Foreign. Press Now. I'm Ryan Nobles in Washington, and we are following the breaking news out of the Middle East. Right now, Israel is actively striking targets in the Gaza Strip and preparing for a possible ground invasion as the war between Israel and Hamas is quickly escalating and could become a more widespread conflict.
A short time ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the offensive in Gaza is only beginning and he issued this warning to Hamas. I said that any place from which Hamas operates will. This has already happened today and it will continue happening even more so gay citizens. At the end of the war, all our enemies will know it was a terrible mistake.
With that Israel. What we will do to our enemy in the next few days will echo for generations. This all comes in response to this weekend's unprecedented attack on Israel by Hamas. The Palestinian militant group launched thousands of rockets in Israel while hundreds of Hamas fighters breached Israeli barriers entering the country by land, air and sea.
More than 1200 people have been killed since Saturday. At least 700 is in Israel and more than 570 in Gaza. Hamas also claims to be holding more than 100 people hostage, including women and children and dozens of Israeli soldiers. It's also now threatening that its militants will execute one civilian hostage anytime Israel targets civilians in Gaza without warning.
Families and friends of those who are taken hostage are speaking out today, including Yani Asher, whose wife and two young daughters were kidnapped from the Israeli border town on Saturday. My wife Daron, my daughter Raz, less than five years old, and my little baby girl Aviv, less than three years old. They're just little babies. They're not even girls.
I don't know if they ate enough, if they cold or hot, if they're hurt. Hamas, meanwhile, is continuing its offensive, launching rockets into towns near Gaza. Here's what happened when NBC's Richard Engel was preparing to go bly from Sidra. Moments after the heroine incident.
Richard filed this report from Sid Gro same well, I can tell you right now we are in the town of the road and there's been a lot of incoming fire here. It believe we believe that it is mortar fire. Some of them also appear to be rockets. They've been coming in quite close.
That is why we're on the ground right now. This is still considered a very active combat zone, even though we are inside Israeli territory. And it is not just the incoming rockets and mortars. There are also reports from Israeli officials of new infiltrations of Hamas sending more fighters through breaches in the border fence.
According to a senior Israeli official, There are about 30 different holes breaches in that border perimeter. And most of them have been plugged up. Around 90% of them have been plugged up, but 10% remain. They're trying to secure them but remain open.
So this is still an active situation here. Most of the residents in this area have been cleared out and the Israelis are trying to move people away from border towns and communities and to try and also look for Hamas fighters because they believe that cells, sleeper cells or other fight people traded and are still in the area, potentially hiding in some of the buildings. And now maybe it seems like that big barrage that we just experienced has passed. They come in waves.
But this one was right, practically right on top of us right here in Instaril. And we begin this hour with our NBC team on the ground in Israel across the region. NBC's Alison Barber joins us on the phone from Tel Aviv. NBC's Ali Rusi is in Tehran and NBC's Matt Bradley is in Beirut.
Let's begin with you, Allison, in Israel. It's now 11pm There. Give us the latest on the ground at this hour. And how has Israel focused their response to this weekend's attack and should we expect a ground offensive?
You know, that's been the big discussion that everyone we've spoken to in Tel Aviv, people who live here. That was one of the first things we did when we got on the ground. We get a sense of how people who live here feel about us. And the general says we are speaking with people who live in Tel Aviv.
They talk about their life right now as life, 10, 7, life before when this attack was launched by Hamas and then life after. And they'll acknowledge that life in southern Israel for Israeli because differented for them. Palestinians living occupied territory was different for them. They had a relatively normal life in Tel Aviv.
Now they feel like all that has changed. And they are using terms to describe what has happened as something that is like a 911 for them, something that they see as a moment in history that has fundamentally changed the way they see life and the state of Israel here. I looked a lot of people who said they wanted to see more action from and his government. They spent three days and he said they would form a united government.
He declared war on Sunday. They want to see a more forceful response and more done, particularly to get the hostages out of Hamas. And almost everyone I spoke to, whether they identified politically as left leaning or if they identified as more far to the right, as someone who's to be in a single state solution, all of them In Tel Aviv, the Israelis were saying that they would support the Israeli military going in to carry out a full ground assault in Gaza. They said that they feel that they have been in their word, back into a corner where the options they have is in their view just kind of untenable.
They are going to have to make a choice that's going to be hard either way. But because they believe so deeply to the core that what happened here over the weekend was not an act of resistance, in their view, but they believe it was terrorism, that they feel response from Israel, from the Israeli government has to be forceful. And while people we've spoken to here have increased to see some of the air strikes, they want to see more from Netu and not just the words of saying they will do. And I have to tell you right by the thing that gets everyone time and time again that we have spoken to is when you mentioned the hostages, they talk about the videos, the things they call on social media of the initial attack.
But the fact that they believe there are a number of civilians, children, elderly people, women inside of Gaza right now, that for them is a focus. And why they want to see more from that Nazis. The people we spoke to speak tonight, while it was short, was welcome. But they really seem to see this as a pitiful moment where they believe this has completely changed all the decades of back and forth over territories, all of the issues that happened after 2005, things that were that they feel should have been done or weren't done with the prime minister at the time removed Israeli forces from within Gaza that's been created the surrounding occupation, if you will, where they really made it complete blockade, where Wall is no longer physically occupied by Israeli forces inside Gaza.
They are surrounded and people are unable to leave it. All of that. They may think things have been done differently in 2005, but they are telling us they see this moment at a major break moment and then there do they feel like their country has been back into a corner and all they want is a strong and forceful response. And Ellison following up on these hostages, are there any efforts right now to attempt to rescue them?
Are there negotiations happening with the Israeli government and Hamas to try and secure their safe release? What's the latest on the status of these hostages? Right, so there's been talk that both Egypt and Qatar were in talks to try and negotiate some sort of exchange. A number, a couple dozen prisoners, I think it was 36 was one number that was being discussed.
Palestinian prisoners to be released in exchange for some of these hostages. And Then there was announcement from Hamas saying that they plan moving forward if Israel continues to carry out air strikes within Gaza without warning, saying that they would kill one of the hostages every hour since it progressed since then, we have not gotten more direct reporting with my king here in terms of what that will mean for Israel from this point forward. Again, speaking with people here, the one who were so worried about the hostages before that news started to come out and started to appear on social media, that was something that one person quickly said to us. See, that's what I was worried about and why they think in their you at this point the only option is to do a full ground assault into Gaza to try and get those people out because otherwise they fear that that is the alternative situation.
Okay, Alison in Tel Aviv, thank you for that. Alison, please stay safe. Thank you so much. Among the biggest questions right now are how the training and equipment to pull off this unprecedented attack.
The scale of the attack and the complex tactics have left former intelligence and military officers to suggest that Iran most likely played a significant role in the assault. The Iranian Foreign Ministry denies any involvement in the attack. And B.C. sally Rusi joins me now.
He is in Tehran. So Ali, what do we know about the potential Iranian involvement in this attack and what questions are still unanswered? Hey Ryan. So we don't know a lot about if or how much Iran was involved in the planning of this attack.
What we do know is that Iran has been talking about some sort of a Palestinian attack being in the works for quite some time now, for over a year now. Tehra openly and enthusiastically support these attacks by Hamas. And once it did happen, it was heavily celebrated by Iranian officials, members of parliament, IRGC forces. And leading up to the attack, there's been a string of meetings between senior Iranian officials and Palestinian militant leaders.
In June, leaders of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad were in Tehran for meetings with Khamenei, with the head of the Quds Force, that's the international arm of the irgc, and other senior officials. In August, Iran's foreign minister visited Beirut. Amongst the reasons to coordinate amongst Palestinian factions and according to Iranian state media, he met with senior officials from Hamas, PIJ and Hezbollah, underscoring to them that it's imperative to expand the fight from Gaza to the West Bank. The head, the representative of Hamas in Lebanon was just in Iran.
Last month, Iran's Foreign Ministry said that it wasn't involved as you mentioned. Yet on Sunday, a spokesman for Hamas said that it had received support from Iran. And four days before the Hamas Attack. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei posted on x social media platform saying that Israel is a cancerous regime and that it's going to come to an end soon at the hand of the Palestinians.
Look, over the decades, Iran has set up its proxies for just this reason, so they can be a thorn in Israel's side without having the fight come onto Iranian soil. And interestingly today, a big billboard went up in the capital today saying that the fight is in Tel Aviv, not in Tehran. You know, it's interesting because the White House, you mentioned already that Iran and Hamas are pushing back about any sort of direct Iranian involvement here. What does it tell us that the White House specifically is kind of backing away from those accusations?
Well, I mean, part of the reason could be that there isn't a smoking gun that Iran was involved in this, although they support Hamas a lot. But also to point the finger at Iran's involvement would possibly broaden this conflict. And if Iran was to get directly involved in this conflict, then it would be a much larger thing than we're seeing now. The attacks on Israel would be much greater.
Obviously, there would be huge attacks on Iran, and it's something that would probably go totally out of control and inflame the whole region. So I think that's why the White House, the Iranians, are all speaking with some degree of caution that they weren't involved in this. Okay, Ali, thank you for that. We appreciate it.
And now for more on the Hamas organization and the competing alliances in the region, we've got NBC's Matt Bradley. He joins me now from Beirut, Lebanon. So, Matt, many of our viewers may not be familiar with all these different names of these organizations that we've been using today, specifically about HA. You know, just briefly give us some context about their goals and the power that the group holds over Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.
Yeah, Hamas was actually formed. It's kind of a chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was actually created in Egypt way back in the 1930s as a political party with an Islamist bent of wanted to see Islam as an institute with the government. It was created in the 1980s during the first Intifada, or uprising against Israel by Palestinians. And after that, Fast forward to 2005 when Israel withdrew it from the Gaza Strip.
And a year later, there were elections held in the Gaza Strip in all of the Palestinian territories. Those Gazans elected Hamas over Fatah, which was the Palestinian group that recognized Israel to come to peace with Israel. And Fatah just decided they weren't going to really wish power. So there was violence, and eventually Hamas won an ejected Fatah from the Gaza Strip.
Fatah remains in control of the west bank and considers itself a legitimate governing force of the Palestinian people. Now, since then, Hamas has been fighting not just against Israel, but also on some level, against Fatah itself. And that has been a cause of violence in the region. But, you know, Hamas's goal is now essentially to get rid of all of Israel.
Unlike Fatah, which wants to see itself eventually creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel, Hamas wants an Islamist state, a fundamentalist Islamist state that goes from the river, the Jordan river, all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. So that is a violent goal that wants to see the expulsion of all of the state of Israel. And, you know, it's very much an Islamist group. And even though it's Sunni Islamist, it's backed very much by Iran, which is a Shiite political power.
And so there are some contradictions there, but that's why it has some of the support throughout the region. And a lot of Palestinians, even though they don't necessarily agree with fundamentalist Islam, they see Hamas as a less corrupt, more effective force against Israeli power in the region. They don't see Fatah, which has this peace deal and which has basically become kind of too comfortable in power, as a legitimate and effective way of combating Israel, because, among other things, Fatah hasn't been able to stop settlements in the West Bank. So there's some divisions.
But the fact is, is that Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by Israel, by the United States, and it often launches missiles from the Gaza Strip into Israel with tit for tat attacks. And so that's why we regularly see violence, but none on the scale of what we're seeing this weekend. All right, let's talk about where you are right now. So beyond Iran and Lebanon, what other regional actors are closely watching this unfolding war?
And could we see trouble where you are? Well, here Hezbollah is a major political power and has a military force not unlike Hamas. It's also backed by Iran. That's why when a lot of people were looking at the Gaza Strip and fighting there, people who know about the region were also looking at Hezbollah and Lebanon because this country has a history of appalling violence and civil war.
And Hezbollah has become a really strong fighting force over the past several generations fighting against Israel. So everybody was waiting for the other foot to drop with how Israel responded to those attacks in the Gaza Strip, but also whether Hezbollah was going to weigh in. Well, today we got an answer. Hezbollah has announced that at least three of their fighters have been killed in fighting along the border between Lebanon and Israel and the region of the country that used to be occupied by Israeli, Israeli military following the civil war here in Lebanon.
And you know, this is something that could see this whole conflict become internationalized. That's why there's so much anxiety about whether or not Hezbollah could weigh in. Even though we're not seeing anything near the level of fighting that we are in the Gaza Strip and Israel, this is a lynchburg. This could become a paradigm shift in this whole conflict.
If Hezbollah becomes involved, if Lebanon becomes involved, then we're talking about a regional war. Okay, Matt, Brandon, thank you for that report. Please stay safe. And coming up with a big interview here, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will join me live on SET to discuss the war in Israel.
Calls for action from Congress, men of lack of leadership in the House. Plus, we'll get the latest response from the White House and the administration's response and what we know about Americans caught in the crossfire. We'll also hear from a member of President Biden's national security team who joined me a bit later on in the program. You're watching THE PRESS now.
Welcome back. In addition to catching Israel and the world by surprise, Moss has attacked Israel, caught the US Congress. At a moment of unprecedented uncertainty, the House of Representatives remains leaderless. And without a Speaker, the House can't pass anything, including emergency military aid for Israel.
It remains to be seen that the escalating war helps Republicans move more quickly to elected new Speaker. The top candidates, Steve Gleason and Jordan are set to address the conference tomorrow. But the outbreak of this war has also sparked some calls for the ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy to be reinstated. And as of this moment, Congressman McCarthy isn't ruling that out.
And joining me on set is California Republican Kevin McCarthy, who until last week served as the speaker of the house. So Mr. McCarthy, today you held a press conference where you outlined a five point plan to deal with the situation in Israel. And I do want to get to that.
But first, do you have any unique insight into what's happening in Israel? Are you still being briefed despite the fact that you're no longer speaking of the House? I'm not brief because I'm no longer Speaker. So I don't do the Gang of Eight.
But I got a long relationship in history with Israel. So those like the speaker of the House that I'm talking to, those in the Knesset, I'm talking to ambassadors. So and those are on the ground and serving in the military itself. I'm speaking to them.
So I know firsthand what has transpired. From the moment I came into Congress, I have always led every term the Republicans over there to Israel to understand the differences. And I even made it bipartisan with the city. Hoyer.
My first international trip to speaker was to Israel to speak for the 75th anniversary of the creation of Israel in the Knesset. Only the second speaker ever to do that. And I was supposed to lead the Republicans at the end of this month there as well. This is devastating.
This is a combination. When I was speaking to the speaker of the Knesset, Ohana, I was talking about being 9 11. They're talking about also being Pearl harbor surprised on a Jewish holiday. You watch at the number.
If it's 800 Israelis, that's equivalent to 30,000Americans. And not only is it a terrorist attack, we've got to be very clear. This is the equivalency of isis. Hamas has to be destroyed and we have to stay strong with where we are.
But we have to lead. It's concerning to me that the President put a lid. The world is collapsing around us. This is where you have to show real leadership, show adults and keep your head.
The first thing we do, we had nine Americans killed, as we know. We know they're American hostages. This cannot be Afghanistan. We can't leave one American behind.
So if we're talking about leadership though, sir, respectfully, the Republican Party which is in the majority of the House of Representatives right now, is leaderless. Yes. And at this point, is there even a Republican leader in the House right now that is receiving these intelligence free things? There's a concern about being leaderless.
Remember why we are only because of eight Republicans and every Democrat. They made a political decision because they thought they could win a majority if they took me off the playing field. I'm still a member of Congress. I probably have the closest relationship with those in Israel.
That's why this isn't about being Speaker. This is about America leading. I want to see America do a five point plan. First, we've got to get our Americans back.
Never leave America behind. Secondly, we have to support Israel, give them the medical supplies, but more importantly, we want to make sure we replenish them with the weaponry they need. Especially when it comes to the Iron Dome. I know there's a number of Democrats who voted against it, but what you're concerned about here, an Iron Dome is a defensive weapon.
But it only has about 20 missiles in it. When a missile goes up it will calculate where that missile is going to go, and it shoots up to knock it out of the sky. But what Hamas is doing is trying to overwhelm it with 5,000. What they'll do at the beginning is send dumb rockets to see if they take out all the iron domes.
So then they'll send the precision guide. That's why we should take an action now in the medical supplies. The third thing we should do is freeze that $6 billion, but more importantly, stop Iran from being able to produce the oil. If you watch the foreign currency reserves, in 2020, they only had 4 billion.
Now they have 70 billion. They've become more successful, stronger, under the Biden administration, and they're only producing 400,000 barrels a day. Under the last administration, they're now 3 million. The sanctions are already there.
They're not just. They're not being enforced. We should make sure they're being enforced, and we should fill that void with American Petroleum to be able to produce it here. Okay, so this is a robust plan that you're outlining.
It's effectively useless unless there is some sort of consensus within your conference to make it happen. I don't think. Let me ask this. A conversation about replacing you.
Are you a candidate in that conversation? No, I'm not a candidate. Whoever the conference picks, I'm going to support it. The conference chooses you.
There's been a number of moderate Republicans who have come out and said that they think that you should attempt to reclaim the speakership. If that were to happen, would you accept the position? 96%. Let the conference decide that.
The conference has to unify. You have to be a player. I'm not going to be a player. The conference.
Because if you're going to allow 4%, 8 individuals to partner with all the Democrats. This is a Gates. This is a Gates, a Mace and a Pelosi trio. And they've got to decide if they want to become a majority or not.
I'm a conservative who believes in government. When we had a debt ceiling, I made sure government stayed open. But at the same time, it was the largest cut in American history. We got work requirements.
We had the first chance to have people before when the government was about to be shut down a week or so ago. Think for one moment where we would be today if government was shut down. A number of our members want to do that. I said no.
I made sure government was right. But, sir, I understand where you're going with this. Yes, but none of that changes the fundamental issue here, that those eight still exist and that there is a Republican that has 217 votes which they haven't been in the room yet, given the opportunity, let themselves. But you could right now officially say that you're no longer interested in the job as you did last week, the conference, if you want to talk about that.
That's not why I'm here. We're watching a war take before our eyes. I think the clarity here is three years ago there was a war in Ukraine. Three years ago Israel didn't have the most Jewish individuals killed along with Americans since the Holocaust.
So what I'm seeing right now is something that is leaderless. I've watched the President do a barbecue tweet about things that nobody cares about and put a lid on today when the world is looking for leadership. I laid out a five point plan based upon my relationships with America and Israel. Understanding the importance of that.
Whatever happens in speakership is fine with me, but it's not fine with me watching the world fall around me. So I want to make sure that we do something about this. The other thing we need to do as well is we need to make sure we are vulnerable. At the same time it is, it is an intel failure in America that we didn't know this was going to happen.
And what's happening on our southern borders, do you realize that in 2019 there wasn't one person caught on the FBI terrorist watch list as of today, this year there's 151. They're coming from 100. This Americans need to get off track. No, we're not getting off track because this is what's happening.
You just had a report where your own reporter was laying on the ground being shot at with our closest ally, the only democracy in the Middle East. And what we're having here is a president that puts a lid on something with no idea. And we're vulnerable because there could be a cell in America today for that same. Well, let me give you the evidence.
So when I first went down to the border number years ago and they told me they were catching people on the terrorist watch, this administration said I was lying. And you know what? I wasn't lying. We were true.
There's 160 different countries coming across this to have a negotiation to try and come up with a plan to solve the border crisis. That was all part of the point. But what? Wouldn't it have been a better tact for you in your conference to find some sort of negotiating posture with the Democrats in the conference, with the Democrats in the Senate and find some sort of compromise position with funding for Ukraine that would also have included some sort of border security package.
Okay. That was never even entertained. I'm gonna tell you different because it's very heavy paid attention. You know, the House, you pass the bill.
But you people tell me when I can answer your question. Go ahead. Thank you. Okay.
We passed HR2, border security, which dealt with, you know what, the Democrats in the Senate. Well, the Democrats in the House all voted no. The Democrats in the Senate wouldn't bring it up. I've been very clear with the White House.
We kept government open for 45 days. I was very clear with them. If they wanted to deal, they have $9 billion with Ukraine right now. But if they want to do something on Ukraine, they've got to do something about America.
Is the option now that especially with the situation in Israel, calling for more funding for Israel, would you say as a member of Congress if there was a package that include funding for Israel, funding for the border and funding for Ukraine, Is that a negotiating area where you think you could get all sizes through? I haven't seen anything there. But one thing I know is I wouldn't sit back. I would show the world right now that we're going to stand with Israel.
I would put some. Why do you not feel the same? Do you feel the same way about Ukraine? Because Ukraine has $9 billion and Israel is in the middle of the war with nothing.
Israel is having 5,000 missiles out. It had 800 people died, which would be equal to 30,000Americans. We had nine Americans killed and Americans held in hostage right now. If you want to continue to hold hostage for something else, I would like to see a president that wouldn't put a lid on it.
I'd like to see a president walk before and talk to the American public what's going on. I would like to see the leader of the world talk to the world and tell the rest of them if they get involved in this, it's got a problem. I'd like them to say that Hamas needs to be destroyed. I'd also like them to freeze the money and stop the appeasement to Iran.
You know the sanctions are already there. Enforce the sanctions. Iran doesn't have $60 billion. Before you go, sir, before you, I want to definitively make this clear.
You are not ruling yourself out as a potential speaker of this. The conference could do whatever. I'm not a candidate for the conference. And then finally you've really laid out the case why you believe that you're the best person to handle this.
Does that mean that you don't think title Police or Jim Jordan have the ability to handle this? You have more experience in that regard. I'm not sure what type of news you're trying to make, but let me just be very clear. I'm just asking that question.
Yeah. And I'm just explaining to you the world is at war right now, but I'm trying to make sure without a leader in the House of Representatives right now, thanks to every single Democrat and eight Republicans, Republicans, 4% of 96% of the Republicans said no. And for the same reason the Democrats picked up the idea that Gates makes Pelosi trio wants to do this. I think they're wrong about that.
Okay. Will there be speaker of the House by this time next week? I believe so. Okay.
Speaker, former Speaker Kelly, thank you for being here. Thank you. Appreciate. And up next, I'll talk to a former US Peace negotiator and career diplomat who knows the region and its complicated history better than most.
You're WATCHING ME THE PRESS now. Welcome back. Secretary Anthony Blinken called this weekend's surprise attack from Hamas the worst attack in Israel since the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Israeli officials have called it their 911 and their pearl Harbor.
This historic attack comes amid ongoing domestic political turmoil for Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu, who last hour called for a unity government. Joining me now is Ambassador Dennis Ross, a former special assistant to President Obama and the Middle east coordinator under President Clinton. So, Mr. Ambassador, thank you for being here.
And just talk to us first about the timing of this weekend's attack. It both came on holiday and on the anniversary of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. How important is that historic context? Well, certainly 50 years ago, plus one day you had a surprise with the 1973 war Israel that took place on Yom Kippur.
All Israel was shut down that day. St. Clautura is an important holiday, not quite the equivalent of that. But it makes you wonder whether or not Hamas was keeping that kind of anniversary in mind, thinking that they could pull off a similar kind of surprise.
And clearly they were able to pull off a similar surprise. How unusual is an attack like this for Hamas? Are we seeing a bit more ambition with this group or at least shifting ambitions? We've never seen an attack like this from Hamas.
Hamas always specialized in suicide bombings. It's specialized in firing missiles indiscriminately. In Israel, they have never pulled off something like this. Occasionally you might see one or two or Small team, try to infiltrate in Israel.
Nothing like this. There were a thousand people who reached the barrier. They came in and pickup trucks, we had mounted machine guns. They came in on motorcycles.
There were hang gliders. There was an attempt to come in from the sea. This was a very well coordinated approach. And there was a cover of a barrage of 3,000 rockets that focused the Israelis on dealing with rockets.
And rockets saturated the Iron Dome because there were so many. So this was a well thought out, coordinated plan where they were able to catch Israel by surprise. And Israel itself had very few forces down there because they had become increasingly focused not only on the northern border with Hezbollah, where Hezbollah, for the last couple months, has been engaging in productive behaviors which may well have been part of a feint to divert Israeli attention away. Plus the violence in the west bank, where Israel has dramatically increased its forces.
So the one border where there were minimal forces were down opposite Gaza. That reflected both the sense that they had an impregnable kind of barrier there, but also an assumption that Hamas wouldn't do this sort of operation and frankly, probably couldn't do this kind of operation. So they pulled off a strategic surprise at one level, and Israel was remarkably, I think, unprepared in the south at another level. And of course, Hamas is now a threaten to execute hostages if there's any sort of retaliatory strike by Israel.
How does this complicate their response to the attack? There's no doubt in my mind that one of the reasons Hamas took hostages, although the kind of hostages they've taken were, you know, really unthinkable. They've taken grandmothers, they've taken young women with very young children, quite a few. We're talking about kids under the age of 10, babies as young as six months old.
They clearly, I think, have taken the hostage because they thought this would deter Israel from fighting back. There's a history here of the Israelis trading, you know, more than a thousand Hamas prisoners in return for getting Bilal Shalit, someone, an Israeli soldier, who was captured by Hamas. So their expectation, based on Israel's history, was if they had these hostages, that would minimize what these Israelis would do response. Now, the reality is that the whole game plan is different, the whole playbook is different, because this is a complete shock to Israel, and there's a sense that Israel must restore its deterrence.
It must demonstrate against strength and that Hamas must never, must never again be in a position where it can pose this kind of a threat to Israel. So one shouldn't assume that there's going to be a kind of similar set of actions that we've seen in the past. We're looking at what may be a very different set of Israeli responses, not just going in on the land, but actually I don't rule out the possibility that Israel may again think about reoccupying Gaza. And this was obviously a massive intelligence failure.
Do you believe that part of the reason that Israel come took a tie up the ball is because of the political turmoil in the country right now? Now look, I suspect that it's hard to believe that that didn't have some effect. And you can think about after the 1973 war, there was something called the Iron Commission that reviewed how this happened. We ended up with something very similar in Israel on this because this is a surprise that actually was even greater in terms of the impact within Israel itself.
The number of losses in Israel yesterday are the greatest since any time since Israel's war of independence, all the wars, 1956, 1966-719731-98211, Lebanon, the previous conflicts with Hamas. Nothing like this has ever taken place since 1948. And so there will be a serious investigation into how did this happen. Obviously it's a, it's a military failure, it's an intelligent intelligence failure, but hard to believe that obviously the political establishment will also be subject to the same investigation and review.
Okay. Master Dennis Ross, thank you for your answer. We appreciate. And after the break, how the war in Israel is already impacting the Republican race for president.
Well, the latest reaction from the trail and what news for the White House pales next. You're watching THE PRESS now. Welcome back. Moments ago, the White House said in a statement that the death toll of Americans killed in war between Israel and Hamas has now risen to 11.
And as I discussed with former Speaker McCarthy, this war is now part of the political conversation in this country. And the Republican presidential candidates are reacting today on the trail with a healthy dose of criticism for President Biden. Here's what we heard from some of them today. Now it's time for leadership.
Joe Biden, they called the lid at 11:51. He's been missing an action. Step up to the plate. You were elected to the commander in chief.
You should be leading. You shouldn't be hiding. The witness of Joe Biden attracts the attacks. Negotiations.
Giving $6 billion to the Iranians, frankly funds the attack. And then the first comment from the White House was to tell Israel to stand down even after the attack. That makes Joe Biden complicit with these attacks and I'm joined now at the White House by former Admiral John Kirby, who's the coordinator for strategic communications on the National Security Council. John, thank you for being here.
11 US citizens killed in these attacks. Do you expect that number to rise? And have you been able to confirm how many US Citizens could potentially be missing? As much as we can to get as much information as we can about Americans over there.
But sadly, yes, two more Americans now confirmed dead. It is possible that there could be more. And there's also a number of unaccounted for Americans. Ryan.
We don't know where they are. We don't know how they are. And we also have that we can't. We can't ignore the possibility that some of those Americans could be held hostage now by Hamas.
So again, we're working at this as hard as we can to get more information about them, but we just don't. We don't have it right now. And so what can the US do right now to ensure the safe return of any of these potential hostages, American hostages? We're at the point now where Hamas is threatening to execute hostages of Israel bombs, civilian targets.
Does the United States have a role in those negotiations? Especially if there are US Civilians, lives at stake? I would just tell you, broadly speaking, that nothing more important to President Biden in this administration than the safety and security Americans overseas. And we will do what we need to do to see those Americans safely return to their families.
We'll look after our national security interests, but obviously we don't have boots on the ground here in this, in this conflict. What we do have is significant national security interest and concern for Americans and whack on those concerns. But I won't go beyond that now, right now. So how did this happen?
How did both Israeli and US Intelligence networks miss something of this scale? And how big of an intelligence failure was this, that this attack of this level wasn't on Israel's radar? You know, I think there's going to be a time when it's appropriate to take a look at the intel picture in the past and figure out what we knew, when we knew, who knew what, and whether we might have miss something here. Now's not that time, though, Ryan.
Now's the time to make sure that we are lashed up and we are with the Israelis, making sure that we are sharing intel information with them in real time or as close to real time as possible, and that we are doing what we can to make sure they've got the tools and capabilities, weapons, to continue to defend themselves. Republicans have been critical about the situation. The potential connections to Iran, the United States, Iran, Hamas have all pushed back on the idea that this attack was crafted by Iran, Iran before US Officials have told NBC that the attack does bear the hallmarks of Iranian involvement. From your personal Security Council, what does this tell you and are you concerned about the role Iran may have played?
I think we have to be honest about the fact that certainly Iran is complicit here. I mean they've been supporting Hamas now for many, many years, training capabilities, financing, and there's no question that they are state sponsored of terrorist groups like Hamas. So there's an air complicity, no doubt about it. And we are looking actively to see if there's evidence, intelligence evidence and facts that point to specific Iranian participation in planning a resource act.
We just haven't found it. And I would say the same. Our Israeli counterparts have publicly said the same thing. They're looking, they have not found the quote unquote smoking gun.
But obviously we're keep looking at this. And does it concern you at all that the United States States cut this deal with Iran just about a month ago in order to release prisoners there that included $6 billion that was provided unfrozen to the Iranian government. I know that money has not been formally released yet, but there's obviously been a connection made by some of your political opponents. What would you say about some of the information that's being put out around that particular talking point?
I certainly can't speak to political issues because of the Hatch act, so I won't go there. I would just tell you that there's no connection between the arrangements we made to get our Americans home and these attacks by Hamas here inside Israel. None of that money has been attacked by Iranian authorities. And by the way, the Iranian regime doesn't ever get any access to that money.
None of it's been spent, none of it's been tapped. And if in case it is, it can only go through approved vendors for free manitarian purpose to the Iranian people with whom we have no, no beef and no complaints. But the idea that somehow that arrangement is what facilitated this is just a completely inaccurate, incomprehensible reading of what's been happening in the last 24:36 hours. Okay, so Israel has formally declared war against Hamas.
Does that formal declaration mean anything to us? Support. And what does that support look like practically in the coming days? It's not going to change our plans to continue to support Israel.
The President said that yesterday. Obviously we have a long standing defense relationship with them. That's not going to change. We are going to continue to make sure they have what they need, the tools they need to better defend themselves against these terrorists.
That will continue what's going to look like in coming days. I think Ryan's going to depend on what happens on the ground. I mean, right now we've already got at least one package of security assistance. We know it's on the way to Israel, in fact may already be there.
We're going to continue to lash up with them every day to make sure that future packages are meeting their needs as best as best they can. We have existing authorities, some existing appropriations to draw from. Certainly if we need to go back to Congress for more such authorities or for more such appropriations, we'll do that. A lot of this is going to depend on what happens on the ground.
Are you concerned that Congress right now effectively is paralyzed because there isn't a Speaker of the House? How could that complicate the needs that you may request from Congress? Well, there's a speaker pro tem and there's obviously wide, wide, broad and broad bipartisan support for continue to help Israelis. They defend themselves by camera as well.
We know that. We're going to keep discussing and working with Congress making sure that they're up to speed of what the needs are and we're confident that we'll continue to get support. Okay, my last question for you. So the US Military asset, an aircraft carrier to the eastern Mediterranean is a weaponry on board that ship that could be used in the conflict and what other support will it?
Well, carrier strike group is a pretty military force. So yes, of course they're fully armed and capable of defending and protecting our national security interest. I won't speak to future operations one way or the other, but the main message of sending that carrier strike group to the eastern head is one of reassurance. One deterrence reassurance to the Israeli people and quite frankly to the American people that we're going to take seriously our national security interest no matter where they are, but also deterrence to any actor or nation state who thinks this might be a good time to take advantage of their of their hatred of Israel.
This is a strong message that nobody should be looking at what's going on in Israel and trying to take advantage of it. Okay. Admiral John Kirby, thank you for your time. I know it is extremely busy right now.
We appreciate you being here. Yes, sir. And we'll talk about this more now with our panel. Susan Page, the Washington bureau chief for USA Today.
Jen Psaki, the former White House press secretary and host of Inside with Jen Psaki on msnbc and Jim Gary, the senior political correspondent for National Review and a contributing columnist for the Washington Post. So Susan, we played before our interview with John Kirby some of the Republican presidential candidates responding to this, making it a political issue. I mean, how does this new development impact the race for president? Well, you heard 10 chaos say incorrectly that the $6 billion of the United States hasn't frozen was used to finance this attack.
That is untrue. That money has not been released yet. When it's released is with oversight for humanitarian purposes. But it underscores the political complications are going to be ahead for the president.
Talking about the US Role in the leader of this. Why did US Intelligence not have a better sense of what's going on and also how the United States responds to this really very difficult situation in the Middle East. So Jim, the candidate the primary with the most foreign policy experience right now is Nikki Haley. She of course the former ambassador of the United Nations.
She was under press with Kristen yesterday. America is incredibly distracted and incredibly divided. And when America's distracted, the world is less safe. And look at what happened to Israel.
They waited for them to be distracted and that's when your enemies move in. America needs to wake up. We need to put this negativity and division behind us and we need to focus on national security for ourselves and for our friends. I guess Donald Trump has the most foreign policy, was president of the United States.
But could this be an opportunity for Nikki Haley to kind of burn these credentials? If this is the the kind of environment that Nikki Haley can rise at a Republican primary, then that moment doesn't exist. This is a classic foreign policy crisis. The president always comes in under fire when there's a foreign policy crisis on their watch.
And as you mentioned in the earlier segment, knowledge is really intelligence looks bad. US Intelligence looks bad if it's not like the US doesn't spend any time looking at mos and Hezbollah and what these other Islamic stereotypes doing. So if Israel could get blindsided, people understandably we get blindsided. But you know what I thought was interesting what she said it wasn't just about foreign policy she was making under what I heard was a direct comparison between Netanyahu, who has been under political pressure because of the judicial reforms he tried to make that did make some of them that are very unpopular in Israel, and Donald Trump, who's also facing jail time.
They were both let things get when she said get distracted. That is what I heard she was referencing. So you have to really listen to hear that. But I thought that was true.
She can fight the rise about the politics of it, talk about the need for national unity. And that is a smart approach to take with voters who are really tired, I think with the rhetoric they hear from almost everybody. Let's talk about the bullpupp for President Biden though, Jen. We played Tim Scott attacking in that video, but he also tweeted this yesterday or exit what it's called now.
Biden's weakness invited the attack. Attack. Biden's negotiation funded the attack, which we've already fact checked is not true. But Biden's administration wanted Israel to stand down after the attack.
He's referring to some deleted tweets from the Secretary of State. And at this point Biden is complicit. That's a pretty, you know, very serious charge by Tim Scott. You saw in my interview with the former speaker him criticizing the White House calling a Lynn today.
I think we understand what that means from a press perspective, but it is an effective talking point. Should the president be out front? Maybe, maybe not. I mean, let's be honest, Tim Scott is, I don't even know what he is in the Republican primary right now.
I actually think he knows better and is better than what he just said. So I've been kind of surprised by how low he's gone in this race that he has. Some of the Democrats have worked in the past and Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley currently beating him in New Hampshire. So him attacking the White House for calling it.
First of all, nobody knows what that means. That's not impacting voters. What the president is actually doing is making phone calls with foreign leaders which they'll read out from the White House. So I don't actually think any of those.
Should he do a public facing event so that the country can see him being involved in this? Well, he gave remarks the other day. I think the most important thing that he can do is actually engage with the Israelis, engage with leaders and regions. Asking Admiral Kirby about this is a very good question having lived in there for many years.
They are also engaging with the Egyptians with the qaries to talk to them about engaging with Hamas. That's the role the president can play. That's how he will be judged about this moment, less about how many sets of public remarks he does. And I'm sure they'll do some more in the coming days and they more updates to provide.
Joe Biden spoke for three minutes on Saturday afternoon, didn't speak it on Sunday, hadn't spoken at all today. Could have gone to a synagogue, could have gone to his Israeli embassy, could have had public cabinet meeting, could have taken questions, could have done any of those things. He hasn't done any of them. You say Americans don't know what you know calling a lygmist.
I think over the last two and a half years Americans have become familiar with that term because very often this White House has it. You know, the president doesn't allow a lot of events on weekends. We always do a lot of events early in the morning. We always do a lot of events late in the afternoon and evening.
This is not a good time for Biden to be away from cameras. He got a perfectly fine written statement right before we came on. He could have gone out from the cameras and shoot that. At least said, hey, I'm here.
This is what we're doing. This is why they did it on Saturday is not just for the US public, but also international. Here's where I would disagree with you. I mean, the President's role as it related to Ukraine, a lot of that was behind the scenes phone calls, it was engagement with people that actually played out in his favor in terms of how people perceived his role there.
I think right now this is not really a political moment. This is about a President being in the Oval Office and the Situation Room and behaving accordingly. Couldn't this be an opportunity for them? One of the things, one of the reasons Joe Biden was picked as Barack Obama was running back, way back when was his work of policy credentials.
Couldn't this be an opportunity to, for him to really demonstrate that experience? I think, I think that's true because it's most important he does a job of president behind the scenes. I agree with you on that. But the bully pulpit is important too.
And I think Americans do want to hear from the President about what's going on, what's the U.S. what is he going to do? And I think that has been a shortcoming or missed opportunity by President Biden not to be out there more often communicating in whatever form he chooses with America. We talked about Joe Biden give a speech.
But it's a bigger crisis that Congress can't do anything right now. And the fact that the speakership is making. Well, it depends on how long it takes to fill the speakership. Right.
If it takes, if it gets till this week, I think it's not important. If it takes a month, forever, then I think it could be a problem. And they also have a number of positions that have been filled. There's not currently an ambassador to Israel right now.
There are a number of military leaders who are not currently filled. Tommy Tabriel, Senators, Israel has committed to not allowing these people to move forward. So there's also issues in the House, but there's issues in the Senate as well. Kirby could have taken a whack at that pinata a moment.
He didn't. I think it says something. Probably by Wednesday, Thursday, we have a sense of who the next speaker the House is going to be. When the party went down, one of the reasons I didn't think that was going to happen is like he can't beat something that's nothing.
Well, right now we have speed for the House, nothing. And the question is, how long do we actually want to have that? And I think that there's a lot of murmuring like, why can't we get a party back just for the crisis in the House caucus this year? Last weekend, there's this sense of like, okay, he was one thing when things were normal.
When the Middle east is on fire, it looks worse than not house. The people saying that are the moderates who are with him. People are saying that are not the conservatives who abandoned him. Yeah.
I think under any circumstances. When they have this family meeting over the next couple of days, they can't leave there without someone who has 217 votes. It's not enough just to win. Everyone stuck at the table and tell them.
Exactly. All right. Thank you all. We appreciate you all being here.
Thank much you so much. And that is going to do it for this hour of me, the PRESS Now. We are back tomorrow, though, with more MEET THE PRESS now. But our NBC News now covers continues with Hallie Jackson right now.
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