'Fox News Sunday' on October 22, 2023

Interview

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Thanks, appreciate the chance.

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Look, there's no question that there are risks in sending aid and risks that Hamas will take advantage of it. But I would ask, you know, anyone who's critical of this, should it really be our plan to starve two million Palestinians in Gaza? I think there's considerable risk in doing that as well.

Look, Israel has to win the broader fight against Hamas. It is a military campaign, anyone who says there's no military solution to this, I think the military is a huge part of it. But you also have to be able to win over the broader public and make sure the war doesn't spread.

And if you don't send humanitarian aid into the Palestinians, what is going to happen to the two million civilians in Gaza? They're going to die is what's going to happen. So getting humanitarian assistance in so this doesn't turn into collective punishment. And something that's going to inflame the world is a crucial part of Israel being able to actually defeat Hamas. And I wish more people understood that.

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Yeah, it was -- I think, there's three separate points I want to make here. First of all, we have supplemental spending packages at the end of most years. And there's always more than one issue. Sometimes disaster relief is linked with the border, sometimes there's been a disaster overseas. And frequently those things are lumped together, depending how legislatively it plays out, first of all.

Second of all, you know, the Senate can handle it however they want to handle it, and so can the House. And if there's a way -- if there's a path forward with a separate package, that's fine, we can have that discussion.

Third, certainly the issues are separate. But they are also connected in the way that President Biden said in the way in which Senator McConnell just agreed. Look, Russia, China, Iran, and I would throw in North Korea, and terrorist groups like Hamas have a very clear mission. And that mission is to destroy the existing rules based international order and to weaken the U.S. and our allies, and they are working together. Iran is sending weapons to Russia. They're part of that fight. Russia is helping Iran. So it's wrong to say that these things are not connected.

Yes, they have separate aspects to them. And if the Senate wants to handle them separately, that's fine. But I don't think we should kid ourselves about how closely connected Iran, Russia, China, North Korea and groups like Hamas are.

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There's no question we have a crisis on the border. There's no doubt about that. And yes, I think we need to be focused on protecting that. And terrorism certainly one risk and the larger risks is the humanitarian crisis and the challenge of having so many people fleeing Latin America and into the U.S.

Look, the real problem is the migration problem. To some degree, it's the same problem that Europe's having. We have so many crises all over the world. Certainly there have been a number of Ukrainian refugees. Senator McConnell mentioned what Europe is having to do to accommodate the millions of people pouring out of Ukraine. We're having to accommodate, you know, millions of people pouring out of Venezuela. I mean, the source of this conflict is all of the people fleeing violence, fleeing poverty in Latin America. So our comprehensive approach is definitely needed. So, yes, without question the border is part of this equation.

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Yeah. But again, understand the problem here. The problem is because these people can't stay in the countries that they're -- they're from. And that instability is driving a make migration crisis across the globe. Part of it is we got to look at, what can we do to increase stability? And -- and I'll go ahead and say something controversial here for Fox, we've placed massive sanctions on Venezuela.

And let me be clear, the Venezuelan economy was in the toilet long before we did that, because of Chavez and because of Maduro. But I think we're going to ask ourselves, is an aggressive posture of sanctions, that is helping at least, to drive millions of people out of Venezuela. Is that really in the best interests of U.S. security? I think we have to reexamine policies like that as well.

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Right. Well, I mean, these are people who are migrating Latin America and then working their way up from there. Yeah, I mean, the global instability is impacting a lot of countries and a lot of places. So yes, I think that has to be part of what we're looking at also.

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Well, upfront, there's a couple of pieces to this. One, we have to have a strong deterrent presence. And then President Biden responded quickly, to move forces to the region and to make sure that first of all our assets in Syria and Iraq in particular, are protected. And that we have that show of force that we're in a position to deter Iran. That is crucial.

But the second piece of this, that's really important that a number of people have emphasized, it is not good for Israel, it's not good for U.S. And it's not good for the world if this conflict spreads. We've got Hezbollah in Lebanon, we've got Shia militias in Syria and elsewhere. We've got Iran, we've got the -- the instability on the West Bank. If this spreads, Israel is in a heck of a lot of trouble. So now, I wouldn't be anxious about striking into Iran and starting a war with Iran as we're going forward. I mean, that would place Israel in an incredibly perilous situation. And we'll also risk further expansion of the war in a way that is harmful to the U.S. and to the world at large.

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Thanks, Shannon. I appreciate the chance

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