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Mike Pence and Democrat Ram Emmanuel reflected on their unexpected friendship and found common ground on one of the world's most pressing issues, Israel and Hamas. | |
| And I have no problem with that. | ||
| President Trump deserves credit here. | ||
| Some of my party won't say that. | ||
| I'm grateful for Raul speaking plainly about giving President Trump credit here. | ||
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Friday, governors from opposite ends of the political map come together from Deep Red Oklahoma to solid blue Maryland. | |
| Democratic Governor Wes Moore and Republican Governor Kevin Stitt sit down with host Dasha Burns. | ||
| Welcome to Ceasefire, where we seek to bridge the divide in American politics. | ||
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For a conversation, not a confrontation. | |
| Red meets blue. | ||
| Great Plains meets Mid-Atlantic Friday, October 17th at 7 p.m. Eastern and Pacific. | ||
| Ceasefire, only on C-SPAN. | ||
| Representative Rob Whitman, he's a Republican of Virginia. | ||
| He's on the Vice Chair of the Armed Services Committee and Vice Chair of the Natural Resources Committee. | ||
| Congressman Whitman, welcome to the program. | ||
| Good morning, Mimi. | ||
| Great to be with you. | ||
| As I just mentioned, you are vice chair of the Armed Services Committee and it is payday for the troops. | ||
| Can you confirm that they have all been paid their paycheck for today? | ||
| Yes, they had put things in motion to move some money from research, development, technology, and engineering accounts into payroll accounts to make sure that our members of the military are paid. | ||
| I'm also a co-sponsor of the Pay Our Troops Act, which would continue that. | ||
| Remember, though, Mimi, that this is a temporary measure. | ||
| If this shutdown continues to the end of the month, our troops could miss another paycheck. | ||
| So that's critical for us to make sure that we get government reopen. | ||
| But yes, our troops will receive a paycheck. | ||
| And Congressman, we're hearing that there was $8 billion that was moved from research and development test and evaluation to pay the troops. | ||
| How much did it cost for the $1.3 million to get their paychecks? | ||
| Well, the dollars that are moved there, I think, cover that cost. | ||
| So I know that there's an accounting measure there to make sure that the full cost of those paychecks are covered by the research, development, technology, and engineering account. | ||
| Now, there was a caller that mentioned the Anti-Deficiency Act that prohibits that kind of expenditure. | ||
| Can you explain how that works and if Congress is going to have any issues with the administration moving funds at will? | ||
| Well, listen, I don't have an issue with our military members being paid. | ||
| If any other member of Congress has an issue with paying our members of the military, I hope that they speak out. | ||
| I hope they let folks know why they object to our members of the military being paid. | ||
| And is there, what part of research and development will not be getting funded as that money has been expended elsewhere? | ||
| Well, these dollars will be replaced. | ||
| So this is a momentary move of those dollars. | ||
| But when the government reopens, those dollars can be replaced for the research, development, testing, and engineering programs. | ||
| You mentioned that you are in favor of the Pay Our Troops Act that would fund, essentially fund, congressionally fund payment for the U.S. military troops during the shutdown. | ||
| The leadership in Congress, as far as Health Speaker Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Thun, have said that they oppose this. | ||
| Well, listen, I want to make sure that our members of the military are paid, pure and simple. | ||
| So it doesn't matter to you if it's from Congress or the administration is moving money around, you're happy that they're being paid. | ||
| I want to make sure that they're paid, yes. | ||
| What about the National Guard and the Reserve and also the Defense Department civilians? | ||
| Yes, I want to make sure that our National Guard and Army Reserve and reserve components, including the Air National Guard, are paid, period. | ||
| They absolutely must be paid. | ||
| Have you heard anything about the administration finding the funds to pay them as well? | ||
| I know there are discussions about how to make that happen, and we've encouraged the administration to find ways to make sure we get those dollars into the necessary accounts to make sure we pay our reservists and our National Guard. | ||
| And as Vice Chair of the Armed Services Committee, Congressman Whitman, are you concerned about military readiness and the national security of this country? | ||
| Well, I always am. | ||
| You know, our opponents are never at rest. | ||
| They're always continuing to pursue efforts to take advantage of the United States in any way, shape, or form they can, both strategically and for that matter, economically. | ||
| So I want to make sure we're doing everything we can. | ||
| I just met last week with Secretary Hegseth. | ||
| I'm very confident that the Pentagon or service branch chiefs who I'll be meeting today with the Secretary of the Army, I am very confident that they're doing everything they can to make sure that our forces are ready, that they're trained and equipped and properly outfitted to assure that they stand ready if called upon to defend this nation. | ||
| And in your conversations with Secretary Hegseth, I wonder if his new Pentagon press policy came up in your conversations and if you're concerned at all about First Amendment issues and the ability of journalists to cover the Defense Department properly. | ||
| Listen, that issue did not come up and the Pentagon I know has their press policies. | ||
| I'm a firm believer in the First Amendment and everything that we do in our office assures that people have access and that we continue to freely communicate on the issues that are important to the people, not just to the First Congressional District of Virginia, but also to our nation. | ||
| Switching now to the war in Ukraine, Ukrainian President Zelensky will be meeting with President Trump on Friday. | ||
| He has asked for high-precision long-range cruise missiles known as tomahawks. | ||
| Are you in favor of that? | ||
| I'm in favor of giving Ukraine the tools necessary to make sure that Russia seeks to end this conflict. | ||
| I think you have to make sure that Russia sees a continued threat in continuing the conflict. | ||
| I think anything that we can do to help Ukraine, and that includes in conjunction with our European neighbors, is the way that we need to go forward. | ||
| I want to see an end to this conflict. | ||
| I think the president deserves a tremendous amount of credit for his efforts in brokering this peace deal in the Middle East. | ||
| I think his next focus is on the Ukraine-Russia conflict. | ||
| The way that you bring Russia to the table is to make sure that they continue to see risk in their efforts in continuing this conflict. | ||
| We've seen, unfortunately, the conversations between Vladimir Putin and the President haven't resulted in the things necessary to bring this conflict to an end. | ||
| I think Putin has said things. | ||
| He's not followed up. | ||
| I think they continue to pursue these heightened conflict efforts in Ukraine. | ||
| The way you bring them to the table is to make sure that Russia sees that it's not to their advantage to continue this conflict. | ||
| They have to see that there's a cost to pay if they continue the conflict. | ||
| Providing these sorts of weapon systems to Ukraine, I think, provides that. | ||
| The President's been very clear with that. | ||
| President Zelensky, too, has been clear in saying that these are the things that are needed to really force this situation to a reasonable and fair peace agreement. | ||
| Now, those tomahawks would give Ukraine the ability to hit Moscow in a very precise fashion and certain targets there in Moscow. | ||
| The Russians have said that this is an escalation. | ||
| Obviously, they would not be happy about that. | ||
| How do you feel about this being an escalation and things getting out of control if Ukraine starts hitting Moscow directly? | ||
| Listen, I want to see this conflict end. | ||
| Its obvious status quo is not ending the conflict. | ||
| I want to make sure that we're doing things to bring this conflict to an end. | ||
| Finally, Congressman Whitman, I want to ask you about the deployment of National Guard troops to American cities. | ||
| This past week, President Trump and the Vice President, and Stephen Miller have all mentioned that the president could invoke the Insurrection Act and give himself full authority over those deployments. | ||
| Would you support that action? | ||
| Well, the President has to make an assessment about what the threats are in these various cities. | ||
| They will do that. | ||
| I want to make sure I stay informed about how they do that threat assessment and how they make their decisions. | ||
| So I'm going to continue to monitor the situation and determine what the information that they have is being used and making their determination. | ||
| And I'm glad to assess it at that particular point. | ||
| Were you concerned, sir, that when the president said at that speech in Quantico to military leaders that the military could use American cities as training grounds? | ||
| Listen, we want to make sure that our troops are trained. | ||
| We have lots of training opportunities through national training centers, through our deployments, through the things that our military does in joint operations to train with other nations. | ||
| I think there are lots of training opportunities there. | ||
| I think our military does a great job in assuring that they're ready for any contingency that comes before them. | ||
| All right, Representative Rob Whitman, a Republican of Virginia, thanks so much for joining us today. | ||
| Thank you, Mimi. | ||
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C-SPAN's Washington Journal, our live forum inviting you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics, and public policy from Washington and across the country. | |
| Coming up this morning, we'll talk about day 16 of the government shutdown. | ||
| First, with Pennsylvania Democratic Congresswoman Chrissy Houlihan on its impact on defense and national security. | ||
| Then with Nebraska Republican Congressman Mike Flood on the GOP strategy dealing with the shutdown. | ||
| And with Reuters correspondent David Shepardson on the shutdown's impact on air travel. | ||
| C-SPAN's Washington Journal. | ||
| Join in the conversation live at 7 Eastern this morning on C-SPAN. | ||
| C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, or online at c-span.org. | ||
| As the government shutdown likely moves into a third week, on Wednesday, Senate lawmakers rejected for the ninth time a funding measure that would reopen the federal government. | ||
| The U.S. Senate failed to advance the House-Pass GOP proposal by a vote of 51 to 44. | ||
| Treasury Secretary Scott Besson said the shutdown could cost the federal government $15 billion in output daily. |