Gaetz Hits Back on Narrative that Congress Can't Help Israel Due to Vacant Speakership

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has taken a lot of heat this week after orchestrating the Motion to Vacate that ended up costing Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) his position as Speaker of the House, and that criticism only increased after Hamas launched a series of horrific attacks on Israel on Saturday. Appearing on NBC's Meet the Press, Gaetz responded to criticism that the lack of an elected Speaker of the House could impact the country's ability to provide assistance to Israel.

Host Kristen Welker said, "You're ready to defend Israel, and yet, you're completely incapable of helping Israel because you've brought Congress to a standstill, a state of paralysis, have you not?"

Gaetz replied:

You just heard the Secretary of State reject that premise. We have a ten-year ongoing memorandum of understanding that sends Israel, you know, almost $4 billion --
[H]e said was there was no need in Israel that we're not going to be able to meet based on the funding that we’ve already approved for Israel. And the reason we have this multibillion-dollar commitment each and every year to Israel is because we want Israel to have a qualitative military edge over everyone in the region. They have that edge.
Israel has air superiority now. We are -- we are seeing their armored vehicles in the north. I'm very concerned about what Hezbollah might do, what Lebanon might do there to try to create more -- more instability, but there’s no ask from Israel that we are unable to meet because it’s going to take us a few days to pick a new speaker.

Indeed, Blinken appeared on an earlier segment of the program and said:

So, Kristen, there's a tremendous amount of aid and assistance already in the pipeline, back under President Obama. We signed a so-called memorandum of understanding with Israel that provides it with $3.8 billion a year in defense assistance, and much of that is ongoing. The contracts are moving forward. We do a lot of co-production with them. A lot is in the pipeline. At the same time, Israel has come to us and asked for some specific additional assistance. I'm sure you'll hear more about that probably later today. And we're responding to that. And we have the ability to do that.

A corollary to the talking point that a vacancy in the Speaker position is somehow affecting national security because nobody can figure out whether Acting Speaker Patrick McHenry (R-NC) can receive Gang of 8 briefings from the Director of National Intelligence. According to Jake Sherman, as of Sunday afternoon House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has been briefed on the situation, and "key House Intel staffers" have been briefed, but the House Majority Leader (Steve Scalise [R-LA]) has not. According to former Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell, there is no rule or law that limits whom Haines can brief on the situation.

Not true. The Gang of 8 is a tradition of @ODNIgov.

There is no rule or law.

Avril Haines decides who to brief. https://t.co/ShJyDNclDZ
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) October 7, 2023

The DNI can brief anyone, especially any Member of Congress.

It doesn’t matter who is or isn’t Speaker…

The DC media need to wake up - why is Avril Haines briefing the minority party leader (her party) first? https://t.co/u28ptrJLDf
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) October 8, 2023

Even if there were, why would the other Republican members of the Gang of 8 be kept in the dark?

Regarding that vacant Speaker's seat, Gaetz argued that if Patrick McHenry had kept Congress in session after the Motion to Vacate, they would have a new speaker by now.

I was very critical of the pro tem’s decision to send us home for a week. I thought upon McCarthy's ouster we should have stayed on the job, stayed in Washington. And if McHenry had not made that decision, we would have a speaker right now. He made one that was regrettable, but I think we’re going to be on track quite soon.

Gaetz also disputed the notion that his actions were about his own political career, saying that the Motion to Vacate was an action that needed to be taken to stop endless continuing resolutions -- and the chaos was ultimately the fault of Kevin McCarthy, not Gaetz and those who voted with him.

Kevin McCarthy was removed because he made multiple contradictory promises to people that ultimately could not be reconciled. The Democrats didn’t trust him. House Republicans on the conservative side of our caucus didn’t trust him, and that ultimately led to us making a decision to go forward with someone new. Fortunately, we’ve got two great men running for speaker: Jim Jordan and Steve Scalise.

When Welker asked him if it would still be worth it if he ended up losing his job over orchestrating McCarthy's ouster, Gaetz said: