'Why Are We Doing That?': Shelley Moore Capito Asks Austin Why Shipments To Israel Are Being Delayed

4 months ago

At a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) questioned Sec. Lloyd Austin about aid being sent to Israel.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00 And thank you all for being here and for your great service to our country.

00:03 Secretary Austin, I'm a little concerned, very concerned about the credibility of the

00:09 administration's deterrence policy. When I see President Biden's messaging to Putin and to Iran

00:15 and to the Houthis and other Iran-backed groups, I just see President Biden saying don't. And we've

00:23 had, you know, attacks, people obviously not adhering to that. I'm concerned that we are

00:28 significantly eroding our deterrence by setting these sort of ambiguous boundaries and letting

00:33 our adversaries kind of walk over us sometimes. So what steps are you and the President taking

00:38 to establish a stronger, more credible deterrence against these threats from our adversaries,

00:45 besides just don't? I take it you're speaking about the Middle East? Yes, yes, sir. Specifically.

00:54 So, you know, we had a number of goals at the very beginning of this crisis. And

01:01 one of them was to take, protect our people, both our troops and civilians in the region.

01:10 Another was to recover the hostages. Another was to ensure that we're doing everything that we can

01:20 to support Israel in its efforts to defend itself. And then finally, it's our goal to ensure that we

01:27 contain this conflict in Gaza and not have a regional conflict break out. So you saw us early

01:35 on deploy some pretty substantial capabilities into theater to discourage people from trying to

01:44 do that, from trying to blow this into a regional conflict. And I think even though there's been

01:51 dust-ups throughout the region, we don't see a regional conflict at this point, Senator.

01:57 So if you take a look at the attacks that were being conducted against our troops,

02:05 you recall that in January we saw, leading up to January, we saw a number of attacks against

02:11 our troops and our bases. And you saw us in February conduct a pretty major strike

02:17 that the president authorized in both Iraq and Syria. Since that time, we've seen two incidents

02:25 and we attribute those actions to probably rogue elements. So in that case, they have been deterred

02:34 from attacking our troops. But in terms of Iran and its actions in the region,

02:42 Iran continues to present a threat to the region. And that's something that we're going to have to

02:49 remain focused on, for sure. Let me ask both of you a question here about the reports of withholding

02:58 weapons. We all voted, many of us, I certainly did and was pleased to support the bill by 79 to 18

03:05 to reinvigorate not just our own defense industrial, but also to give aid to

03:11 several other entities. What is the status of withholding our weaponry that we voted to send

03:19 to Israel? Are we doing that? Why are we doing that? Again, our commitment to Israel is ironclad,

03:30 Senator. And as I said earlier, since October 7th, we have flowed in billions of dollars worth of

03:40 security assistance. And as you just mentioned, you just passed the largest supplemental in

03:48 history that's focused on Israel. And we're going to continue to do what's necessary to support

03:55 Israel. Are those reports false then that I'm reading? No, we are currently reviewing some

04:01 near-term security assistance shipments in the context of the unfolding events in Rafa.

04:08 So we are withholding our shipments of weapons predicated on the strategy that Israel's

04:17 employing and going into Rafa. Is that the bottom line here?

04:20 Again, we're assessing. We have not made any final decisions on this yet. But to answer

04:31 your question, yes, there are some things that we're taking a closer look at.

04:35 Okay. That's an answer that's... Well, thank you for clarifying it. I wouldn't say I agree with it,

04:43 but thank you for clarifying it. General Brown, let me ask you, this is one of the things that's

04:47 come up on the refortification of our own munitions. How do you see that now that we've

04:54 passed this and the President's signed this? Well, it's going to put us on a much better path.

05:00 It's not only what the supplemental, but I'd also say the 24, FY 24 National Defense

05:07 Authorization Act, which allowed for multi-year procurement for six systems. I wouldn't look to

05:13 actually expand that in the future on multi-year procurement, because what that will do will

05:18 provide levels of consistency for our defense industrial base, so they can actually work

05:23 force facilities, supply chains, and allow us to make sure we have a capacity from a munitions

05:30 standpoint. So you're convinced that we're on a glide path to renew our munitions supplies

05:35 to a satisfactory level for you? We're on a good path. One of the pieces I'd also add, though,

05:40 getting a budget on time is actually really important to actually provide that level of

05:44 consistency so we can write contracts and gives our defense industrial base the confidence and

05:51 the trust that they can invest and have that workforce and supply chain. I think we all hear

05:56 you. Thank you. Senator Coons. Thank you, Chairman Tester.

'Why Are We Doing That?': Shelley Moore Capito Asks Austin Why Shipments To Israel Are Being Delayed

Category

Transcript

Recommended