Here & Now

US Rep. Glenn Grothman on Israel, Hamas and Congress

Frederica Freyberg:

The horror continues to unfold, now nearly two weeks after Hamas terrorists launched a deadly surprise attack in Israel. President Joe Biden seeks $100 billion in military and humanitarian aid, including for Israel and Ukraine. Meanwhile, leadership in the House of Representatives, which would have to vote on that aid package, has been in chaos. The Republican majority has struggled mightily to elect a speaker. On this, we head to Washington now for a check-in with members of the Wisconsin congressional delegation on this developing situation on two fronts. First, we talk with Wisconsin sixth congressional district U.S. Representative Republican Glenn Grothman. Congressman, thanks very much for being with here.

Glenn Grothman:

Happy to be on the show.

Frederica Freyberg:

So you and the rest of the Wisconsin delegation continue to support Representative Jim Jordan in multiple failed votes for speaker. Minus Derrick van Orden, who we know is absent because he is now in Israel. What is your response to being part of this disarray, really, that has left U.S. government unable to fully govern?

Glenn Grothman:

The problem is, I think leadership over a period of years, and maybe they couldn’t have done anything different, failed to instill in the Republicans the idea that you have an internal vote first, a paper ballot vote, a secret vote between people who want to be speaker. And then the person who wins that vote, every single Republican is supposed to stick behind them on the floor so we can go ahead. Unfortunately, in the last week or so, there are a given number of people who would not vote for Kevin McCarthy, the speaker. I voted for him. There were a given number of people who would not vote for Steve Scalise, who was the majority leader right under the speaker. We did not take that vote to the floor, but 10 to 15 people made a credible threat that they would not vote on the floor so Steve Scalise withdrew. The third man up was Jim Jordan, and we’ve now given him three votes, which quite frankly is more than enough votes, and he lost, 20, then 22, then 25 votes. So your listeners understand that if they lose more than three votes, they don’t have the votes to govern. And like I said, I think it comes down to a lack of preparation from the beginning. I think of the eight people who voted against Kevin McCarthy, I believe only one of those eight was around when I got to Congress just a few years ago. So I think they’ve done a really bad job of educating the freshmen on the idea behind team play.

Frederica Freyberg:

A House vote would be needed for the $100 billion military and humanitarian aid package to include Israel and Ukraine that President Biden is seeking and spoke to in an address to the nation Thursday night. What is your support for that kind of aid package?

Glenn Grothman:

There are two parts to it. First of all, we do have to get aid to Israel, but we also have to realize that we’ve got to make it clear to Joe Biden, we’re not taking these Palestinian folks in America as refugees. They have been raised from early on to hate Jews in general, and Egypt, which is the obvious place for these people to go, will not take them. I think they won’t take them because they know very well who they’d be getting. So we don’t want these Gaza people showing up here, much less a million of them. With regard to Ukraine, I voted for Ukraine packages six times in the past, but the Biden administration is not trying to negotiate an end here or they’re not deputizing the Turks or the French or somebody to work towards an end. The Biden administration – this thing has been going on for about a year and a half – and I think they’d be happy if it went on another year and a half without making any steps towards peace. Somehow, we’ve got to send the message to the Biden administration that we want peace in Russia and they are doing, from what I can tell, nothing. I’ll also point out when the Russia-Ukraine war started, it seems like every six weeks or couple months, we received private briefings from the relevant people in the Biden administration as to what was going on. We have not received a briefing on what’s going on in Ukraine since before Christmas. So for whatever reason, the Biden administration is not talking to Congress and that’s another reason to vote “no” for now until they let us know what’s going on there.

Frederica Freyberg:

So you are saying with less than 30 seconds left, that you would vote “no” on this military and humanitarian aid package?

Glenn Grothman:

I wouldn’t call it military and humanitarian but like I said, the two things we want is some effort from the Biden administration to work towards peace and some guarantee they’re not going to open up the doors and give us a million Palestinian refugees.

Frederica Freyberg:

Representative Glenn Grothman, thanks very much.

Glenn Grothman:

Thank you.