Tim Scott Confronts Antony Blinken About 'Weakness' In Biden Foreign Policy

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At today's Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) questioned Secretary of State Antony Blinken about withholding military aid to Israel.

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Transcript

00:00 with us this morning. I'll take a very different tack then, Senator Kaine, on our support of our

00:06 allies. I mean, one of the challenges I see around the country, around the world right now, is that

00:10 it seems like the world is on fire, in part because of the weakness of our administration,

00:16 the Biden administration. You think about the fact that China stares across the Taiwan Straits,

00:24 or the Kremlin sets its sights further west, or Iran comes out of the shadows and starts attacking

00:31 our strongest ally in the Middle East, Israel. You think about the fact that in the Sahel,

00:38 terrorism seems to be spreading faster than ever before, and to me it just seems very clear that,

00:45 without question, the weakness of this administration emboldens our adversaries.

00:52 And frankly, if there should be no daylight between Israel and America, it seems like there

00:59 is a lot of daylight. The more decisions that are made from the administration to withhold

01:05 shipments of weapons, the more challenges that we have. And frankly, if we're concerned about

01:11 saving innocent lives, it seems like to me we would provide the resources that make dumb bombs

01:20 smart by having the precision technology that has been held up on tarmacs and frankly in shipping

01:28 the weapons. So I'd like to hear your thoughts on how it is in Israel's best interest in our

01:35 relationship with Israel, and that best interest that we hold back not just the shipments of the

01:41 weapons, but the very precision technology that's necessary to turn these bombs into clearly

01:50 better weapons and reduces casualties.

01:54 SECRETARY BLINKEN Well, Senator, first and very quickly,

01:58 it won't surprise you that I disagree with your overall judgment.

02:01 SECRETARY POMPEO I don't – well, it doesn't surprise me at all. You're right.

02:03 SECRETARY BLINKEN When it comes to China and Taiwan,

02:06 we've brought countries around the world together to stand up for maintaining peace and stability

02:13 across the Taiwan Strait, to make sure that China does not engage in any unilateral actions that

02:19 change the status quo. And China is hearing that from country after country in no small measure

02:23 because of our own engagement, our own diplomacy. When it comes to Russia and Ukraine, we've rallied

02:28 – we've rallied to –

02:29 SECRETARY POMPEO Let's have a little – just a dialogue

02:30 on that. Here's one of the things I'd say in response to that. It's when you show weakness

02:35 anywhere, it affects strength everywhere. When you have a botched Afghanistan challenge,

02:42 when the President says that a small incursion in Ukraine might be acceptable, when he says

02:48 to Putin that here's a list of areas not to cyberattack, the weakness in posture I think

02:54 emboldens our adversaries. And so while you may be able to name some specific things that have

02:59 been done, hopefully to reduce the impact, from my perspective, most of the world really respects

03:06 strength, and that's about all they respect. SECRETARY BLINKEN

03:10 They respect strength and they respect wisdom. And what I'm seeing and hearing around the world

03:14 is that we're demonstrating both. We've made major investments in ourselves that have put us

03:18 in very good standing around the world, particularly in the competition with China as well as with

03:22 Russia in different ways. We've managed to rally 50 countries in Ukraine's defense, prevented

03:27 Russia from erasing Ukraine from the map, making sure that it has what it needs to defend itself,

03:32 to stand up, and even push back the Russian aggression. When it comes to Iran, as you

03:37 mentioned as well – and I mentioned this, I think, maybe, Senator, before you were in the room

03:42 – when Iran engaged in an unprecedented attack on Israel, the first time that Iran had directly

03:47 attacked Israel, for the very first time the United States actively participated with our

03:53 military in the defense of Israel. That had never happened before. We rallied other countries to

03:57 Israel's defense. We thwarted what could have been a devastating attack. And I think the message

04:01 was very clearly received in Iran, throughout the region, and around the world.

04:05 SECRETARY POMPEO Let me ask you this question.

04:06 SECRETARY BLINKEN Please.

04:07 SECRETARY POMPEO Part of the challenge that I see there is

04:09 no doubt that the coalition that was available for the response was a strong one. I think part

04:17 of that was because of the Abraham Accords. Normalizing relationships in the Middle East

04:22 was actually impactful. So I thought to myself, this is strong to see the countries coming together

04:30 in a coalition in defense. However, part of the challenge, of course, is that when – on October

04:37 the 7th, the first thoughts that come out of the administration before they deleted it was to tell

04:42 Israel to pause, is a challenge. The second thing is that you don't have to have a coalition defending

04:49 Israel if there are no attacks from Iran. And so the fact of the matter is that the more we

04:53 strengthen and embolden Iran by eliminating any of the hurdles, the hurdles being the sanctions,

05:02 allowing their oil to flow easier, the November decision to provide $10 billion,

05:08 August decision to provide $6 billion, the fact of the matter is that the 35 percent of the Iranian

05:16 economy is driven by sale of energy. So the fact is that when we open that up, we're

05:21 actually strengthening our adversary, not making them weaker.

05:24 MR RUBENSTEIN In fact, Senator,

05:25 a single sanction has been lifted on Iran, and in fact, we've imposed sanctions.

05:28 SECRETARY POMPEO Relaxing the sanctions is basically the same thing.

05:30 MR RUBENSTEIN No, we haven't lifted a single sanction.

05:35 SECRETARY POMPEO Well, I would say, talk to Secretary

05:36 Yellen about the conversation that we've had and that continues to be had about the fact that we're

05:41 making it easier for Iran to sell their oil, which only increases their revenue, which then is used,

05:48 90 percent of it, to attack our allies. MR RUBENSTEIN

05:51 Well, in the case of the $6 billion that you referenced, Iran has not accessed any of that.

05:56 That was a channel that was established by the previous administration to find a secure way

06:00 to handle Iran's resources and provide reimbursements.

06:01 SECRETARY POMPEO You're a really intelligent guy. The fact of the matter is that we all know that

06:04 money is fungible. Let's not pretend that we don't know that. So you put a credit on a balance sheet,

06:08 the bottom line is you should expect that credit to be used in any form or fashion that they decide

06:12 to do so. So do you think our not having the IAEA Board of Governors

06:29 censure Iran was a good thing or not? MR RUBENSTEIN

06:34 It depends entirely on what we're trying to achieve and the best way to achieve it.

06:41 More than unfortunately, one of the worst decisions made was to get out of the Iran

06:47 nuclear agreement, which had put Iran's nuclear program in a box. Now we're dealing with a

06:50 situation where the restraints that were imposed on Iran by that agreement have gone away, and

06:56 Iran has been proceeding whole hog toward developing the fissile material that it needs to produce

07:00 nuclear weapons on very short order. We had breakout time pushed back beyond a year. Breakout

07:05 time is now two to three weeks. So one of the critical things is, and we've lost access that

07:10 we've had, one of the critical things is to make sure that the IAEA has the access it needs.

07:14 SECRETARY POMPEO The Chairman would allow a response.

07:15 MR RUBENSTEIN Absolutely.

07:16 SECRETARY POMPEO Thank you very much.

07:17 MR RUBENSTEIN And whether and what the most effective way the IAEA is to get the access

07:22 it has, and also to ensure that Iran is moving back on the steps that it's taken to enrich its

07:28 material.

07:29 SECRETARY POMPEO I'll just say this, that anyone who thinks that having a nuclear Iran

07:34 is going to make them more peace-filled is ridiculous, number one. Number two,

07:40 to suggest that somehow the JCPOA was the contract that stopped Iran from doing anything.

07:48 In the midst of the JCPOA, they were already testing ballistic missiles. They had breached

07:54 the JCPOA so many times that it was remarkable that we would even have a conversation about

07:59 bringing that back into the conversation. For us to have a conversation about the JCPOA and how bad

08:06 it was, sure. To have a conversation about its effectiveness, I think is remarkable.

08:10 MR RUBENSTEIN Let's look at where we were and where we are as a result of getting that JCPOA.

08:12 MR KIRBY Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the chance.

08:16 Mr. Secretary, welcome.

Tim Scott Confronts Antony Blinken About 'Weakness' In Biden Foreign Policy

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