This administration has lessened those and we believe that really is a big part of why iran felt emboldened enough to allow its proxies to wage this attack. Neil real quickly. Tom emmer did clear a hurdle by getting republican support, what there was within conference for potential vote on the house floor. That he will be probably shy of the votes that he needs. Do you agree with that assessment . I have to be candid. The closest to 217 votes is our former speaker that was about four votes shy when he left office. As of today, the most popular republican by far is in fact Kevin Mccarthy. That cause as lot of us the question of did we get rid of the right man to get an alternative when theres no alternative. Were going to a conference in a few minutes. As emmer tries to get to 217, a lot of us are asking the question what was wrong with the person to that almost had 217 on the day he left office. Neil do you know whether he or maybe at your behest would try entertaining for his old job
confirmed in that time are actually hostages? less than 10. that s not a number. i want a number from you. less than 10. why can t you give a number? i ve given you an answer. what is your next question? you ve given an answer. you ve not been responsive. let the record show. the other question has to do with israeli warnings. the israelis have said their objective and they ve been very explicit about it is to destroy hamas. from you and other administration officials, we hear the objective is to ensure that hamas can never terrorize israel again. those are two different objectives are. you having a problem with the israelis in terms of a clear communication here of their objectives or have their objectives appeared to change over time? no and no. how does does the united states support the goal of destroying hamas? we support what israel is trying to do to protect citizens from the threat of hamas. james, you know this. we re not on the ground fighting in
people in the administration are saying, we have learned to do a lot with a little. and i keep going back to syria. i would say to them that 2,500, 3,500 troops in afghanistan couldn t do anything. i would remind them that 3,500 troops in syria, in the middle of assad s syria held the syrians, the russians, the iranians, held the turks, and held isis at bay. and when russian mercenaries came after them, they killed them all. so one of the lessons, and george packer, let me bring you in here on this one as well, one of the few lessons that we ve learned militarily over the past 20 years is that we don t have to send 150,000 troops into a country to make a difference. if we want to push back on isis or if we want to provide a safe
right and my observations and the observations of many people are correct that joe seems out of it on a regular basis, those are questions about how strong he is and how capable he is of even understanding it, then it raises questions who was making the decisions. i would imagine that these hostile regime from russia to china to north korea to the iranian and erratic islamic groups, they are feeling somewhat emboldened now. is that a wrong observation? we are cutting our military budget, increase spending by 17% pure different spending less than inflation. we are withdrawing from afghanistan where we had a few thousand troops to keep al qaeda and isis at bay. here is my message. the iranian regime are religious s. they would kill all the if they could appear they would dominate the mideast with a former
is tiny. it is not a strategic region for the u.s. to continue having a presence there. many think, in fact, what s actually occurred pence advisers sold to donald trump that is a reason to keep soldiers there and to keep isis at bay. keeping themselves in the southern eastern part of syria to defend them is keeping up the mission doing before. the problem essentially is this is not an american solution. this is an american problem created by the phone call between donald trump and president erdogan of turkey that led to withdrawal of american troops under hasty conditions and means they have to prosecute half their mission seems in the days ahead with extra armor going to defend them in the south of syria around the oil fields which are not strategic value to the united states. can t find anybody to tell you they are. certainly having troops there blocking iran through movement