Representative Mike Flood recounts Secret Service agents violently removing Vice President Kamala Harris and gunshots at the White House Correspondents Dinner, highlighting rising political rhetoric. He discusses extending Section 702 of the FISA Act for homeland security while criticizing the JCPOA deal for enabling terrorist funding by Hamas and Hezbollah. Flood supports Kevin Warsh's Federal Reserve nomination to break a Senate logjam and addresses naval operations in the Strait of Hormuz amidst Iran's leadership uncertainty, emphasizing the need for mental health resources regarding school violence. Ultimately, the segment underscores the tension between security measures, legislative priorities, and diplomatic failures in current US foreign policy. [Automatically generated summary]
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Plates Breaking Behind Me00:03:46
Washington Journal.
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Welcome back to Washington Journal.
We're joined now by Representative Mike Flood.
He's a Republican from Nebraska.
He's the chair of the Financial Services Subcommittee.
Welcome to the program, Representative Flood.
Good morning.
Thanks for having me.
I want to first talk about Saturday night at the White House Correspondents Dinner.
You were there.
You were actually at C-SPAN's table as a guest.
Tell us about your experience.
Well, you know, walking into the Washington Hilton, the first round of security, there were a lot of protesters, and I guess I didn't pay much attention to it, but they were yelling like vile things.
And then you go through that ring, and you go through the second ring where there's the magnetrometers, and then the third.
You know, I was just enjoying dinner.
I thought, you know, it was a great venue.
I was excited because humor brings people together.
Humor unites people.
Here we had all these Republicans, all these Democrats, the president, the vice president, the press corps, you know, who, you know, hold elected officials accountable.
And everybody was having a good time, you know.
And I think we need that as a country.
We need to use humor to bring us together.
And I had a feeling that Donald Trump was going to bring the heat.
And I had a feeling that they were going to have some fun with him, which is what should happen.
And then, you know, as you know, I heard what I thought was a bunch of plates breaking in the back.
And I've been to a thousand of these dinners where, you know, you feel terrible when the wait staff drops the plates and you're like, oh, no.
And so I heard these plates breaking back behind me.
And I kind of looked there.
And then I looked, my left eye caught what was happening on the stage with all of the, you know, Secret Service coming out violently taking out the vice president and then the guys with the big guns with the flashlights at the end of them.
And I thought, this is a real deal.
And then as President Trump was leaving, I saw him, I think, trip or something, and I was convinced something terrible had happened.
And I was like, I can't believe I just saw what I saw.
But he tripped, he got back up.
And then, you know, like where I was sitting at the table, the leg of the table was right in front of me.
So there was no way I was going to get under the table.
And a lot of people at our table, as you know, did get underneath there.
And then I was kind of like looking around and I was like, we're better than this as a country.
You know, like something I had been looking forward to for 45 days gets stopped by this.
And I, of course, by that time realized those weren't plates breaking.
Those were gunshots.
And first time I've ever been in a situation like that.
And when you say we're better than this, we were just talking on the program about political rhetoric.
Gunshots Instead of Plates00:09:01
And are leaders of both sides doing enough to bring down that political rhetoric?
What do you think?
Well, there's always room for improvement.
I tell people all the time, the only person I can control is myself.
And I hold myself to a higher standard where I don't engage in name-calling and things like that.
Politics is a rough business.
And unfortunately, and this isn't C-SPAN's deal, the people who engage in the most vile rhetoric end up on TV at 9 o'clock Eastern because anger is the cheapest emotion.
It's easier to invoke anger than it is to inspire people, to get people to be better.
And it's celebrated on whatever flavor of news network you're on.
And as the chairman of the Main Street Caucus, I work with 89 members of Congress that go to work every day and deliver results for the American people.
Not many of us are on at 9 o'clock Eastern because we're not stoking the fire that leads to people engaging in that anger moment that gets people to watch and continue to consume media.
But you're welcome here on C-SPAN anything.
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
So this is what Press Secretary Caroline Levitt said about this.
She said, this political violence stems from a systemic demonization of him, meaning Trump and his supporters, by commentators, by elected members of the Democrat Party, and even some in the media.
Do you agree with that?
Well, there is definitely truth to that.
There are people that, no matter what he does, they are 1,000% opposed to him.
And we see that, obviously, all the time as a member of Congress.
You get the calls.
But I'm not going to say that it's only on one side.
It's everywhere.
Americans are mad.
People feast on anger.
And walking into that event the other night, I didn't pay it much attention, but I thought to myself, how desensitized am I that people can yell anti-Semitic slurs and talk about horrific things and accuse you of being X, Y, or Z on the way in, and it didn't even phase me.
Like, you deal with that when you walk from the Cannon office building into the U.S. Capitol when you cross Independent Street.
And, you know, looking back, like, that shouldn't be normal, but it is normal.
It is what we deal with.
And I don't know how you fix it.
The President Trump has been talking about the need for his ballroom.
Some Republicans are saying this illustrates why we need a ballroom.
Do you agree with that?
I do.
You know, he's been targeted multiple times.
You know, this is the third assassination attempt.
He understands this better than most.
I guess Donald Trump at his best is a, you know, like he understands hospitality.
He understands how to celebrate things.
And, you know, he sees this as a necessary.
I think after the other day, after the other night, I get it.
Like, I totally understand why he would say that.
And this is something we should have done a long time ago.
I also don't want to stop assembling outside of a secure environment.
We have to be able to get together at the Washington Hilton or the Super Bowl.
We have to be with each other.
And we have to be with each other at events like that as well.
And how do you do that in such an open space where the alleged gunmen checked into the hotel?
Yeah.
I guess we have to check everybody who's at the hotel and see what's going on.
I mean, that was a shock to me, but we can't hide behind a fence because of this.
We have to figure out a way to get together in public.
If you'd like to join our conversation with Representative Mike Flood, you can start calling in now.
Republicans are on 202-748-8001.
Democrats 202-748-8000.
And Independents 202-748-8002.
We'll get to your calls shortly.
Let's talk about what's happening in Congress this week.
Let's start with FISA.
So Section 702 expires day after tomorrow.
What's happening with that?
Well, there's been extensive negotiations over the Section 702 provisions.
Listen, from where I sit, this is non-negotiable.
It has to get extended.
This is not something you can play any games with.
Extended with changes or without changes?
It has to get extended, like bottom line.
We made 56 changes last year, and that has, in most part, been very positive.
There's a few good changes that are being proposed by some members of the House.
I've been involved in a lot of those negotiations.
If we aren't able to get together on those, we have to extend it.
Like, this is vital to our homeland security.
This is vital to protecting Americans.
I think you will find if we're unable in the House to pass a bill, the Senate sends us over a clean extension, there will be plenty of people that will vote for that.
Enough?
I hope.
I believe so.
This is not something you can, this is not political.
This is a must-have to have.
Let's talk about Iran.
You have supported President Trump's actions in Iran.
You've opposed war powers resolutions.
Later today, the House is expected to take their third war powers resolution of the year and vote on it.
What are your thoughts on that?
Because that 60 days is coming up very soon.
Well, you know, right now there is a ceasefire, and we have naval operations in the strait.
We're dealing with a country that we don't know who's actually in charge.
Now is not the time to cut and run.
Now is the time to support our president's position to make sure that we give him the maximum ability to get a good resolution.
Listen, these people are martyrs.
We've taken out how many rings of their leadership, and people keep stepping up saying, yeah, I'm going to die.
This isn't like doing a deal with a nation state that we're used to dealing with.
These are people who vow death to America, sponsor terrorism, have killed Americans, and they've been in a 50-year jihad with America wanting death to all of us.
So that begs the question, Congressman.
Is military action the best way to change that ideology?
Well, we've tried everything else.
We've tried, you know, president, former presidents have written them a check.
It didn't work.
We've tried the UN has gone in there and said, we're going to look into their nuclear program, and they stall, they stall, they stall.
Listen, they want a nuclear weapon, and I think if we've learned anything, if they get one, they're going to use it.
So we either deal with it now or we deal with it in five or ten years later.
Let's talk to callers.
We'll start with Ron, San Clemente, California, Republican.
Hi, Ron.
Hey, how you doing this morning?
Congressman Flood, I really got to ask you a couple of very serious questions about Iran.
First of all, why do we always demonize our enemies, no matter what they are?
We point to Iraq.
We point to Serbia.
We point to Vietnam.
And every single one of those countries had national health care, affordable housing, and had a good food supply.
And here we are going into a country with 93 million people.
And here you are again attacking these people.
And, you know, you said they're stupid because they must be very stupid because it took them from 1979 to today, and they still haven't built a nuclear weapon.
They could have bought one from Pakistan or from North Korea easily, and they haven't done it.
So why would we worry about the nuclear weapon issues?
The second thing is with Iran, come on.
These are elegant people, intelligent people, and we're killing them, killing 5,000 of them so far.
And with impunity.
Now, who's responsible for that?
And the bottom line is: you wonder, they didn't come over here and bomb us.
We went over there and bombed them.
So please rectify in your mind that it's a very good thing to continue this war against Iran.
All right, Ron.
I mean, I cannot defend the Iranian regime.
I think the people of Iran are good.
The Iranian regime recently killed, what, 30,000 of their own citizens?
That's indefensible.
This is a country that is the state or the world's largest state-sponsored nation endorsing terrorism.
They're funding Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis.
They vow death to America.
There is no part of me that wants to in any way celebrate the Republican Guard or the leadership or the regime in Iran.
Why America Is Divided00:15:12
It has been a problem for 50 years, and I'm not going to apologize for that.
Here's Darryl calling us from Washington State, Democrat.
Go ahead, Darrell.
No, I called in as an independent, not a Democrat.
Okay.
Yeah, that looks like that's correct.
Independent.
Go ahead, Darrell.
Well, I agree with you on Iran.
I wanted to change the subject just a little bit and talk about the previous subject, why this nation is becoming so divided.
Because we're not only being divided by politics, we're being divided by people moving to where they agree with people.
And then they're not interacting with people they disagree with on a personal note.
I mean, it gets worse and worse every year.
I see people moving.
I'm in the Pacific Northwest, and I go between Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.
And I see everyone in Idaho thinks one way.
Everyone in Oregon and Washington think a totally different way.
And in some cases, when you try to communicate with them, they won't even listen to or even try to listen to any media that disagrees with their point of view.
Do you have a specific question, or do you just want to comment on that?
I just wondered what his opinion was on that.
And is there any way to turn that around?
I mean, the more that we separate, the worse it gets.
Representative Flood.
I think there's a lot of truth to what he's saying there.
You know, I'm one of the Republicans that holds town halls, and I don't screen.
I don't make sure they're from my district.
I open the doors, and we have questions and answers.
And as you've probably seen, it can get a little raucous.
But things don't get better if we're not in the town square with each other.
Things don't get better if we curate environments where it's just our supporters.
And I think he's right.
You know, there are a lot of people that move to places where all the political views are similar.
And that's not the America that was ever designed or the America that I want to live in.
And it becomes tribalism.
It does.
It does.
My mom and dad were Democrats.
I'm a Republican.
I've always been a Republican.
I've been raised in a Democratic household.
I understand it.
And I think we as lawmakers need to put ourselves in the town square to make sure that we're in front of everyone.
And independents, they like that the most.
They may not agree with what your position is, but they want to see their member of Congress in the town square defending their votes.
Let's talk to Frank in Dallas, Texas.
Democrat.
Hi, Frank.
Yeah, hello.
Yep, go ahead.
You're on the air.
Doesn't look like we've got Frank.
John in West Yarmouth, Massachusetts, Republican.
Go ahead, John.
Yes, I served in Korea in 1976, Operation Paul Bunyan.
I was just saying, you know, my point is like peace truth strength, and hopefully that will work in the future and stuff.
And it's worked in the past.
And I just want to support our troops.
That's all I got to say.
Thank you.
We need more of that.
You know, like I remember when we, Operation Desert Storm, the country was united behind our military actions in the Gulf.
And regardless of what your opinion is on who the president is or the decisions that are being made, let's remember that we have men and women that are in our armed forces that are defending our interests in a dangerous situation.
And it would go a long way if we had more talk about supporting our troops and less about what we see every day.
How confident are you in negotiations with Iran?
Well, I think the president made a good point the other day when he said we don't even know who we're dealing with or who's in charge.
And I think some of that obviously is because different rings of their leadership have been eliminated.
I hope.
So how is this going to result?
Yeah, I mean, that's a good question.
I don't, you know, who is in charge.
Ultimately, if I could write the next chapter, the Iranian people would rise up in their own way and take their country back from this religious zealots that have forced them into a terrible place for the last 50 years.
But that's not.
Are you surprised that it hasn't happened yet?
I don't know enough about the environment there, but when you kill 30,000 of your own people, I mean, if there was a reason to rise up against your government, there's Exhibit 1 right there.
Calvin in Georgia, Democrat, go ahead.
You're on with Representative Mike Flood.
Hello.
Hi, go ahead.
You're on the air.
Yes, I just got a small question.
Why did President Trump rip up the deal that they had in place with Barack Obama and Iran?
Yep.
Yeah, and Iran.
Why did he rip that up?
I don't understand that.
He shouldn't have ripped it up.
And I want to ask you, do you think that he regrets ripping it up?
Okay.
And just to add to that, Jerry in Delaray Beach, Florida says, Representative Flood, tearing up the Iran deal was so dumb.
Trump should have kept it and moved on to improve.
Experts crafted it.
This is about Trump hating anything Obama accomplished.
The strait was open, and we could inspect and verify.
This is so short-sighted, the world suffers.
You can't write terrorist checks.
You can't give money to a country that vows death to America.
It's just that simple.
And we've seen what happens.
Like, they are still engaged in the process of wanting a nuclear weapon.
They are still vowing death to Israel.
They are still...
That's because, but the pursuit of nuclear weapons is because the JCPOA has the U.S. pulled out of it.
I talked to an inspector, a British citizen who was a UN inspector, who said when she was assigned to go to Iran and to inspect their nuclear system or their progress or lack thereof, they stalled, they delayed, never let them in there.
This is the tactic we're used to.
Listen, we aren't dealing with people that are above board.
We're dealing with terrorists.
And case in point, who's funding Hamas?
Who's funding Hezbollah?
Who's funding the Houthis?
Like we can't write checks to people that are writing checks to terrorists that are killing Americans and Israelis.
So you're confident that we can get a deal with the Iranians without lifting sanctions, which is essentially writing a check.
We have to.
You know, the only thing that they understand right now is force.
And so the president has made the decision to use force to accomplish an outcome that I think we all want in America.
The next chapter hasn't been written, but I'd much rather be doing this than sending checks to Iran so that they can fund terrorism across the globe.
Here's Bonnie, Republican in Colorado.
Hi, Bonnie.
Hi.
My question is to Mike, what is the latest news about the building that President Trump has been trying to build and got nothing but negative static from all kinds of the Democrat people if and they've even stalled it because you're talking about the ballroom Bonnie?
Yes, the ballroom.
Okay.
And they really do need it.
He was telling some of this stuff that people that go visit the White House, when they want to do anything outside, they have to wade through soggy soil and everything.
And this ballroom, in my I'm thinking that they don't even, it's not even going to be publicly paid for.
It's going to be paid for by private means.
And from the very time he announced it, they have put him down and called it terrible.
And I mean, there's been bowling owlings that's been built in the White House.
There's been swimming pools.
Why not have a ballroom, which would have completely helped what happened Saturday?
So what was your opinion about that?
Congressman Flood.
Well, I support the ballroom, and I think the latest update is last I checked, there was a federal judge that had put a stop on the building of that.
But I guess I haven't gotten a briefing since Saturday to see where that's at.
The president makes a good point.
He wants to convene people.
We want to be together.
I've been told by other members of Congress that it's not usual for a president to invite members of Congress over as much as he does.
I mean, I've heard that prior presidents, it was rare to get the invite.
President Trump likes to be surrounded by members of Congress, likes to be surrounded by people.
Do you worry about the private funding of that ballroom?
Do you worry that some of that money might come with strings attached or expectations?
Well, first of all, do you think the Democrats would ever authorize the building of a ballroom?
And second of all, there's precedent for this, like the inaugural balls.
All of that is privately funded.
So in a perfect world, it would have gone through Congress.
It would have gone through that way.
But I think there's more to this than even meets the eye.
Let's talk to Peter, who's calling from Gardner, Massachusetts, Independent.
Hi, Peter.
Good morning.
Thanks for taking my call.
Congressman, when you said that we don't know who is the one in charge, I had to pay close attention.
Were you talking about Iran or were you talking about the United States?
Because coming out of our government, we sent a real estate guy who represents Israel and another guy who's got no experience in negotiation over to negotiate an end to this war along with Vice President Vance.
How do they know who's making the decisions?
Trump goes back and forth all the time on all kinds of subjects and it just is not consistent.
So I think the whole world is wondering about the United States.
Who is in charge?
I don't think there's any question.
President Trump is in charge.
He's demonstrated that over his first and now his second term.
I think it's a real question about who's in charge in Iran.
DHS Department of Homeland Security still is not funded.
Can you give us an update on where that stands?
So it's a two-step process.
And by the way, this is a terrible way to do things.
If we could get to 60 votes in the Senate, we could avoid setting a precedent here.
But we're using the reconciliation process to fund core services in government, which is a terrible precedent.
It's bad for appropriators.
It's bad for Congress.
It's a terrible precedent.
And we're going to vote on the resolution, then maybe next week or a week after, vote on the next step.
But I wish we weren't doing any of this this way.
This is a bad way to do business.
So what's going to happen this week on that?
Because they're being paid.
The employees of DHS are being paid by executive order, and that funding apparently runs out very soon.
I saw the president put out a truth social yesterday that said this needs to get on his desk by June 1.
I read that to believe that he can.
That's still more than a month away.
Yeah.
Is that going to take you that long to get?
I don't think so.
I don't think so.
I think we'll pass the resolution this week.
And, you know, second week in May, we could be passing the second step.
But wouldn't it be better in the Senate if we could just get to 60 votes and finish this out?
And it would be better in the House if you guys could agree.
And the Senate passed something.
The House can pass it.
We would have been done.
But look at what we have accomplished.
For the first time since, what, 2017?
11 of the 12 major appropriations bills were passed on a bipartisan basis in this environment.
Like we've done something without using a continuing resolution that we've got no credit for.
And those 11 bills got 60 votes in the Senate.
They got Democrat votes in the House.
Like, yes, this DHS thing is not good, and I understand why we're here, but you've got to look at the situation.
Tom Holman, Mark Wayne Mullen, much different than Christy Noam, much different situation.
And if 60 votes is what it takes in the Senate, come work with us so that we can get it.
So you don't think that ICE needs any reforms put into law?
You think that it's going to happen naturally because we've got a new secretary.
I think Tom Holman going to Minneapolis, working with the mayor, working with the governor, working with the police, that made an immediate difference, a huge immediate difference.
Nancy is in Austin, Texas, Republican.
Hi, Nancy.
Hi.
Well, here's something I want to know.
Since you brought up illegal immigration, the man, I listened to a space last night on X. What's from the man that got moved out of that position that we used to head up the Border Patrol?
We have like, according to him, we have like 100 million illegal aliens in this country.
We need to do something stronger than just go get the bad ones.
We have wholesale being invaded.
I don't like to switch to let's not get rid of a bunch of illegal aliens.
Let's just go get the quote-unquote bad ones.
We have a big problem here.
We need to address it before it gets worse, sir.
I am a conservative.
I'm 69 years old, and I've been a Republican all my life.
So I kind of remember what a real conservative used to be, where we used to care about fiscal responsibility, and we're not anymore.
You guys have bankrupted our country.
We cared about things like, how can you, we used to know that government should not allow to be done, do anything that people can't, that citizens can't.
Why are you insider trading?
Why do we not have, why is there not a law that representatives cannot do insider trading?
This is ridiculous.
I want to be ought to be thrown in jail.
All right, Nancy.
Fiscal Responsibility Lost00:08:58
A couple things there.
I do support the ban on stock trading.
I don't own any stocks, but I understand the sentiment of the American people, and if I get the chance to vote on it, I will do that.
It's hard for me to say that Donald Trump isn't doing enough on immigration, illegal immigration.
He has a lot of credibility with the American people on that topic, and he has moved the ball forward more than any other president in the modern era.
I think that the approach that he's taking and his agencies are taking are making a difference.
Crime is down in a lot of communities across America.
In my hometown, like when President Biden was in office, our local police stopped a guy with a bunch of marijuana, and he'd been stopped, or he'd come over the border like more than 20 times in the course of 18 months.
And that has come to an end.
Regarding a stock trading ban for Congress, would you extend that to senior administration officials and Supreme Court justices?
I'd be very open to that.
Yeah.
I think when you're at this level of government, you have to be very transparent.
And, you know, I don't know where the insider trading information comes from because I don't ever hear it, but I don't have any stocks, so it's okay.
Edward, a Democrat in Toms River, New Jersey, good morning.
Good morning, Mimi.
Good morning to the Congressman as well.
Good morning.
Go ahead, Edward.
My concern of deep nature is the fact that after this unfortunate tragedy on Saturday, I think it would have been appropriate to come to the public, the United States people, and say, I am glad that everyone's alive and we had no tragedies.
We didn't lose anyone in President Trump's cabinet.
And it seemed very poor timing to come out into the press room about 45 minutes to an hour after it and say, this is the reason I need a ballroom.
Okay.
It seemed like the whole timing of saying that to the public and this whole project started without congressional approval as it is.
So my question is, don't you think that the president should have come to Congress before demolishing this structure?
What do you think?
You know, I haven't been targeted by an assassin three times.
The president, President Trump has.
He has made the case for his ballroom.
He has undertaken steps to get it done.
It's in the courts now.
I do believe that what happened on Saturday makes the case for a good ballroom.
But aside from that, we have to be able to assemble.
We have to be able to be together.
We have to have Democrats, Republicans, administration officials, judges, whoever, in the same room because we're all Americans.
There's Republicans and Democrats.
There's independents, but we have to be able to be in the same room.
Jackie in New York, Independent Line.
Hi, Jackie.
Hi, good morning.
Thanks for taking my call.
Good morning, Congressman.
My comment, really, I really don't have a question, but my immediate thought, and I appreciated your reflection on the events happening on Saturday.
But similar to what the caller was saying before me, is my thought immediately went to school children.
Schoolchildren that are sitting ducks in their classroom when they, I have two school-aged children, and they have regular drills, active shooter drills, and the terror that everyone felt in that ballroom.
And for everyone to then immediately pivot to having a designated space where they can entertain instead of the fact that we regularly do this to our children in their schools.
I just don't know how the congressman can reflect on this and go and pivot to an entertaining space.
It's ghoulish.
It's like, I can't believe we're living this way in this country.
And that's all I have to say.
Thank you.
Well, to be fair, the ballroom conversation was the question that I was asked.
But yeah, I mean, I did think about that on Saturday.
I thought, you know, our kids are going through active shooter drills.
And that's not something I ever encountered when I was in K-12.
And, you know, I think there's a bigger issue in this country with mental health.
We need state psychiatric hospitals.
Again, we got away from that.
We have limitations on the number of inpatient lock secure beds you can have.
And you've seen a rise in violence from people that are mentally ill.
I'm not saying it would have stopped on Saturday, but we have to find the right balance about how we deal with the mentally ill population.
And a school shooting innocent children, that is horrific.
And we need to do everything in our power to make sure our schools are secure.
We have more resources going to school resource officers.
We have fortified a lot of our schools.
There's training.
There's a lot better security than there was 10 years ago.
But we can't do enough to protect our young people.
Are there any gun control laws that you would support?
I'm a firm believer in the Second Amendment.
Listen, the bad guys already have guns.
Those that have guns that are lawful, that's a right that they have under the Second Amendment.
I think the issue is more how are we dealing with the mentally ill in our society.
Let's talk to John in Oklahoma.
Republican, you're on the air, John.
Yes, I'm a non-Trumper Republican, and when I hear people say there's 100 million illegal aliens, most of the aliens aren't illegal.
They don't do illegal things.
And shame on Trump and the Republican for taking advantage of stupid people that would believe one of every four American is a illegal alien.
It's just ridiculous the stuff they proffer for information.
That's it.
That's my short comment.
I don't believe there's 100 million illegal immigrants in this country.
I want to ask you about the nomination of Kevin Warsh for Fed chair.
Are you in support of his nomination?
And do you believe that he has exhibited enough independence from President Trump to be effective at his position?
You know, I'm on the Financial Services Committee in the House of Representatives.
I think he was a good pick.
I was happy to see the criminal probe into Jerome Powell was ended.
I think that ought to break the log jam over in the Senate.
Listen, presidents have the ability to appoint, and I think that this gentleman will do a good job.
Ultimately, you know, there's more than one person at the Fed that has to make those decisions.
I strongly, strongly, strongly support an independent Federal Reserve.
It's one of the, it's part of the magic recipe that makes our financial system so unique, robust, and successful.
And we got this from a comment on X from Wouldn't You Want to Know, who says, when does the House plan on reclaiming its war powers from the executive?
Or does this representative support ceding more and more of his branch's power?
Well, look back 20 years.
Look at what President Obama did in Libya.
I mean, there are numerous examples of presidents exercising military force, responding to different countries around the globe.
We have to support the president in what he's done.
And ultimately, there's going to be a conversation about a supplemental that's going to be necessary, even if it is to resupply our munitions after what we've already gone through.
And there's a clock running on the use of military force.
So those are things that will get dealt with by Congress.
We have not ceded any of our authority.
Are you in power of that supplemental once it comes through?
I want to see what it's for.
I want to see how much it is.
And my sense is that most of that money is going to be needed just to resupply the armed forces so that we can remain vigilant against other threats.
All right.
Representative Mike Flood, Republican of Nebraska.
Thanks so much for joining us.
Thanks for having me.
Welcome back to Washington Journal.
Joining us now is retired U.S. Army Major General Randy Manner.
General, welcome to the program.
Thank you for having me.
Can you tell us what your take is on the current status of the Iran war?
I'm very pleased that Iran has offered at least one way forward to be able to cease hostilities and to reopen the strait.