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| Welcome to today's Washington Journal. | ||
| We'll start with a poll that Gallup has just put out. | ||
| And this is the headline. | ||
| It says this, 32% in U.S. back Israel's military action in Gaza, a new low. | ||
| Here's what it looks like visually over time. | ||
| So the question was, do you approve or disapprove of the military action Israel has taken in Gaza? | ||
| Here's the first time they took the poll, which was in November of 2023, a month after the attack on Israel. | ||
| Here is, it was 50% approval at the time, 45% disapproval. | ||
| That was a month in. | ||
| Then the line goes up a little bit of disapproval to 55% here in, this would have been in March of 2024. | ||
| But then here is the approval line going down to its lowest level at 32% and disapproval at its highest level at 60%. | ||
| Now, if you were to put that out by party, here's what it looks like. | ||
| So Republicans are here in red on top with starting at 71 going down up a little bit, but increasing actually over the last year to 71% approval. | ||
| That's among Republicans. | ||
| Then this line here is Independents. | ||
| That's down sharply to 25%. | ||
| The lowest is Democrats. | ||
| So starting at 36% and then coming all the way down to 8% approval of Israel's military action. | ||
| We're asking you that number. | ||
| You can go ahead and start calling in now and share your thoughts while you're doing that. | ||
| President Trump spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One on his way back to the White House addressing Gaza and plans to send food and monetary aid. | ||
| Here he is. | ||
| We're going to get a lot of money to the area so they can get some food. | ||
| He's going to also. | ||
| I think the European Union is going to put up money too for food. | ||
|
unidentified
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And hopefully it's going to be properly distributed. | |
| And it will be. | ||
| I think it will be. | ||
| We have some pretty good response on people for the distribution of the food. | ||
|
unidentified
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We want to take it one thing at a time. | |
| They need food, and they need people to be able to get them the food. | ||
|
unidentified
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But for the local line, I mean, is there any use at all in pressuring Israel now to come to some sort of longer-term solution? | |
| Well, you could make the case that you're rewarding people, that you're rewarding Hamas if you do that. | ||
|
unidentified
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And I don't think they should be rewarded. | |
| So I'm not in that camp, to be honest. | ||
| We'll let you know where we are, but I am not in that camp. | ||
| Mr. President, because if you do that, you really are rewarding Hamas. | ||
| And I'm not about to do that. | ||
| Mr. President, you mentioned setting up food centers. | ||
| When can we expect to see food centers? | ||
| Yeah, very soon. | ||
| So we sent $60 million. | ||
| It's a lot of money for food, a lot of money that can take care of people for a long time. | ||
| And we want to make sure it's going to be spent properly. | ||
|
unidentified
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And part of the spending is the distribution. | |
| You know, if you know, a lot of money has been sent by other countries, but nothing compared to us. | ||
|
unidentified
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But a lot of things have been stolen. | |
| They sent money, they sent food, and Hamas steals it. | ||
| So it's a tricky little game. | ||
| But we're going to make sure we have some very good people. | ||
|
unidentified
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They're going to be watching it. | |
| Who is going to be running those food centers for you? | ||
| And what kind of oversight is it? | ||
| Well, we're going to be dealing with Israel, and we think they can do a good job of it. | ||
|
unidentified
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And they want to do it. | |
| And that was a bit hard to hear because of the sound of the jet. | ||
| You hear us the Associated Press saying this. | ||
| Trump says the U.S. will partner with Israel to run additional food centers in Gaza, but details are scant. | ||
| It says that President Trump said on Tuesday that the U.S. will partner with Israel to run new food centers in Gaza to address the worsening humanitarian crisis there, but he and U.S. officials offered few additional details about the plan or how it would differ from existing food distribution sites. | ||
| He said, quote, we're going to be dealing with Israel, and we think they can do a good job of it. | ||
| The opaque details come as the Trump administration is facing calls at home and abroad to do more to address the hunger crisis in Gaza. | ||
| The U.S.'s close ally, Israel, is at the center of an international outcry as more images of emaciated children continue to emerge. | ||
| It said Trump this week broke with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, disagreeing publicly with him about starvation in Gaza and citing the pictures of hungry people. | ||
| And we're taking your calls on the questions: do you support or oppose Israel's military action in Gaza? | ||
| We'll start with Paul, Plymouth, Connecticut, Independent Line. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning, ma'am. | |
| A sad chapter in U.S. history, all the way from Biden. | ||
|
unidentified
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And you remember when I called this program and I accused Biden of licking the boots of Netanyahu right after October 7th. | |
| Very strong language. | ||
| However, what did Benjamin Netanyahu say recently about the starving? | ||
| There is no policy of starvation in Gaza. | ||
| Well, my lying eyes, I suppose. | ||
| So Paul, sorry, I'm going to let you continue, but this is the front page of USA Today, Hunger in Gaza, one meal at a time, quoting Benjamin Netanyahu. | ||
| It says, there is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza. | ||
| Go ahead, Paul. | ||
|
unidentified
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This topic has been very hard to speak about for Americans, especially when you have the Jewish organizations coming out and accusing people of being anti-Semitic if they disagree with the policies of Israel. | |
| This is something even our new Pope, the American Pope, Leo, has criticized as barbaric. | ||
| So, I mean, you know, you can prop up, I say you, the political operatives in the United States could prop up the positions of Israel, Smotrick, other leaders who have called for the extermination of the Gazans. | ||
| And then we have the West Bank, a thousand since October 7th, 1,000, where settlers come in, dispossess Palestinian land in the West Bank, and then, you know, kill and murder with impunity. | ||
| So what do you think the U.S. should do? | ||
| Give me actual policy prescriptions for how to solve this. | ||
|
unidentified
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Okay, I'll answer it. | |
| Certainly, it's not Biden's type of response or Trump's response. | ||
| So it's up to grassroots people in this country. | ||
| What is the prescription to be done? | ||
| The United States has to team up. | ||
| And of course, we need a president that is going to talk straight instead of trying to push his personal interests above the interest of the American people. | ||
| So yes, we need to team up and we need to start respecting our closest ally, Canada, because Canada has been along with us in previous international relations. | ||
| We need to strengthen our relationships with our neighbors and our allies and ensure. | ||
| And of course, I was very pleased to see Starmer come out and give an ultimative. | ||
| At least it's something it should have been done a long time ago, but we need world powers to come together realistically. | ||
| We need to put pressure on our representatives in government, including Democrats. | ||
| We have Senator Blumenthal here in Connecticut and Murphy, and they have been really quiet about this. | ||
| Come on out, guys. | ||
| We need more voices. | ||
| Gary, Democrat, Oceanside New York. | ||
| Good morning, Gary. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
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Let's not forget what happened over 600 days ago when the Palestinians, Hamas, invaded Israel, killed innocent people, killed children. | |
| Let's not forget how we started raped, murder. | ||
| It's now suddenly only see what's going on in Gaza. | ||
| Why don't you just show the pictures what happened over 600 days ago? | ||
| It's amazing how we just forgotten October 7th, but the question is, do you think that it has been an appropriate and proportional response by Israel? | ||
|
unidentified
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Well, of course. | |
| Well, it's an act of war, okay? | ||
| So it's no different than World War II. | ||
| Do we really have to drop nuclear, you know, atomic bombs in Japan? | ||
| But we didn't want to send our troops in there to die because they wouldn't give up. | ||
| So why doesn't Hamas give up, give the hostage back, and just start over again and say, let's try to have peace. | ||
| But they'll never have it because they want Israel wiped off the face of the earth. | ||
| And Israel has to defend itself. | ||
| None of the Arab countries are tripping in over there and trying to stop the war. | ||
| You know, they don't say, let's help Palestine. | ||
| I don't see them running over. | ||
| There's nothing that way. | ||
| It's why is it America's problem to do this? | ||
| This is an independent problem with the problem with Israel and the Palestinian people, which I guarantee you, probably 80% of them don't want to be involved with this already. | ||
| But get rid of your leadership like they did, like they do in all wars. | ||
| You change your leadership. | ||
| All right, Gary. | ||
| And this is the New York Post with the headline, Families of Last Remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza fear that, quote, the world is forgetting. | ||
| That's two days ago. | ||
| It says, families of two of the last remaining Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip worried that the world is forgetting about them as Israel comes under more pressure to end the war over the desperate humanitarian conditions in the Palestinian territory. | ||
| There are still 20 living hostages, along with the remains of up to 50 others in Gaza, according to Israel. | ||
| William Castleberry, Florida, Republican. | ||
| Good morning, William. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning. | |
| Yeah, excellent point by the prior caller about Hamas. | ||
| No mention of Hamas. | ||
| They're responsible for this tragedy, not Israel. | ||
| You cannot do that. | ||
| Hamas is responsible. | ||
| Go back 600 days. | ||
| There's your problem. | ||
| It's Hamas. | ||
| It's Iran. | ||
| And yes, we need to come together and help those folks over there, but you cannot point fingers at an administration. | ||
| How do you think, William? | ||
| How do you think the administration should help those people? | ||
|
unidentified
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You said that they should help, how I'll tell you how the administration should help. | |
| They need to get those hostages back. | ||
| They need to eradicate and eliminate Hamas and return the hostages and make sure to take care of the starving people in Gaza. | ||
| That's all I got to say. | ||
| Let's talk to Paul in Westport, Connecticut, Independent Line. | ||
| Good morning, Paul. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning. | |
| I have, my main question is, how come the mainstream media and all other social media has never put into context these pictures, | ||
| particularly the one in the New York Times, which they have removed or amended, showing a child they're calling that there is extreme famine, but they do not direct any context in reference to that this child had significant medical problems and genetic problems. | ||
| And this the New York Times admitted, and yet his brother right next to him when he came into the picture was very well fed. | ||
| I'm not denying that there are people that need humanitarian aid, but I blame the social media and all of it for taking out of context and putting into context and putting in their own agenda-driven propaganda about what is going on in this area. | ||
| I don't think that there is a fair distribution of objective evidence on either side. | ||
| I'm not saying that Israel is Perhaps doing something wrong, but they are at fault in many respects. | ||
| But yet every Western country and everyone in the world only portrays Israel in an anti-Israel outlook. | ||
| There is famine. | ||
| No one talks about Sudan. | ||
| No one talks about all these other countries where there is significant famine that is never mentioned in the social media. | ||
| I blame a great deal of this on false and misinformation. | ||
| All right, Paul. | ||
| And we are taking your calls on whether or not you support or oppose Israel's military action in Gaza. | ||
| You can give us a call. | ||
| Here is State Department spokesperson Tammy Brush, who's asked whether President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu are on the same page when it comes to Gaza. | ||
| Here's that answer. | ||
|
unidentified
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President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have issued seemingly contradictory statements on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. | |
| Is there a rift emerging between the two leaders and how is this impacting peace efforts, if at all? | ||
| Well, of course, what I won't comment on is the nature of a relationship. | ||
| What we've seen between the president and the prime minister has been a very good relationship. | ||
| Certainly, this is a fluid, dynamic situation. | ||
| That's an understatement when it comes to what's happening in Gaza, especially with the new efforts regarding the humanitarian assistance. | ||
| Certainly the President's point of view regarding what we need to do and continue to do, which we have been doing, which is facilitating the food assistance through GHF, but also, of course, the financial investment and the president's work and this government's work and Secretary Rubio's work to stop the carnage, to have a ceasefire, to get the hostages released, and to have the killing stopped. | ||
| I think that when we look at the nature of remarks by the president, there's one thing that's clear that everyone can agree on is that it is his humanitarian nature to focus on diplomatic solutions, but he is a realist in needing to, and he'll go and do what he needs to realize what his goals are, which is peace and a ceasefire. | ||
| And also, I think the recognition that no one has denied, we have not denied it in this room, that the humanitarian assistance to this point has not been enough. | ||
| My argument has been is that it would never be enough in that obscene, unnatural environment. | ||
| And so we're proceeding in that regard, and of course, with President Trump's leadership, as he noted yesterday, to do even more to assist when it comes to food and other aid. | ||
| So that's, I think, without getting ahead of the president, as we'll learn more about what his plans are coming up. | ||
| We know the Secretary, of course, has led the way in this regard as well. | ||
| But the focus remains, certainly the humanitarian aid, and our focus remains also on a ceasefire and ending that carnage. | ||
| That was yesterday, and she did mention the GHF, which is the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. | ||
| And this is CBS News reporting that Senate Democrats urge the U.S. to stop funding GHF, resume support for UN food distribution in Gaza as more starve. | ||
| It says a group of Democratic senators led by Democratic Senator Chris Van Holland of Maryland is urging the Trump administration to suspend American financial support for the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. | ||
| It's a private food distribution organization that has been heavily criticized for the way it delivers food aid to Gazans and because so many have been killed trying to reach its distribution sites. | ||
| The U.S. and Israel have advocated for the recently established GHF to replace the United Nations, which has built an extensive network of humanitarian workers inside Gaza over decades. | ||
| Israel accuses the UN of bias and collusion with Hamas. | ||
| Take a look at Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen. | ||
| He was talking about this and why he believes the U.S. should not back that organization. | ||
| It's $15 million and potentially rising. | ||
| And this is a bad investment because it's contributing to the starvation of people in Gaza. | ||
| As we speak, families are dying of starvation. | ||
| Kids are dying of starvation. | ||
| What happened was months ago, the Netanyahu government imposed a complete blockade on all food and humanitarian supplies getting into Gaza. | ||
| When they ended that blockade and allowed a trickle of aid in, they didn't allow the United Nations humanitarian organizations to resume that aid. | ||
| They replaced it with this private organization backed by mercenaries and the Israeli defense forces that has been used not really to deliver food, but to use food as a weapon of war. | ||
| So in our letter, we say U.S. taxpayers should not be complicit in what has become a death trap, those scenes of people swarming to get food only to be shot down. | ||
| And let the U.N. organizations resume what had been a very difficult situation, but at least people were not starving to death every day. | ||
| Here's Nancy in Florida, Democrat. | ||
| Hi, Nancy. | ||
|
unidentified
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Hi, good morning. | |
| I wonder if you could find a statistic on how much money we have given Israel for arms to bomb Gaza. | ||
| And yesterday, President Trump says we're giving $60 million for aid. | ||
| Well, when I Googled it, it said over $17 billion for arms to bomb them. | ||
| So we're the only one that, President Trump said we're the only one that's giving money for aid. | ||
| Well, we gave them $18 billion to bomb them. | ||
| I was wondering if you could put up a statistic for that. | ||
| Yeah, well, you have to make the, I guess, the distinction between offensive and defensive weapons. | ||
| So when you say to bomb them, that would be offensive weapons. | ||
| But we'll try to find you some information on that, Nancy. | ||
|
unidentified
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Okay, thank you. | |
| DeAndre in Baltimore, Republican. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning, Mimi. | |
| It's good to hear from you, as always. | ||
| Good morning, America. | ||
| It's a great topic here. | ||
| It's something I think we should talk about a lot more. | ||
| So first, I will say I strongly oppose Israel's actions in Gaza for the last 661 days. | ||
| I'm 29 years old. | ||
| Never in my life have I witnessed such brutality and devastation carried out on a civilian population. | ||
| Now, in regards to the GHF, I think it's important for people to look into the recent BBC interview by Anthony Aguilar. | ||
| Anthony Aguilar is a U.S. colonel, former U.S. Colonel in the Special Forces, Green Beret, and he went there and witnessed firsthand not only Israeli defense soldiers, occupation forces, but also U.S. contractors firing, live fire, on unarmed, starving civilians. | ||
| Not only they're being fired on, but they also have tank rounds being fired in the crowds of people that are starving. | ||
| All right, this is eyewitness evidence from a former U.S. Green Beret. | ||
| So that's one. | ||
| And two, for the last, however many people have been saying, oh, it's 50,000, 50,000, 50,000. | ||
| That's just what they're reporting. | ||
| I mean, there's about 700,000 that is unaccounted for from the population of Gaza. | ||
| And let's not forget the amount of bombs and TNT that's been dropped in Gaza is more than that's been dropped in World War II. | ||
| You can watch this program in its entirety at our website, cspan.org. | ||
| We'll leave it here and take you live to Capitol Hill for a Senate hearing on the Agriculture Department's plans to reorganize the agency. | ||
| You're watching live coverage on C-SPAN. |