EP 13 REGGIE AUDIO

welcome to the bill kelly podcast critical discussions in critical times here's your host bill kelly and uh... welcome to the other side of the bill kelly podcast critical discussions in critical times critical times globally of course of what's happening in the in the middle east uh... we're going to get into that just a couple seconds but also what's happening in washington in the u.s. capital uh... where the uh... well the clown show circus i mean use your own analogy as a observers are talking about what's happening here they still don't have a speaker is that we that make this uh... broadcast today reggie when we talked to a week or so ago uh... about uh... the hamas invasion of israel and uh... the carnage that resulted in that uh... there was a report of course globally uh... support for for israel and and for the atrocity that went on there uh... and i think you mentioned at that time the proviso was as long as as you know it israel doesn't go overboard in their response to this uh... and that was always a consideration of concern especially some of the rhetoric that we're hearing from that now uh... on the very eve of the visit for for the president into the middle east comes word of course about uh... a bombing a destruction of missile attack on on a hospital in gaza with hundreds of people that were dead uh... and all of a sudden now we're starting to hear jack exactly what you would predict you might hear uh... the public sentiment in global sentiment may well be turning against israel in some ways it should be simply saying that this is not the way to retaliate now the israelis of course as you've been reporting have denied that that was their mother did this but how does that impact what biden's going to be doing over there how successful he's going to be as you mentioned already uh... the arab leaders have already said forget we don't want to meet now yeah i mean to to to kind of um... extend on that we've heard from president biden on the ground uh... in israel talking about the attack on uh... on the hospital and and what we heard from the israeli officials over twenty four hours leading up to biden's speech that this was uh... a rocket fired from somebody other than uh... the idea of president biden came out and said look i know have information that's been given to me from pentagon officials that suggest that this was uh... a rocket that was fired uh... possibly by uh... by islamic jihadist or uh... by some other foreign actor in the region so you know i have the president coming out and and kind of providing a similar tone to what uh... what israel is saying in that it was not the israeli that fired the rocket on this hospital but at the same time it is leading to that outrage in it is leading to the concerns here that the the quote-unquote laws of war aren't being adhered to at the same time but while there is some question here as to whether or not uh... there's going to be i continued public support here for whatever israel is trying to do when it comes to to from you know what they believe to be the face of the earth and and how they're going to carry out with that domestically at home in the united states there is still strong support for what the united states uh... is doing numbers came out from a bc if so leading into wednesday uh... suggesting that roughly fifty percent of the country believes that the divided ministration is doing the right thing or at least at the united states is doing the right thing in providing more uh... munitions and weaponry and assistance for the iron dome system uh... it's a little bit higher then what uh... we see when it comes to support for ukraine those numbers around forty two percent i think it's interesting though that fifty four percent have a disapproval rating of how biden himself is handling this situation and that falls flat in line with uh... with ipsos numbers that came out from reuters last week suggesting biden had a fifty four percent disapproval rating overall in his popularity so americans like the idea that america is helping out they just don't like the idea that it's joe biden the one that is at the top of that that kind of list of people that are providing that support uh... and and of course he that that's baggage that he dragged over there before this crisis started as as you've been reporting over the last couple months now uh... his numbers seem to be tanking which is not good news for democrats against it again to a reelection year in twenty twenty four what did he expect to accomplish there though reggie uh... i know the global picture of the grand picture was okay i'm gonna meet with netanyahu i think he's meeting with the war cabinet uh... he's going to talk to some other folks then he was supposed to go and talk to arab leaders that's not going to happen anymore so uh... i don't want to suggest that this is really just going to become a photo op visit uh... but you know when the president of the united states makes a trip over there in the middle of a conflict like this uh... some people are going to be looking for results sure and i think that you're going to see i mean we already saw that the president met with with uh... family members of hostage uh... victims uh... that were taken by hamas and i think that seeing the american president on the ground talking to these people uh... it it continues that that show of support that that biden is looking for at the same time i mean we heard from uh... from national security council with john kirby we've heard from from jake sullivan national security advisor that there was kind of a multi point purpose of biden's trip over here number one it was to try and secure the release of hostages including uh... you know roughly two dozen americans but secondly it was to ensure that there was going to be some kind of route made available for humanitarian assistance to get into gaza we know that the rafa crossing into egypt uh... has been blocked egyptian officials are saying uh... that that it's it's it's blocked for any reason palestinians in gaza are saying look it's happening because israel is continuing to bombard uh... the crossing biden is looking to try and get something done to ensure that this humanitarian crisis doesn't turn into an ongoing public health crisis because again it poses it makes it a much more difficult uh... needle to thread for the american government to say look we stand by israel but at the same time ongoing bombardment in gaza continues to lead to a growing number of deaths in the region it's going to be difficult for us to stand by what we're actively saying pay attention to to the rules of war so i think biden is trying to ensure that he can make life kind of livable for whatever that might be for the current situation in gaza while at the same time saying look israel we understand that your goal is to get rid of hamas you need to tell us now what your long-term goal is for gaza once this is over because the status quo can't remain as it's been for the last fifteen or sixteen years i know you've been talking to some of the insiders in washington about their opinions and and and the politics involved in this as well one of the things that strikes me and as as we've watched some of the pro-palestinian uh... demonstrations that have gone on in washington new york uh... toronto other places like that uh... is uh... is some of the statements from from palestinian politicians uh... the uh... ambassador i think the united nations was on cnn the other day what seems to be lacking here reggie is uh... at no time did it have we heard any of those palestinian leaders denounce what happened in israel they're denouncing what's happening now uh... you know and and the carnage in that that's evident for all to see and it's horrific to see uh... the loss of life or in gaza but what's happening here but why aren't the palestinian saying hamas that's not us we didn't do that we're not responsible for that they'd as a matter of fact you could with did they they don't seem to be glossing over that is a to suggest that this was a uh... you know uh... an attack simply by the israelis on on on gaza talking at all about what seem to precipitate that which of course was with the invasion in israel right now uh... is there any way the people going to find some middle ground here in and get some acknowledgement that this is killing and hurting people on both sides sure i think i think it's early days still and i think that uh... well it's we've it's been difficult to find leaders from within the arab world say uh... what hamas carried out in israel uh... was an atrocity at least to the level that we're hearing from uh... most of the western world and from the united states and from israel uh... itself we have to remember that many of these arab nations have an incredibly strong tie to the palestinian people in their main concern right now uh... is the ongoing humanitarian uh... crisis uh... and and it also played into where some of these foreign actors are set up in the fact that that many of them are backed by iran and and if you find yourself on the wrong side or you're making the wrong comments here uh... you potentially put yourself on the wrong side of iran so it it it may be possible here that some of these leaders are trying to kind of walk a delicate tightrope here uh... in order to ensure that you know they don't inflame tensions domestically with their own population while at the same time trying to ensure that there's some kind of uh... stability brought to the region i mean look i think biden went to this region attempting to re-stabilize what has been uh... you know uh... persistently destabilized uh... zone for the last number of of days at least uh... since since the hamas attack was carried out but you know what we hear from the arab world going forward i think may also dictate whatever the response is from the west president biden is expected to talk to some of the leaders individually on the phone while he's on air force one coming back to washington we'll get readouts to what he talks about with them and that may give us a sense as to what he's able to decipher from from where these countries stand at the moment you made an interesting point when we talked last week about the the rationale and maybe the reasons why the attack on israel happened when it did and and one of those was of course was the negotiations which we were told were progressive negotiations between israel the saudis and a number of other arab nations uh... that would have meant if not necessarily lasting peace but at least some agreement uh... is that blown up right now because uh... that indication as you told me in washington was that there are some people who thought that this was a direct attack to try to to to to scuttle that that discussion and a chance of those sorts of agreements being made uh... it's certainly going to i guess slow things down if not blow the whole thing up right now what are you hearing about that part of it sure and i i i mean i wouldn't put it past the secretary of state when he was undertaking some of that shuttle diplomacy particularly when he was in saudi arabia to have brought up uh... you know conversations many of them probably not put on the public record and put into the readouts of what antony blinken was talking about uh... with the leaders but i'm sure that that was part of this ongoing conversation because this is a key element of biden's foreign policy agenda is to try and secure some kind of normalized relationship between israel and some of the nation's throughout the middle east i think it's also worth reminding that we've heard repeatedly from the administration when they talk about the hamas attack that iran uh... wasn't directly behind it even though we know that iran supplies uh... hamas with funding and and and support but ultimately it is iran that is against this normalization of relationships with israel uh... and other places in the middle east because they feel that it could be destabilizing towards them so you know it's it's it's hard to know whether or not this is going to fully derail the peace talks between israel and the saudis and beyond whether or not this is going to be a temporary hold but given the the ongoing crisis that we're seeing play out on the ground between israel and gaza this could be a situation that either is put on hold or is left to another administration and it becomes a moment for the biden administration to try and recalculate what their next step is going to be what's said in front of the microphones and what is often said behind closed doors in politics as you well know it can be two very different things uh... we know the biden's going over there trying to to broker some sort of a piece of sort of an agreement uh... and he reaffirmed his support wholeheartedly support uh... hugging netanyahu uh... they've known each other for a long long time going back to biden's days of course in the senate for relations committee and his vice president uh... bbs is uh... closer people call his friends column uh... and i've had a long relationship with one of the key comments biden made uh... but at the same time it's been a macrimonious relationship he said with netanyahu over the years uh... depending on which way policies are going uh... i got to assume reggie that the the the the the hugs and the the reaffirmation of support as sincere as it was uh... might have been overshadowed by some of the rather salty language that biden can also use uh... behind closed doors and we've heard a couple of those things of course uh... off mic uh... you know when mike's were open he didn't know about it i got a figure that when he looks at the way that some things have gone and some of the decisions and some of the rhetoric that netanyahu has has used in the last couple of days uh... biden would probably make him his feelings known to netanyahu that look at don't be the bad guys here and and he's never going to say that publicly but i'm sure that's something that that he would have reaffirmed behind closed doors sure i think it's a combination of a don't be the bad guy but b don't put yourself in a position that makes it much more difficult for you to get out of it i thought to a former state department uh... a policy advisor on on israel and middle east peace and and she made a comment to me of of saying look the united states has been down this road before getting themselves involved in wars that make them the bad guy that make it difficult to get out of that situation uh... and there is general concern amongst some within the biden administration that israel doesn't really have a plan going forward that it may not be resolved that they're seeking right now that it's retaliation for what took place uh... between during the attack on october seventh uh... and there may be comments from biden to netanyahu by when it comes to look you know some of the policy decisions that you've made when it comes to uh... to settlement are not something that i agree with or or the policy decisions that you're making internally when it comes to judicial reform are not things that i agree with but you need to be able to put yourself in a position now on this precipice of war uh... that you that you follow the lines appropriately because there is you know that the united states is going to stand by its ally but it's only going to stand by uh... for so long especially if it ultimately result in additional actions being taken by the u s i mean look there are aircraft carrier striker groups that are now in the region there are two thousand marines that are offshore but ready and and sitting on standby in the united states public is weary of of u s kind of movement towards instability in the middle east because they fear that they're going to get dragged back into it so i think that when the president is saying to to to biden off-camera behind closed doors whatever the conversations are proceed with caution and and do what's appropriate not only is he talking to to israel but he's kind of projecting that back home as well by saying what america can also find itself on the line here what about the the possibility of the threat of this expanding uh... and i'm talking about the threat from the north of course uh... with hezbollah on the uh... the lebanese border uh... we know that when when they activated the troops of the call of course the israeli troops uh... a lot of them were deployed to the north because of the possible threatened on a scale of one to ten days the concern i think was a lot of eight or nine if not a ten uh... has that diminished is that still a possibility of a still looking to the north well they're trying to deal with what's happening in gaza now i mean look at their ongoing skirmishes between the idea of uh... and between hezbollah coming from southern lebanon and and in the last couple of days showing up to the point of where there was a journalist that was killed uh... you know in in that crossfire and we have to remember that the united states bringing this additional force in uh... by the sea parking it in the eastern mediterranean it's not there to reinforce israeli troops it's there to act as a deterrent for uh... for any of iran's regional proxies that are in the region that may try to take advantage of the situation like islamic jihad or like uh... like hezbollah uh... so there is that that fear that if israel did move into gaza that this could you know take away some of their focus from the north and hezbollah would act and and that's what the u s is trying to uh... you know avoid the situation kind of turning into at the same time united states is also actively looking back at home because they are caught up in their own domestic crisis when it comes to the speaker uh... and it's gonna make it more difficult to appropriate funding uh... and resources into israel if this were to expand if they can't get the kind of house in order and open it back up by putting a speaker in place uh... and until they do that you attempted to kind of hope that they're able to to keep the com or at least the com that's there right now uh... from from eroding anymore well let's let's segue into that uh... because what's happening here on the home front uh... in washington as you mentioned of course it's it's it's been a a dog's breakfast of of of political innuendo back-and-forth on this uh... we knew kevin mccarthy was going to be in hot water he got booted out of the job uh... by his own caucus uh... jim jordan is the latest guy of course uh... who uh... it seems to be after the job they had a vote yesterday he didn't get enough uh... votes and maybe before we talk about the intricacies of that maybe remind our our viewers on the podcast here reggie uh... about how this is still made it just about everything that's going on uh... the congress can't pass bills they can't pass relief for israel for for afghanistan is another uh... crisis to do with uh... what possible government shutdown right now and in the meantime of these guys are spinning the wheels i mean you're right i mean look the speaker of the constitutional role uh... in the united states and without that person being in place uh... legislation can't move to the floor you're right whether it's defense spending on a place like uh... on israel or ukraine or trying to keep the government funded beyond november fifteenth uh... when a continuing resolution to to keep things at the existing levels uh... is set to expire they can't do it they can't even put forward a simple resolution a text resolution that condemned the attack by hamas on israel because that would require a speaker to bring that to the floor for a vote so there are there are legitimate concerns here to the fact that the house is is shut down and to go far beyond that the house can even okay they can even carry out the business of the republican agenda up to and including investigations into hunter biden and the impeachment uh... president by these are all stalled because they don't have a speaker in your right jim jordan is the one that they're trying to put in place he didn't get anywhere on the first round and in fact he came up short shorter kevin mccarthy did on the first of his fifteen rounds of voting back in january so republicans are in disarray much of it is brought on by themselves but they'll say that it's the democrats fault for getting rid of kevin mccarthy but this is a party that can't figure out how to move forward and because they can't do that the government can't do that and it makes it much more difficult on both the domestic and the foreign front well let's talk about the dynamic as you mentioned he came up short uh... hakeem jeffries the uh... the democratic leader course and i was actually had more votes in jordan in that particular vote uh... there are still some people that are are suggesting that some sort of a coalition reaching across the aisle uh... might be the ultimate solution at least in the short term it seems everything when it comes to the speakers in the short term i guess uh... but jordan is already thrown hot water or cold water any kind of water under that saying the american people don't want collaboration there they they want republicans to run this thing uh... who's up next i mean because it sounds like as as you've been reporting that uh... he's actually when they have another vote on this issue might lose some support here uh... he's clearly and not the guy that the democrats want it's clearly he's not the guy that even the republican caucus wants well and he wasn't the guy the republican uh... conference wanted even when they were trying to figure out the first nominee i mean look steve scully's the number two in the republican party took more votes internally behind closed doors than jim jordan did and ultimately had to step out because so many republicans came forward saying look he's got health issues he shouldn't be the person he's too close to mccarthy even though he had the the broad majority of the people that were voting behind closed doors now giving it to jim jordan he is set to to come up short uh... again some republicans spinning it is saying look this is this is all part of a plan to try and get rid of the status quo or or break down the establishment but at the end of the day you're right in that hakeem jeffries had more votes than jim jordan he had two hundred and twelve and what does that signal it signals that that democrats are unanimous in the support of their leader in the republicans are struggling to be able to figure out someone to carry the baton even for the short period between now and the next election is there a consensus candidate there could be of the speaker pro temp right now patrick mchenry republican from north carolina uh... there have been some uh... some democrats saying look we could work with moderate republicans and support this if this is the person brought forward but at the end of the day his name wasn't even mentioned as a potential candidate when the when the round of voting took place on tuesday so it's unclear what's going to happen and walk republicans are the one who are the majority here but there are a few republicans invite and held districts they risk getting primary if they work with the democrats but they also risk potentially getting voted back in in these blue districts if they were to work with the democrats look for could walk over make a king jeffrey the speaker with republicans still holding on a majority and even though it would make a lot of republicans angry the house would open and work would get done it's really difficult to come across bipartisanship in in in this country especially in the house and especially over the last few years and until they can work on a solution the keys remain out of the door in the door means locked it's amazing to tell things have changed the dynamic has changed you know i'm not going to work in back to the good old days but you know in ted kennedy over a democrat or in hatcher republican would work together on legislation same thing with uh... with people kneel in the house uh... that's that's just not happening these days but your points interesting about finding a moderate republican that kind of sounds like an oxymoron these days uh... because it's it's the loud voices on the extreme right that seem to be governing their party right now and i guess the question they should be asking i don't know if they're going to do this behind closed doors do they really want to uh... jim jordan to be the voice and the face of that republican party this guy's a an election denier uh... you know the one of the apparently one of the organizers of the january sixth insurrection uh... and that that's on the record i mean the other thing they do the sorts of things that are going on you've got a guy like school leases very much affiliated with the ku klux klan uh... in his home district uh... i mean it seems as if they do with the right is we certainly know the control the party over the last little while but is that the face that they want to present in twenty twenty four especially as you say where republicans got elected in biden states uh... do those guys i think i think you right now i'm gonna lose my job if if this is what we're going to be doing i mean look republicans really risk losing the majority writ large uh... if they continue to go forward the way that they are by keeping the government closed down and by not being able to rally around somebody and what they're trying to rally around somebody in congress who is essentially donald trump without being donald trump and and we've seen now election after election and uh... just in general polling the broad majority of the public including more more republicans don't want to see donald trump involved in politics anymore and i think the party is still stopped by the fact that trump has this mild control at least over the narrative uh... and is able to start priming people in making threats and and that may be where republicans run into uh... a bit of trouble going forward but they're also pretty much against anything that's not that even kind of shutting out their own centrist members of the party look there were conversations of maybe we could get liz cheney to come and she we could elect her as the speaker there are so many in the party now that are against her because she stood up against donald trump and worked with democrats on the january sixth committee that even trying to to deal with things that are a glaring reality amongst the broad public in that some of the things that republicans have done are wrong they see that as as a negative uh... and it becomes a question of what what are they willing to do when it goes you know when it comes to putting somebody in place you're right on jim jordan not being like look number one he's not like by a vast majority of the party number two we've been criticized for the way he's handled the the uh... forward movement towards impeaching joe biden and number three he's criticized for the fact that in sixteen years he hasn't passed a single bill and he's put forward legislation that the broad majority of the american public is against yet that's the person of the trying to get to lead the party which is why they continue to find themselves in disarray uh... i guess this is an identity crisis here reggie where they don't know who they are i mean we've known that there was an extremist element of that party uh... for quite some time uh... trump was really i i suppose they're there's their messiah their savior uh... but they tried to present a much more centrist policy i guess when it came to election time uh... but that seems to have blown up right now with election interference in a number of of uh... state legislatures run by republicans that are moving towards uh... uh... legislation that's actually gonna make it more difficult for minorities devoted things of this nature uh... has at the car been thrown off right now and and americans are looking at at the republican party is that actually is in twenty twenty three possibly uh... and i think that this is going to be the opportunity for democrats to jump in and say look we told you so we told you this is what was going to happen if republicans were the ones who who got behind the steering wheel and started driving this ship forward uh... this is going to be that moment for not only democrats in the house but for the president uh... and for the vice president to hit the campaign trail on the way to twenty twenty four to say look we need things to be different republicans came out with one two three a b and c of the things that they were going to do for the american public uh... and they've struggled to carry through with any of them even the ones that that they they promised we're going to bring the big gung-ho results like like investigations into joe biden they haven't been able to do that so you know it's unclear what they intend to do going forward and how this is going to to potentially help them if it can at all running towards uh... the next election but ultimately i think the biggest test is going to be here not only ensuring that the united states can continue to stand by israel as an ally but if the government shut down on november fifteenth republicans can do everything they can to try to blame the democrats for but ultimately it will be republicans themselves who are the the governing majority of the house that will be the ones who are at fault and how the american public looks at republicans if americans can't get paid that's going to be a that's going to be a big factor when people walk into the voting booth next year it's fascinating to see that the stories that everyone was talking about five six weeks ago uh... especially donald trump's legal laws uh... seemed to be shoved to the back pages of newspapers and on newscasts now if they're even in there at all because of these other issues that that have taken precedence and i i think greatly so i will cover the other ones of course in future podcasts reggie always great to have you on the show i know how busy you are these days down in the u s capital thanks so much for this and we'll do a part two to this and and talk with some of those other problems in a future podcast stay well thank you reggie cicchini uh... global correspondent of course in the u s capital and that's it for this edition of the bill kelly podcast critical discussions in critical times we'll see you next time this podcast was brought to you by rebecca wissons and her team at wissons law rebecca wissons is a twenty time winner of the hamilton readers choice awards for their exceptional client care and legal practice specializing in personal injury car accidents 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