by tyler | Oct 23, 2023 | CNN, politics
As the search for a speaker continues, some House Republicans are already casting doubt over the future of the administration’s $105 billion security supplemental request for aid to Ukraine, Israel, the southern border and Taiwan, a major issue that any future speaker will have to contend with.
A number of Republican rank-and-file members in the House have made clear that the administration’s request won’t survive their chamber without changes and many House Republicans have already said that additional funding for border security isn’t enough without a policy overhaul, which would likely be a red line for many Senate Democrats.
“This is a hell no. And no one in the House GOP should support it. It’s asinine, unpaid for, ineffective and dangerous,” Rep. Chip Roy of Texas posted on X about the supplemental request.
Other Republicans who support parts of the request blasted the administration for trying to tie Israel funding to funding for Ukraine, which has seen cratering support in recent months.
“Israel deserves to have a conversation that is devoted to them right now,” Republican Rep. Mike Garcia of California, a defense appropriator, told CNN. “We need to strip out the Ukraine funding and we need to give the Israeli partners the respect they deserve.”
Even those who have backed Ukraine aid and have pledged to support it in the future want to understand why the administration is asking for so much.
“It seems like a lot,” Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska said. “I’d like to see the breakout of the needs. I want to support it, but that seems like a lot of money.”
There is broad bipartisan support for Ukraine, but funding the military efforts there has become a flashpoint for conservatives and an issue that will likely bedevil a future speaker just as it had former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The administration’s request included more than $60 billion in assistance for Ukraine with over $14 billion for Israel. The Israel funding will likely move quickly in the House, but it’s very likely that the future speaker would decouple the requests so they are voted on individually.
The tightrope any future speaker will walk is that the Republican conference is divided over sending additional aid to Ukraine. On the one hand, hardliners derided McCarthy for his support of the country early on in the war and McCarthy had remained publicly noncommittal about putting a future aid package on the floor. But there are some members for whom support Ukraine is an essential issue.
“I support Ukraine and Israel. I think we should do both,” Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania said. “I think we should do whatever gets both of them across the finish line, whatever strategy works best. I don’t want to hold back one for the other. I support both.”
To this point, the supplemental request has been overshadowed by a chaotic search for House speaker, but it may come into focus soon as the Senate prepares to take up the request quickly.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has made clear he hopes to take up the supplemental request as soon as possible.
“This legislation is too important to wait for the House to settle their chaos. Senate Democrats will move expeditiously on this request, and we hope that our Republican colleagues across the aisle will join us to pass this much-needed funding,” Schumer said.
The Senate Appropriations Committee has scheduled a hearing for October 31 to review the request and will hear from Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who are expected to testify and make the case for why the money is necessary.
But the House cannot begin to consider the legislation on the floor in any form until a speaker is selected.
by tyler | Oct 23, 2023 | CNN, politics
Jon Donenberg – a key architect of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s signature policy initiatives including her plan to cancel student loan debt – will join President Joe Biden’s National Economic Council as a deputy director, sources told CNN.
Donenberg is poised to enter the top ranks of Biden’s economic team one year ahead of the 2024 election, as the administration is pushing to sell its record on the country’s post-pandemic economic turnaround and boost the public’s grim economic outlook. The move also comes as the White House has been focused on a suite of executive actions aimed at cutting costs for lower-income and middle-class Americans, such as cracking down on so-called “junk fees” and finding ways to cancel student loan debt after the Supreme Court struck down Biden’s initial plan.
Currently Warren’s chief of staff, Donenberg is set to start at the NEC early next month. He replaces Bharat Ramamurti, who left the administration earlier this year, and is expected to take over key issues that made up Ramamurti’s portfolio including student debt relief, financial regulations, economic competition and technology policy, sources said.
“What he’s always brought to the policy-making process is both very data-driven but also very much thinking about how we can create an economy that works with everyone,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, who has known Donenberg for nearly two decades, told CNN in an interview.
Adeyemo said he expects Donenberg to bring a “degree of creativity” to the job – much needed, he said, as the administration now works to implement some of the hallmark pieces of legislation that Biden signed into law in his first term, such as a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package and a sweeping climate, health care and tax bill known as the Inflation Reduction Act.
The administration is also focused on continuing to cancel student loan debt after it suffered a disappointing setback earlier this year when the Supreme Court struck down Biden’s signature loan forgiveness program.
Donenberg has worked for Warren since her first Senate campaign in Massachusetts in 2012 and is known to be among the senator’s closest confidantes. A Capitol Hill veteran, he also previously worked for former Rep. Henry Waxman and Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
Donenberg joins a sizable contingent of Warren alums and mentees who have taken on powerful economic policy-making roles in the Biden administration so far. That group includes Adeyemo, who worked with Warren to establish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; Ramamurti, who was a policy aide in Warren’s 2020 campaign; and Rohit Chopra, the current director of the CFPB.
“Jon is a superstar – and one of the nation’s foremost experts on the fight for an economy that works not just for some of our families, but for all of them,” Warren said in a statement to CNN. “His unique combination of technical, legal, and economic skills and judgment will make him an invaluable asset to the president.”
In an interview with CNN in 2019, Donenberg described Warren’s career as having been driven by the search for an answer to one question: “What is going wrong with America’s middle-class families?”
“Why are people working harder than they’ve ever worked before and not seeing raises and seeing their expenses go up? Why is their debt increasing? Why do they feel like opportunity for their kids is slipping away?” Donenberg said at the time.
Answers to some of those very questions may prove to be central to what ultimately shapes up to be Biden’s economic legacy.
In recent months, Biden’s top advisers have expressed optimism about several major economic trends – key among them, slowing inflation and a robust jobs growth. But public sentiment has yet to catch up, with polling continuing to show stubborn pessimism about the economy despite a string of positive economic news. Advisers acknowledge that more time is needed for Americans to move past the trauma of the Covid-19 pandemic and historic-high inflation.
“Jon brings a breadth of experience and a steadfast commitment to building an economy from the bottom up and middle out,” said NEC Director Lael Brainard. “His previous work on competition, consumer protection, and financial regulation makes him well equipped for this role.”
by tyler | Oct 23, 2023 | CNN, politics
Mar-a-Lago member and Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt said then-President Donald Trump told him about his private calls with the leaders of Ukraine and Iraq, according to reports published Sunday about private recordings of Pratt, a key prosecution witness in Trump’s classified documents case.
The reports from The New York Times and “60 Minutes Australia” revealed previously unknown recordings of Pratt candidly recalling his conversations with Trump – and build on existing allegations that Trump overshared sensitive government material.
In the tapes, Pratt says Trump shared insider details about his phone calls with world leaders during his presidency. Pratt also offers searing critiques of Trump’s personal ethics.
CNN previously reported that Pratt gave an interview to special counsel Jack Smith, who charged Trump with mishandling national security materials by hoarding dozens of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago in Florida. (Trump pleaded not guilty.) Pratt is also on Smith’s witness list for the trial, which is scheduled for May.
Concerns about Trump’s freewheeling approach to state secrets are at the center of that case. Past reports from ABC News said Trump discussed potentially sensitive information with Pratt about US nuclear submarines. The new reports Sunday expand what is known about Pratt’s recounting of their conversations to include foreign policy matters.
“It hadn’t even been on the news yet, and he said, ‘I just bombed Iraq today,’” Pratt said in one recording that was made public Sunday, recalling a conversation with Trump.
Pratt then recalled Trump’s description of his December 2019 call with Iraqi President Barham Salih. According to Pratt, Trump said, “The president of Iraq called me up and said, ‘You just leveled my city. … I said to him, ‘OK, what are you going to do about it?’”
The recordings also indicate that Trump spoke with Pratt about his now-infamous September 2019 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which Trump pressured Zelensky to help him win the 2020 election by publicly launching unfounded corruption probes into Joe Biden. That phone call formed the basis of Trump’s first impeachment.
“That was nothing compared to what I usually do,” Trump told Pratt about the Zelensky call, according to the tape. “That’s nothing compared to what we usually talk about.”
In statements to The New York Times, Trump pointed out that Pratt is “from a friendly country in Australia, one of our great allies,” though he didn’t deny the conversations described in the tapes. A Trump spokesperson said the tapes “lack proper context.”
CNN has reached out to the Trump campaign and Pratt’s company, Visy, for comment.
These latest disclosures could be used by Smith’s prosecutors as evidence that Trump had a pattern of sharing sensitive government information with unauthorized people, including political donors and well-connected businessmen in his orbit. It’s unclear whether prosecutors already had possession of the tapes that were made public on Sunday.
The new recordings also shed light on Pratt’s candid, private thoughts about Trump’s behavior. It’s unclear who Pratt was speaking to, but Pratt said in one tape that Trump “says outrageous things nonstop,” and compared his business practices to “the mafia.”
“He knows exactly what to say — and what not to say — so that he avoids jail. But gets so close to it that it looks to everyone like he’s breaking the law,” Pratt said in one tape.
by tyler | Oct 18, 2023 | CNN, politics
President Joe Biden on Wednesday capped a historic trip to Tel Aviv by sending an emphatic message of support to Israel, promising new aid to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government as it prepares fresh action against Hamas.
Following a day of meetings with Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders, Biden spoke about new agreements over a humanitarian corridor to Gaza, aid to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and the promise of a massive new congressisonal request for funding for Israel’s defense. But looming over the trip was the horrifying blast at Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday that the Palestinian Ministry of Health says killed hundreds.
In his first public remarks on the hospital bombing, Biden explicitly offered Israel – and Netanyahu – his support, with wording that labeled Palestinians as others. The moment, and Biden’s off-the-cuff wording, revealed the complex diplomatic balancing act he must navigate.
“I was deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion at the hospital in Gaza yesterday. And based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you. But there’s a lot of people out there who’re not sure. So we have to overcome a lot of things,” he said, later calling it “the result of an errant rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza.”
The president later said that he was led to that conclusion by “the data I was shown by my Defense Department.” Before he left for Israel, according to one US official, the government had not yet drawn a conclusion about the source of the rocket strike on the hospital. Biden had instructed his national security team to continue evaluating incoming information. Officials have not said if the government has collected any intelligence beyond the information provided by the Israelis.
Biden’s historic arrival in wartime Tel Aviv Wednesday – the first trip to Israel by an American president during a time of war – marked his most forceful public show of support for Israel since the October 7 attacks by Hamas that left 1,400 of Israelis and dozens Americans dead. Other Americans, along with many Israelis, are also being held hostage by Hamas. And at least 3,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the fighting began, the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Tuesday.
“Americans are grieving with you, they really are. And Americans are worried,” Biden told Netanyahu as they began a bilateral meeting, acknowledging the complex dynamic. “Because we know this is not an easy field to navigate, what you have to do.”
Biden said it was important he “personally come,” suggesting the trip was a critical signal to other democratic nations as the world watches the events unfolding in the Middle East.
“I wanted the people of Israel – the people of the world – to know where the United States stands. … The world is looking. Israel has a value set like the United States does, and other democracies. And they’re looking to see what we’re going to do,” he told Netanyahu, who called Biden’s presence as the first American president in Israel at a time of war “deeply, deeply moving.”
Netanyahu thanked Biden for the “unequivocal support” and “unprecedented” cooperation between the two nations.
“From the moment Israel was attacked, you’ve rightly drawn a clear line between the forces of civilization and the forces of barbarism,” Netanyahu told the president.
The president has been attempting to walk a fine line between supporting Israel and keeping the violence from spiraling into a wider military conflict, a mission made more complicated by the hospital blast. He and other US administration officials have been warning other regional players, namely Iran and its proxy Hezbollah, from expanding the fighting further.
Palestinian officials have said hundreds are dead following the explosion at the center of the city and blamed Israel. The Israelis denied responsibility and pinned blame on a failed rocket launch by Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
CNN has asked the White House if the US government has assessed further the cause of the blast since the president’s departure.
The US via surveillance satellites, ground-based radar and other technology has broad capability to detect launches and determine their origin. For instance in 2014, analysts at the Defense Intelligence Agency were able to determine within days that it was a Russian anti-aircraft missile that shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine.
Later Wednesday, Netanyahu signaled that the hospital bombing belied a “different kind of enemy” in Hamas as he detailed the group’s willingness to “(hide) behind their civilians.”
“This will be a different kind of war because Hamas is a different kind of enemy,” he told Biden, adding that Hamas “wants to kill as many Israelis as possible, and has no regard whatsoever to Palestinian lives.”
The hospital explosion caused a scramble of Biden’s plans for the trip as the president walked onto Air Force One. The president was expected to meet King Abdullah II of Jordan, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss a humanitarian response during the Jordan leg of the visit, but the summit – and the Jordan leg of the trip – was scrapped. The White House cited a period of mourning announced by Abbas as the reason for the postponement.
The world, Netanyahu added, was “rightfully outraged” by Tuesday’s events.
“But this outrage should be directed not as Israel, but at the terrorists,” he said, seeking to assure Biden that Israel “will do everything it can to keep civilians out of harm’s way.”
The explosion and subsequent blame game will hang over Biden’s meetings in Israel. He was greeted at the airport by Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog, hugging them on the tarmac before embarking for the meeting site in Tel Aviv.
The presence of Biden, who places a premium on personal diplomacy, is meant to show solidarity with the United States’ closest allies and to deter rogue actors in the region from opening up a second front in the war.
While violence such as the hospital blast was always seen as a possible risk of the visit, the president’s team concluded that the merits of the trip outweighed those risks. Multiple sources told CNN that the president’s top advisers did not come close on Tuesday to canceling the Israel portion of the trip.
Israel has been signaling it is preparing for a ground invasion of Gaza, even as a humanitarian crisis grows inside the coastal Palestinian enclave. Biden has called for the protection of civilians, and the United States has been working to alleviate shortages of food, water, and gas.
Biden announced a new agreement toward providing Gaza with humanitarian assistance through Egypt upon the conclusion of his meetings Wednesday.
“The people of Gaza need food, water, medicine, shelter. Today I asked the Israeli cabinet, who I met with for some time this morning, to agree to the delivery of lifesaving humanitarian assistance of civilians in Gaza based on the understanding that there will be inspections and that the aid should go to civilians, not to Hamas. Israel agreed that humanitarian assistance can begin to move from Egypt to Gaza,” Biden said in remarks from Tel Aviv.
But he warned that if Hamas “diverts or steals the assistance, they will have demonstrated, once again, that they have no concern for the welfare of the Palestinian people” and that such action will stop the international community’s provision of aid.
He also announced $100 million in new US funding for humanitarian assistance in both Gaza and the West Bank. That will support displaced Palestinians and other emergency needs in Gaza. And he vowed to ask Congress for an “unprecedented support package for Israel’s defense,” expected later this week.
And while he noted that the attacks were proportionally “like 15 9/11s” to Israel’s population, he acknowledged the “shock, pain, and all-consuming rage” as he warned Israel’s leaders to be “deliberate.”
“I caution this: while you feel that rage, don’t be consumed by it. After 9/11, we were enraged in the United States. While we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes,” Biden said.
He continued, “I’m the first US president to visit Israel in time of war. I’ve made wartime decisions. I know that choices are never clear or easy for the leadership. There’s always cost, but it requires being deliberate – requires asking very hard questions. It requires clarity about the objectives, and an honest assessment about whether the path you’re on will achieve those objectives,” calling for the protection of civilians as humanitarian conditions deteriorate in Gaza.
He also offered a warning to other states or hostile actors thinking about attacking Israel: “Don’t. Don’t. Don’t,” vowing continued US support in the region.
While many Americans feel deep sympathy for Israelis in the wake of the attacks, according to a CNN poll released Sunday, Biden also faces political pressure at home over how he responds to the attacks and how much support he offers Netanyahu’s government. Americans are split on whether the Israeli government’s response to the attacks are fully justified, including just 38% of Democrats, according to CNN’s poll.
The same poll shows the public is mixed over how much trust it has in Biden to make the right decisions on the fighting between Israel and Hamas – 47% have at least a moderate amount of trust. And about half of Democrats are also feeling a lot of sympathy for the Palestinian people who are feeling the brunt of Israel’s response to the attack, the poll shows, which could further complicate Biden’s decision-making on how much support to provide the Israelis.
The decision to travel to Israel so soon after the Hamas attack signals just how affected Biden has been by the violence in the region.
Advisers to the president told CNN that the days after the attack were a deeply emotional time for him, as he grappled with the second major outbreak of a war during his presidency and as the images and stories of Hamas’ reprehensive actions poured in.
In his remarks from Tel Aviv, Biden compared the Hamas attacks of October 7 to the Holocaust and the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, offering sympathy to the Israeli people.
Recounting the horrors against Israeli civilians Biden said, “There’s no rationalizing – no excusing, period. The brutality we saw would have cut deep anywhere in the world. But it cuts deeper here in Israel,” he said, noting that October 7 was the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
“It has brought to the surface painful memories and scars left by millennia of antisemitism and the genocide of the Jewish people,” he said. “The world watched then, it knew, and the world did nothing. We will not stand by and do nothing again. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever,” he said.
Biden met with some families affected by the violence of the past week during his trip. He offered embraces and a listening ear to community leaders and first responders as he heard emotional stories from those on the front lines.
But despite ongoing discussions with Israel and other partners, sources downplayed the expectation that the visit would result immediately in a refugee deal or the release of American hostages in Hamas custody.
The president spoke forcefully throughout the week about his horror at Hamas’ actions, frequently comparing the violence to some of the things European Jews experienced during the Holocaust. Biden has taken family members on trips to the Dachau concentration camp to learn about horrors of the Holocaust, and he emphasized in the “60 Minutes” interview how important it is for the world to learn about past persecution of the Jewish people.
“The Jews have been subject to abuse, prejudice and attempts to wipe them out for, oh, God, over a thousand years,” Biden told interviewer Scott Pelley. “For me, it’s about decency, respect, honor. It’s just simply wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. It violates every religious principle I have and … every single principle my father taught me.”
This story is breaking and being updated.
by tyler | Oct 18, 2023 | CNN, politics
The US shot down two one-way attack drones targeting US forces in Iraq, according to a defense official, as American embassies face protests in a number of Middle East countries because of the war in Gaza.
There were no injuries as a result of the drone attack, the official said.
It is unclear at this point who launched the drones or how they were shot down, but such attacks are frequently attributed to Iran or Iranian-backed militias in the region.
The tension in the region following a week of war in Gaza and an explosion at a hospital in Gaza that Palestinian officials say killed hundreds of civilians have sparked widespread outrage against both Israel and the United States.
Anti-Israel protests erupted in Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Iran and Turkey, and in Ramallah in the West Bank, following the blast at Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza that killed hundreds of people. In Baghdad, security officials told CNN that security forces confronted protestors who tried to cross the bridge into the Green Zone, which houses the US embassy and Iraqi government offices.
Attacks on US forces in Iraq have become increasingly rare, especially as the US ended its combat mission in Iraq and transitioned to an advise-and-assist role to the Iraqi military.
But attacks do happen. In September of last year, a US F-15 fighter jet was scrambled to shoot down an Iranian drone that appeared to be heading for a US position in Erbil in Iraq.
by tyler | Oct 18, 2023 | CNN, politics
President Joe Biden’s pick for ambassador to Israel, former Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, defended his record related to the Iran nuclear deal during his confirmation hearing Wednesday and made clear that he believes the US is dealing with “an evil, malign government that funds its evil and malign activities first.”
Lew was grilled by Republican members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, particularly over questions related to his role in lifting sanctions against Iran as part of the 2015 nuclear deal. He was also pressed on whether the Biden administration can prevent Tehran from using funds returned by the US with the lifting of additional sanctions for malign activities.
Lew played a key role in the original Iranian nuclear deal in 2015, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fiercely opposed, saying it gives Iran a clear path to an atomic arsenal. Former President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018, a move that was supported by Israel.
Iran “is not a rational economic player” and will continue to prioritize funding its malign activities over providing humanitarian support for its own people – regardless of sanctions imposed by the US, Lew told lawmakers.
“It’s not a pure economic question. It’s a question of who are we dealing with,” Lew told Senate lawmakers when asked if there is any way for the Biden administration to guarantee Iran will only use additional funds returned with the lifting of sanctions only for humanitarian purposes.
“It’s not a tradeoff between guns and butter. Guns come first,” he said. “You are dealing with an evil, malign government that funds its evil and malign activities first.”
Lew also said that the vast majority of money returned to Iran with the lifting of sanctions is used for humanitarian purposes and any misappropriated funds “won’t change the thrust of what they do.”
“When Iran gets access to food and medicine for its people, that’s food and medicine it otherwise would not have. I can’t say that there’s no leakage,” Lew added.
“To the extent that there’s leakage, it won’t change the thrust of what they do. Sadly, supporting terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah – that’s not very expensive. … Under maximum pressure, (Iran) still was doing their malign activities,” Lew said.
Lew also said Wednesday he is “proud” of Biden for “taking the stand that he’s been taking” following the hospital blast in Gaza, referring to the president’s recent comments asserting he believes Israel was not behind the explosion as Hamas initially claimed.
“I’m proud to see President Biden taking the stand that he’s been taking. And even this morning, when I heard his comments on the horrible bombing of a hospital in Gaza, you know, he was not giving into disinformation. He was shooting straight in the fog of the moment. You don’t have perfect information. And he said, from everything he sees, it was not Israel that did it.”
Prior to Wednesday’s hearing, some Republicans were already signaling that they may slow down consideration of Lew’s nomination on the Senate floor.
Several top GOP senators have expressed their concerns over Lew’s involvement in the Iran nuclear deal during the Obama administration, arguing that although it’s important to confirm a new ambassador as quickly as possible, given the conflict in the region, he may not be the right man for the job.
Sen. Marco Rubio, a senior Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo, “I think we should have an ambassador in every country, it has to be the right person. In the case of Mr. Lew, I have real concerns that he has misled and lied to Congress in the past, in terms of some of the financial arrangements that were made under the Obama Administration.”
Another Republican on the panel, Sen. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, told CNN, “We have to have his hearing, but I have some very serious concerns about him and his involvement with the Iran nuclear deal, a deal that in my opinion is giving nuclear weapons to Iran, facilitating that. So, we’ll have to see what he says in there and take it from there.”
While Lew only needs 51 votes to be confirmed, assuming his nomination is advanced by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, any one senator can slow the process down on the Senate floor. Senate Minority Whip John Thune, the no. 2 Republican in the Senate, told CNN’s Manu Raju on Monday there is “a lot of resistance” to Lew’s nomination.
Another top Republican in leadership, Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, told CNN on Tuesday that he believes one of his colleagues may place a hold to delay Lew’s confirmation. “I would expect so,” he said, though he would not say who he thinks would take that step.
Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican who has attacked Lew as an “Iran sympathizer who has no business being our ambassador,” indicated on Tuesday that he may block a speedy confirmation of Lew.
“Certainly Jack Lew will have to go through all the procedural steps that we go through for any random district judge or assistant administrator of the EPA,” he said. When asked if they would have unanimous consent to skip some of those steps, as the Senate often does, Cotton replied, “We’re not going to skip those for a soft-on-Iran ambassadorial nominee to Israel in the middle of a war with Iran’s proxies in Israel.”
Senate Democrats have pushed back, saying that Lew is qualified and that confirming a new ambassador to Israel should be one of their highest priorities.
Senate Foreign Relations Chair Ben Cardin told reporters on Tuesday, “He’s highly qualified, he’s the right person for the right job, but we want to be most effective as possible in helping Israel to deal with the hostages, to deal with the humanitarian needs, to deal with normalization.”
The Maryland Democrat added, “We need a confirmed ambassador in Israel as soon as possible.”
However, Republicans remain unconvinced. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, a member of Senate GOP leadership, said that he is also “very troubled by some of what Sen. Cotton addressed in terms of his appeasement, and, frankly, the appeasement approach of the Biden administration and the Obama administration. Iran is still the number one state sponsor of terrorism.”
He continued, “Proxies, like Hezbollah and Hamas are determined to wipe Israel off the map. And they’ve pretty much circumvented sanctions, which were supposed to have been imposed by the Treasury Department under Jack Lew, and selling oil on the open market and relieving some of the pressure that was there to get them to stop their nuclear program.”
Iran is the main backer of terror groups Hamas, based in Gaza, and Hezbollah, based in Southern Lebanon.
Cotton argued that rejecting Lew will send a powerful signal.
“I know Democrats are saying that we need to confirm Jack Lew quickly to show our support for Israel. I would say it’s the exact opposite. We need to defeat Jack Lew’s nomination to show that we have a new approach to Iran,” he said in an interview on Fox News.
In a post on X, Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri agreed.
“As Obama’s Treasury Secretary Jack Lew was a key figure in the disastrous Iran Nuclear Deal. Iran is the chief sponsor of Hamas. Jack Lew has no business being the US Ambassador to Israel,” Schmitt wrote.
This story has been updated with additional information.
