State of the Union: Interview With Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX)
Interview
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Thanks, Pamela.
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Well, I had a conversation with the secretary's team.
I would send a very stark, stern warning to them that we will not tolerate a spy balloon that's committing espionage over the United States again. And I know there's talk of a private meeting, but this was a bit of a shot across the bow at this conference. And I know Blinken spoke as well.
This is a time when our relations have never been more -- the tension is very high right now, I should say. And I think the spy balloon was so embarrassing, going over three major military installations with nuclear warheads, the idea it could capture imagery and send it back to Beijing to another ship caused a lot of damage to our national security, but also political damage, in the sense that Americans saw this with the naked eye and it was flying so low to the ground.
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Yes, I think we have a unique opportunity to be bipartisan on this issue of national security against one of the greatest threats to this country and the world, for that matter.
And I think the fact that a select committee was voted on by a large majority of Democrats. So when we talk about particularly export controls, this balloon, by the way, had a lot of American parts in it. We know that the hypersonic missile that went around the world with precision was built on the backbone of American technology.
So there's a lot of discussion here at this summit about, how can we -- they steal a lot of this from us. But we don't have to sell them the very technology they can put in their advanced weapons systems to then turn against either Taiwan in the Pacific or eventually possibly the United States of America.
I think there's great bipartisanship on this issue, and, by the way, as well as Ukraine. I think our delegation has been very unified in our support for Ukraine and putting everything we can from a weapons perspective into Ukraine, so they can defeat the Russians.
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Well, I know that bill had about 10 co-sponsors out of 435 members of Congress.
I would say that support is still very strong. And this delegation, it's bipartisan, very strong support for Ukraine. I think where you're seeing a split from the administration, though -- and I have to say that, Pamela, this is bipartisan as well -- is that, for the past year, we have been very slow at getting these weapons in, in the name of it being too provocative, whether it be Stingers, Javelins, these short-range artillery
Now, longer-range artillery, ATACMS, they can take out the Iranian drones in Crimea, and also aviation like F-16. If we put the stuff in from the very beginning of this conflict, a year from now may have been very different, as we look at the anniversary on February 24.
The longer they drag this out, they play into Putin's hands. He wants us this to be a long, protracted war, because he knows that, potentially, he will lose -- we could lose the will of the American people, and therefore the Congress.
And we're seeing the same dynamic in the European parliaments, strong support now, but they're worried that, if this doesn't end with a resolution sooner, rather than later, this will be an issue for us.
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You know, I hope so. The ATACMS, though, have been on the table for months, and they haven't sent those in. And the same delivery applies to ATACMS as it does to the HIMARS.
But the fact is, the longer they wait, the longer this conflict will prevail. I -- honestly, every top military expert I talked to at this conference agreed with what I was saying, and I think Mike Turner, that we need to throw everything we can into this fight, so that they can win.
And Zelenskyy is going to tell us that soon as well. He had a speech here at the conference saying the same thing. And I think the momentum is building for this to happen.
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Thanks, Pamela.
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