result of people drinking dirty water. All of these things are very much part of what were doing every day to try to make sure palestinians have the assistance we need. We,a pointed a very senior diplomat, David Satterfield to be on the ground every day working to make sure the humanitarian aid people need is getting there and this is a work in progress. Its something were at all of the time. Mr. Secretary, theres been a lot of discussion about what happens after the war. Can you tell us what israels strategy is after your meeting with Prime Minister netanyahu . Who will govern gaza once the war is over . One thing is for sure, israel cannot go back to the status quo and again, no country will be able to accept that. But is there clear strategy, mr. Secretary . Is it clear who will govern gaza once this war is over . Think we know two things, we cant go back to the status quo. They cant go back to the status quo with hamas being in a position in terms of its governance of gaza to do what it did. What i heard from the israelis is no intent, no desire to be running gaza themselves. They moved out of gaza unilaterally a couple of decades ago and they dont so something needs to be found that ensures that hamas cant do this again and also doesnt revert to the government of gaza that they do not intend to do. There are different ideas out there about what could follow, but all of that, i think needs to be worked and its something that needs to be worked even as israel is dealing with the current threat. Yeah. As i had mentioned earlier we had seen an uptick in attacks against u. S. Military facilities against troops around the region. Overnight the pentagon announced it was increasing its force, posture in the region. How concerned are you about iran trying to escalate this war . We are concerned. In fact, we expect that theres a likelihood of escalation. An escalation by iranian proxies directed against our forces, directed against our personnel. We are taking steps to make sure that we can effectively defend our people and respond decisively if we need to. This is not what we want and not what were looking for. We dont want escalation. We dont want to see a second or third front develop. We dont want to see our forces and our personnel come under fire, but if that happens, we are ready for it. Is the u. S. Opposed to a preemptive strike by israel as has been discussed by some israeli officials . The israelis have been very clear with us and we share this view. No one wants a second or third front including when it comes to lebanon, northern israel and southern lebanon and thats not in anyones interest and thats why we sent a very strong message to try to deter hezbollah, deter iran more directly from opening up a second front. You heard the president speak to this very clearly and hes put countries and nonstate actors on warning. Dont take advantage of the situation. Weve also deployed very significant assets from the region and two Aircraft Carrier battle groups not to provoke, but to deter, to make clear that if anyone tries to do anything we are there. So my expectation is that, again, coming from us, coming from israel, no one is looking for that second front. I just, finally, with the few seconds we have left want to ask you about the 100 billion in aid that President Biden is requesting from congress currently in a state of paralysis without a speaker of the house, how can the u. S. Deliver on that aid if you cant get it through the house where there are also deep divisions about potentially linking aid to israel and ukraine . We we need to see the continuation of strong, bipartisan support for both ukraine and for israel. We have two friends who are under attack in different way, but you heard the president speak very powerfully and very eloquently to this the other night speaking to the American People. We know that if we let wouldbe aggressors act with impunity whether its a state like russia, whether its terrorists like hamas, we open a pandoras box for other aggressors around the world to try to get away with the same thing. So we have to stand strongly with our friends. We have to stand strongly with both ukraine and israel. We have to be looking out for the people of gaza who are caught in this cross fire. The supplemental budget request, the money the president asked congress for would do just that. It gives us the assistance that ukraine need, that israel needs and also that the people of gaza needs with a lot of humanitarian aid. So we need congress, and we need it to move forward on the strong, bipartisan basis weve already seen when it comes to supporting both ukraine and israel and i hope the people of gaza. All right. Secretary of state blinken, thank you very much for your time this morning. We really appreciate it. Thanks, kristen. When we come back, theres still no speaker of the house as we said as the war rages on in israel. Israel. If we want a more viable future for our kids, we need to find more sustainable ways of doing things. Americas plastic makers are investing billions of dollars in new technologies and creating Plastic Products that are more recyclable. Durable. And dependable. Our goal is a cleaner, healthier planet for generations to come. For a better tomorrow, were focused on making plastics better today. This is american infrastructure. 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What do you say to americans who look at this chaos and believe its a sign that republicans cannot govern . Bell, its embarrassing and youve got to understand why we are here. Eight republicans led by gaetz have created this chaos by joining every single democrat in voting to shut down one branch of government. Look, i would do the exact same thing again. Could you imagine if we were having this discussion rate now with the american Government Shutdown, with our troops in the middle east wondering when theyll ever get paid again . Keeping the government open was the right decision to make, and id make it again each and every day. Now, the two men, Steve Scalise and jim jordan, they could have done the job as speaker. Unfortunately, the chaos has continued. We need to solve this problem and we have a wide open, southern border ask crushing inflation and weve got war in the middle east. This is not a moment in time to play around with learning on the job. We need someone who understands how to do this job. I believe tom emmer our whip who has been in the room from secure the border from parents bill of