State of the Union: Interview With Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX)
Interview
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I agree with Ukraine. Last year, the G20, they basically said that, you know, there is a path forward for Ukraine to join NATO after security agreements after the war is over. This year, they're saying there's no Russian aggression, a major departure from last year and a real slap in the face to Zelenskyy as they're conducting the counteroffensive. So the timing couldn't be worse.
The other thing that I took out of that is that we're not here to contain China.
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I mean, what a frightening foreign policy to go to the G20. Xi Jinping did not attend. We know the Quads there, I mean, countries that don't like China.
The whole point of him going to the region in my view was to get our friends and allies and partners together in the event of an invasion of Taiwan and a greater invasion into the South Pacific Sea. And the only way we can stop that is through deterrence -- deterrence in diplomacy and deterrence in weapons systems that we have yet to put into the country that I signed off on.
So if you have a lack of military deterrence, and a lack of military deterrence and are economically saying we want to work with you, what deterrence does Chairman Xi have in his mind that would prevent him from making that bold move to take and invade Taiwan and put a blockade in, get the sea cable and take over TSMC, by the way, that is 90 percent of the semiconductor chip manufacturing for the world?
This was the wrong message to send. It was not one of deterrence, and it once again, like with Afghanistan is projecting weakness which will draw aggression.
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Well, I can say diplomatically that being a play, I think it's a weak play because Chairman Xi doesn't understand weakness. He understands power.
And when you listen to his addresses, to his communist party and his congress, very clear -- reunification of Taiwan and a broader ambition to basically in the 100-year marathon have 100 percent military, economic control over the globe, and that is where they're headed unless we can provide the deterrence.
This kind of language, if I'm Chairman Xi, this is great. This is like when Biden lifted Nord Stream 2 on Putin and gave him carte blanche to move in after Afghanistan preventing weakness then we see the Russian federation moving in. I don't think projecting weakness ever works and the language I heard, I thought was very weak.
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Well, we have, and I threatened to hold the secretary of state in contempt, but it took that to get a personal phone call to start getting cooperation. There's no reason why this administration should not be giving these Gold Star families all the answers. All they want is the truth. They want transparency.
And when they don't do that, it makes them wonder why are you hiding things, right?
So I feel like I'm the advocate on behalf of the Gold Star families, they deserve to give access to Colonel Whitehead who did not give permission to Sergeant Tyler to take out the suicide bomber. You know, they deserve to know why an air strike was not given to take out the very individual who was in charge of the suicide bombing operation with ISIS-K.
They need to know why they were released from Bagram Air Base, and this would go up the chain of command -- both State, DOD and ultimately, within the White House, but I would ask that they give these families answers. I mean, in a way they have more power than I do. It's easy for them to say no to me. It's very hard for them to say no to these families.
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Well, the five snipers on the ground --
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-- confirmed -- and psy-ops, by the way, confirmed what Tyler said. We need --
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If that's not correct, then give us access to other people.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, we want to talk to Jen Psaki. The messages she was sending out from the White House were so different from what was happening on the ground. You know, John Kirby made the comment that no weapons were left behind which is insane. $7 billion in weapons, and I can show you the tapes of the weapons and the cash that were left behind.
Ned Price, you know, the State Department, making rosy comments and we need to -- we sent letters to have them testify all giving a rosy picture while at the same time what was happening on the ground was very different.
I don't know where this is going to end, Jake, but as a former federal prosecutor, I'm going to follow all of the facts. I'm not out to take -- you know, I have great respect for General McKenzie, and General Milley, by the way. I don't know if any of this actually went up to their level, but I do know that an air strike was denied that could have taken out the suicide bombing team, ISIS-K and that was let out of Bagram, by the way.
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I just talked to this guy named Dakota who got the Medal of Honor yesterday. This is paralyzing the Department of Defense. You know, the idea that one man in the Senate can hold this up for months -- I understand maybe promotions, but nominations is paralyzing the Department of Defense.
I think that is a national security problem and a national security issue, and I really wish he would reconsider this because we're working this issue out in the national defense authorization. We worked it out on the house side. We're going to conference in the senate. We're going to work out this abortion issue. There's been a tradition within the NDAA, but to hold up the top brass from being promoted, and lower brass, I think, is paralyzing our Department of Defense.
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