CNN Newsroom: Interview with Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC)

Interview

"Well, Abby, one of the things we should do as Americans is put this into context for ourselves. Number one, I've heard as many as 1,000 deaths in Israel now. In America, that would be translated into 40,000 Americans losing their lives because of evil. Evil, I can't say it any clearer. Evil attack by Hamas on Israel. Number one. Number two, we should make sure that there is no daylight between America and Israel.

Number three, we should be very clear in sending the strongest signal, and I do agree with sending assets into the Mediterranean to be in a positive aggressive, offensive posture if necessary, and we must make sure that the Americans who have been taken hostage, that we put our resources to work to bring those Americans home.

And unfortunately, Abby, President Biden paying $6 billion for Americans only increased the price for an American -- I will say, I said this several months ago -- several weeks ago, excuse me, that when you raise the price on an American head, basically, you've just created a market to take more Americans. And we have seen that play out just in the last 24 hours. Devastating news to our country and to the Middle East, and most importantly also to our ally Israel.

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I certainly think we should be prepared to send resources to Israel without any question. The good news is for the last 10 years, the last 10-year window, we have sent somewhere near $25 billion to $30 billion helping Israel build one of the greatest militaries on the planet. So they have the resources necessary, frankly, to wipe Hamas off the map. And so we want targeted attacks in order to get Americans back.

And, frankly, I think you'll see Prime Minister Netanyahu go even further as he makes sure Hamas cannot have another day like yesterday morning in the state of Israel ever again.

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Well, I will support Prime Minister Netanyahu doing whatever it takes to keep Israelis safe and the safe return of Americans. That must be a clear message. We have had the exact opposite from President Biden over the last two years. We now need strength. Appeasement is a terrible strategy militarily. We now need strength. We've needed all along Ronald Reagan's doctrine of peace through strength. Actually kept the world safer and kept Americans safer.

It is time for us to return to overwhelming force as it relates to any conflict that we must be engaged in.

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Well, the deal has really some very good points and, A, the one thing I would not do is provide a commercial nuclear program to Saudi Arabia.

To me, that leads to, B, which is an acceleration of another nuclear state potentially in the Middle East. So we should learn the lesson through the JCPOA, the nuclear deal with Israel by giving it -- with Iran, giving Iran an opportunity to have frankly a path forward towards a nuclear weapon is a terrible decision.

Giving Saudi Arabia, in my opinion, a commercial nuclear program would also be a terrible decision. But normalizing relationships between Saudi Arabia and Israel is one of the ways that you make Israel safer and frankly you strengthen the bond is very hopeful throughout the entire Middle East to see that relationship.

I believe that Hamas understood that as well. And a part of their strategy was, in fact, to disrupt those negotiations, to stop them in their tracks. That is in the best interest of Hamas. It is in the best interest of Iran. And that is why Iran sanctioned those attacks.

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Yes, ma'am. Have a good day, Abby.

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