Joining me here in New York City is Senator Mike
Rounds,
Republican from the great state of South Dakota.
Mr. Santa, you and a group of,
I think it's over 100 lawmakers,
you're demanding that President Biden resume weapons shipments to Israel.
Can you make him do it?
We can't make him do it,
but we can most certainly send a message to our
allies,
the Israelis, that we do not support the way that
he has
taken on this particular tactic.
Number one, he is telling them how they should run
their war.
But second of all, he is also then
releasing that information of a private conversation
to the world. And in doing so,
he is sending a message to Hamas,
which gives them an opportunity to to play with it
in order to send the message to the rest of
the world that the United States support for Israel is
failing and that the protests over here are working.
And that that support is is something that the Israelis
should not be taking for granted.
The people in Taiwan, the people in Ukraine,
will surely be looking at this weapons pause for our
greatest ally in the Mideast.
They can't have a very positive view of American leadership.
It's not only that, but think about what Putin thinks
about this and think about what Xi Jinping thinks about
this.
When they go to their allies,
they look at the United States and they say this
is not the way that we will treat our allies.
And so as we work with other countries in the
developing parts of the world,
in Africa and so forth,
we want them to know that if we become their
ally,
that we remain their ally and that we are consistent.
But when you start leaking information like this about something
as serious as munitions,
that's something that should never happen.
And it's not something that the administration,
if it was an accidental leak,
they should have fixed immediately.
And if it was on purpose,
shame on them. Is it?
Do you think that President Biden is it in effect
helping Hamas?
It did not. It did not help Israel and most
certainly empowered Hamas to continue with the propaganda.
What a marvelous opportunity for Hamas to send a message
to their supporters that,
look, you've had a difference,
you've made a difference. The United States is now slowing
down on their munitions deliveries to to Israel at a
critical time in the history of this country.
And and and look these bombs that are coming in
that this munitions these are munitions that are designed to
be used on a selective basis specifically for targets that
need this type type of of of of an approach.
And we've got bombs that that are as accurate as
any as any made in the world.
But if you now restrict Israel from having access to
those types of materials,
they have to resort to other materials instead.
And this war has gone on long enough.
Israel needs to get in,
clean this mess up and get out.
And the sooner that happens,
the better for people that live in Gaza
About in about one hour,
the president going to give a big speech touting the
economy.
But inflation is still with us.
I wonder how he's going to spin the inflation problem,
which we've already seen this morning.
Inflation ticked up yet again.
How's he going to spin this?
I have no idea. Look,
look, I shouldn't be asking you,
should I? Prices are up since,
I mean, look, his time in office.
Inflation is up over 18%,
groceries are up over 20%,
gasoline is up over 37%.
The American people aren't stupid.
They understand that the facts are there and and the
president says it's corporate greed.
That's what he says it's not.
Were you happy with that answer?
It is not. Look, on day one
he sent a message to every investor in traditional energy
by canceling A pipeline coming out of Canada.
Billions of dollars in investment.
And he turned around and looked at every investor out
there and say,
I can change all of your investments with the stroke
of a pen.
What a terrible message that sends to investors across not
just the United States but around the world about whether
or not they want to invest in the types of
traditional energy sources we've got in the United States.
And that has continued all the way through on our
supply chain challenges.
And now if you're going to take a look at
what he has pushed,
he's pushed it saying, well,
we're going to use alternatives.
But if you want electric vehicles,
first of all, you ought to have an infrastructure that
can support it,
which we do not have.
A Second of all, what about the energy production that
we should have that we do not have for electricity
that we're going to need in the future?
And he hasn't even talked about the demand that AI
is going to take in terms of additional energy production.
He is not looking at the big picture.
Electric vehicles don't look good in the wide open spaces
of South Dakota,
do they? Particularly when batteries don't operate very well in
cooler temperatures and it gets cool in South Dakota.
It does. It does. Santa rounds,
Thanks for joining us this morning.
Thank you. I don't know what on earth you're doing
in New York,
but welcome to New York.
Thank you. See you soon.