Israel war: McCarthy says US vulnerable to similar attack and dodges speakership questions

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said that the United States may be vulnerable to an attack reminiscent of that of Hamas against Israel.

McCarthy made the comments during an appearance on Meet the Press, and he dodged questions about whether he would accept the position of House speaker. The former House speaker sought to focus entirely on the situation in Israel, criticizing the Biden administration for its perceived inaction and drawing parallels between Hamas and ISIS.

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“This is devastating,” McCarthy said, arguing that Saturday’s attack was equivalent to a combination of 9/11 and the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. “Surprised, on a Jewish holiday … 800 Israelis — that’s equivalent to 30,000 Americans, and not only is it a terrorist attack. … This is the equivalency of ISIS. Hamas has to be destroyed.”

To further draw parallels with the U.S., the California Republican warned that a similar attack could be carried out against the U.S.

After pointing to a report showing an uptick in arrests of people on the FBI terror watchlist crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, he declared, “We’re vulnerable because there could be a cell in America today” capable of an attack akin to that of Hamas last Saturday.

The interviewer countered by saying McCarthy had no evidence of such a possibility, which the House Republican rejected.

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“Well, let me give you the evidence,” he said. “So when I first went down to the border a number of years ago, and they told me they were catching people on the terrorist watch list, this administration said I was lying. And you know what? I wasn’t lying … there’s people from 160 different countries coming across.”

The interviewer attempted on a number of occasions to get McCarthy to say whether or not he would accept the position of House speaker again, but he deflected and argued that the focus should be on Israel.