As this passed in the House, this $14 billion aid package, again full of poison pills, Democrats were stuck deciding how they were going to react to the legislation. Of course, we know plenty of Democrats who were always going to vote no on it out of principle at their support for the liberation of Palestinian people. [00:00:18] But there are a lot of Democrats who always vote to fund Israel and they had to make decision here. So a lot of Democrats have called for a ceasefire or a humanitarian pause, which is nothing, by the way, it's nothing. [00:00:34] But there are many who haven't. These strong advocates for Israel found themselves for the first time in their political careers voting against funding Israel, including Brad Schneider, a Democrat from Illinois, who put out this statement. [00:00:50] In my worst nightmares, I never thought I would be asked to vote for a bill cynically conditioning aid to Israel on ceding to the partisan demands of one party. I also never thought that a day would come that I would be asked to consider voting against an aid package for Israel, our most important ally in the Middle East and [00:01:08] maybe in the world. And I don't think I could have rolled my eyes harder than I did while reading that statement just because any other issue that they have to vote for in Congress, of course you're gonna see this type of partisan play. It's interesting because this is something that is almost never done with Israel, [00:01:28] it enjoys such bipartisan support. But what you saw in that statement is the talking points that we're gonna see coming from the pro Israel Democrats, which is politicizing the aid as well as conditioning the aid, as I mentioned, which isn't normally done. [00:01:43] Now, here's Representative Mikey Cheryl on that as well, as well as other necessary aid. >> Speaker 2: This is certainly showing the Speaker's inexperience and I think lack of understanding of many of the ways in which Congress really works. [00:01:59] So to have a, quote, pay for something that he wants to pay for the bill with, that actually adds $12 billion to the deficit is pretty bewildering. Furthermore, it also displays a lack of understanding of how when you [00:02:14] are fighting a counterinsurgency, you've really got to make sure you are taking care of the civilians. Our generals during Iraq and Afghanistan spent an inordinate amount of time worrying about how to get power to populations, how to get food and [00:02:30] water to populations. And so the humanitarian relief part of this package is critical as well. >> Speaker 1: And that's why after the war in Iraq, there was a million dead civilians, is because of all of the care that they took. [00:02:47] I don't think that would be the example I would use when talking about taking care for civilians. But let's talk about changing perceptions, because this poll was recently released on American support for weapons as well as aid to Gaza. [00:03:03] So this first, Republicans, 65% to 30% and Democrats, 49% to 43% support sending more military aid to Israel. Independents are divided with 46% supporting it and 47 opposing it. Voters, 71% to 24% overwhelmingly support the United States [00:03:21] providing humanitarian assistance to help Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Just a reminder, there was no provisions for any humanitarian assistance in what was passed, the bill that was passed in the House. There's also no aid to Ukraine. [00:03:38] So here's the percentages on support for that. Democrats, 77%-20% and Independents 52%-44% support sending more military aid to Ukraine while Republicans, 63%-33% oppose it. Republicans, 94%-4%, Independents 71%-24% and Democrats 59%-34%, all support [00:03:59] providing more funds to help secure the United States border with Mexico. And I mean, one of the interesting things I think that we're seeing play out here, Bret, is that Mike Johnson's been very clear so far until he was elected speaker that he didn't want any support, any military aid going to Ukraine and [00:04:18] now his party has passed a bill not including that. Of course he gave lip service to supporting Ukrainians after he was elected speaker and he's saying that they will be passing something in the next few days to support Ukrainians. [00:04:37] He's getting attacked from the far right of his party and also from now the more moderate wing of the Republican party. I don't know how long this is gonna last. >> Speaker 3: He's got a razor thin margin. [00:04:53] I think the only thing that affects any of his policy is whether he keeps the government open or not. I think that what Republicans want after their battle internally with all their politics is just not to do anything that's gonna make people start hating them more. [00:05:08] And when they shut down the government it reflects poorly on the Republicans especially in this scenario. There's a lot in there Israel and Gaza stuff but yeah, that's my take on that question. [00:05:26] >> Speaker 1: Did you wanna just give final thoughts on the other subject. >> I kinda said it earlier. My position on the Israel Gaza stuff is, you ask everybody, they start yelling at each other. The extremes of both parties are like there should only be one state in my [00:05:43] opinion, that state should be run by my people and I just don't think that's tenable. Then most people after they yell at each other and argue what Free Palestine means, they end up saying, yeah, let's go back to 1967 borders. Anybody who says that, but what about the settlers who have a life there? [00:06:00] Well there were settlers in the Sinai Peninsula after the war and they lived there for 15 years and they left. I just think that if you were the Israeli government, they caught with being completely unaware and unprepared for [00:06:19] the incursion or for the attack or whatever that happened. And now they are overreacting in a way where the way that it works for people who aren't paying the attention and they stir from their sleep on this whole issue and [00:06:37] catch it with the side of their eye is, wow, Gaza sucks, it sucks there. It's the worst place on earth, and it is run by Hamas. And Hamas historically wants to annihilate not just [00:06:54] every Jew in Israel, but every Jew in the world. But even with that ethos, you just can't, the optics look so horrible on you, Israel, if Gaza is this horrible. So what you do is the worst, most callous not the worst, the worst, [00:07:12] most callous way to say it is like, wipe out a certain an entire people. But the most callous way to look at it is like, all right, you got attacked. The way to show your force in the area is to kill more people on the other side than killed you, and rely on America to show up when you're like, [00:07:31] hold me back, and then everything goes back to normal. That is the callous way, it has been for a very long time. And that disproportionate setup is the status quo. And everybody needs to go back to getting to a two state solution, [00:07:48] in my opinion, and do that now. And the ceasefire, you did your thing, and you're gonna lose any kind of these numbers are just gonna get worse for Israel if you keep this up. >> Speaker 3: Yeah, and we're still seeing members of the US government saying that [00:08:05] calling for a ceasefire is maybe the worst thing you can be doing and repugnant. So we'll see how much longer this is going to go on before the United States does eventually, I mean, I don't know, before their hand is completely forced and they have to do something, I would hope sooner rather than later. [00:08:20] [MUSIC]