- Well here with us now is
North Carolina Congressman, Ted Budd.
Congressman Budd, thankyou so much for joining us.
I know you've called on the US to stand
shoulder-to-shoulder withIsrael and particularly,
your House colleagues to have its back.
Congressman Budd, what prompted that call?
- Well you know, you lookat the tension right now,
between Hamas and Israel and you just
wanna compare the two for a moment.
When you look at Hamas, you'vegot a terrorist organization,
you've got thousands of rocketsbeing fired at civilians.
Hamas says in their foundingdocuments that they want
to destroy Israel.
But on the other hand, you've got Israel
and they're the onlydemocracy in the Middle East,
they're our longtime friend and ally,
and they're a force forstability in the region.
This really isn't hardand I just know that
the United States needs to stand
shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel.
- Congressman Budd, the White House,
like you and your fellow Republicans
has said Israel has aright to defend itself.
Why does that seem to be in question
among some of thepresident's own in his party?
- Yeah, there's a lot,when you look at the squad
in the House and howmuch power and influence
they have over theDemocratic Party, right now,
it just seems that otherwisethe Democrats of old that
may have supportedIsrael, it seems they're,
they're really kowtowing tothe radical, progressive left,
who is at least standing byfor the destruction of Israel.
We cannot have that and wehave to stand by our ally.
They're our great friend in the region.
They're, and again, they'rea force for stability.
What we need Biden to do, we need him
to stop pressuring Israel
and leaking Biden-Netanyahu phone calls.
And they need to also stopthe narrative that leads
to an equivalencebetween Hamas and Israel.
They're not equivalent.
One's a terroristorganization; one's a country.
And we realize that the situation will end
when Hamas stops firingrockets at civilians.
- Congressman, you alludedto this after releasing
a pretty even-handedstatement earlier this week
detailing President Biden's phone call
with Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Reports indicated the two actually had
a much tougher conversationthan that readout portrayed.
I'd like to get you to weighin on whether, your thoughts
about his intentionalleak by the White House.
- Yeah, it's very upsetting.
Between leaders, they needto keep that confidential.
There needs to be anestablishment of trust.
And it also telegraphs how we're going
to handle relationshipswith other countries.
And it just shows that we need some
real leadership in this county.
We seem to have lostit several months ago.
And it's just amazinghow fast the Democrats,
under Joe Biden'sleadership, can allow things
to unravel in this country,whether it's dealing
with the Middle East.
I mean, we were celebratingthe Abraham Accords just
a few short months ago, andnow things are unraveling.
You know, it doesn't matter whether it's
to more domesticallydealing with our border
or chaos in the Middle East, we don't have
a party of leadership, right now.
- I know you can't getinside the head of Joe Biden
but why the leak?
What benefit does it give?
- I think he's saying to,he's trying to telegraph
to Hamas that there's some sort
of moral equivalence between the two.
And I also think that those who might be
the old blue-dog Democrats,you know, Joe Biden's been
around and spent 50years in Washington, DC.
And he's not the, he'snot the Democrat of old.
And so on that, I think he'sleaning towards placating
the radical left ofthe squad, if you will,
which seems to be veryfavorable towards Hamas.
It's a very uncomfortableposition to be in.
It's not where the UnitedStates needs to be, right now.
- Congressman Budd, we onlyhave about 30 seconds left
and if I can just squeezein this last question.
Even as the conflict moves towards
potentially a diplomaticceasefire, the violence continues.
Is there an end in sight?
- You know, I think there is.
I mean, Israel has a very strong military
and a great intelligence operation.
I know they, we want toalso be on their side.
We want them to know,unequivocally, we will be with them.
So I think we need to makesure that we're clear,
don't leak phone calls,make sure there's a trust
between Netanyahu and Biden.
So Biden really needs to step up his game
and make sure that hisadministration is trustworthy.
I think there will be anend in sight but they need
to make sure that theUS has Israel's back.
- All right, Congressman, Ted Budd,
Republican from North Carolina.
Congressman Budd, thank youso much for your time, today.
