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Paralyzed US House is an “absolute nightmare” - Sen. Chris Murphy
A House (of bickering Republicans) divided against itself, cannot stand. Forgive the redux of Abraham Lincoln's famous quote, but it seems particularly relevant in light of another week of total paralysis on Capitol Hill. Namely, within the House Republican caucus.
According to Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, who sat down with Ian Bremmer for an interview on GZERO World, the chaos in the House chamber due to Republicans' inability to nominate a House speaker may, in fact, be a feature, not a bug. "The House is just an absolute nightmare, and it's a really bad look for the United States. It weakens President Biden's credibility abroad."
"Republicans are weakening America and weakening people's faith in government, but it has national security consequences when people don't know whether, even the things we have perfect consensus on, like support for Israel, can actually get a vote and pass."
Watch more on this episode: America's tightrope walk with the Israel-Hamas war
Catch GZERO World with Ian Bremmer every week at gzeromedia.com/gzeroworld or on US public television. Check local listings.
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Israel-Hamas War: Can the US count on its Arab allies?
Can you count on your partners when the chips are down? That's what President Biden is likely wondering after his trip to the Middle East was severely curtailed. Planned meetings with Jordanian and Egyptian leadership were called off after a devastating explosion in Gaza that now appears to have been the work of an Islamist group aligned with Hamas.
It's a topic that US Democratic Senator Chris Murphy was particularly keen to discuss in his interview with Ian Bremmer, part of a new episode of GZERO World. "This is a moment of crisis," Murphy tells Bremmer. "We need Egypt to be with us and with our friends in Israel and relieve the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. And if they aren't willing to do that, then I think we just have to ask ourselves exactly what is the efficacy of a billion dollars of my taxpayer money going to Egypt when they are brutally repressing political speech, and they are making it very difficult on us when we make requests that are important to us in a situation like this in Gaza."
How will the United States navigate the growing Israel-Hamas war, and what role will its purported allies in the Middle East play in containing that conflict?
Watch more on this episode: America's tightrope walk with the Israel-Hamas war
Catch GZERO World with Ian Bremmer every week at gzeromedia.com/gzeroworld or on US public television. Check local listings.
- Israel-Hamas War: The race to avert escalation in the Middle East ›
- Hamas attacks in Israel ignite war ›
- Biden lands in Israel with half an agenda ›
- Biden seeks urgent aid package for Israel, Ukraine ›
- Israel-Hamas war: Biden's second foreign policy crisis - GZERO Media ›
- Israel-Hamas war set to expand & directly involve US - GZERO Media ›
Podcast: What's the US role in the Israel-Hamas war? Views from Sen. Chris Murphy & Rep. Mike Waltz
Listen: Two weeks into Israel's bloody war with Hamas, the death toll continues to mount, and amidst the rubble of bombed-out buildings, one thing seems clear: things are far from over. On the GZERO World podcast, Ian Bremmer asks what role the US government should play in the conflict and whether that role is as clear-cut today as it was after the attack on October 7. President Biden made a politically and personally dangerous trip to Israel this week, showing solidarity for America’s closest ally in the Middle East. But the administration must walk a fine line between supporting Israel’s right to defend itself, and preventing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza from spiraling out of control.
To get the view from both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill, Ian speaks first with Senator Chris Murphy, the Connecticut Democrat who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and then with Republican Representative Mike Waltz of Florida, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. It's a particularly timely moment to be on Capitol Hill, as House Republicans remain paralyzed over their inability to pick a Speaker. Senator Murphy and Congressman Waltz both comment on what toll that dysfunction is taking on US national security.
Subscribe to the GZERO World Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published.- The Israel-Hamas war: Where we are, two weeks in ›
- Israel-Hamas War: The race to avert escalation in the Middle East ›
- Will Israel's war with Hamas spread north to Lebanon? ›
- Podcast: The war between Israel and Hamas and its unfathomable human toll ›
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America's tightrope walk with the Israel-Hamas war
As the death toll mounts in Israel’s war with Hamas, Ian Bremmer looks at the role the US government should play in the conflict and whether that role is as clear-cut today as it was right after the attack on October 7. President Biden made a politically and personally dangerous trip to Israel this week, showing solidarity for America’s closest ally in the Middle East. But the administration must walk a fine line between supporting Israel’s right to defend itself and preventing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza from spiraling out of control.
On this episode of GZERO World, we get the view from both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill, first with Senator Chris Murphy, the Connecticut Democrat who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and then with Republican Representative Mike Waltz of Florida, a member of the House Foreign Affairs committee.
Also: a dispatch from Lebanon. A little over 50 miles from the Israeli border, there are few signs of the violent conflict capturing the world's attention. For now, at least. Further south, there have been almost daily exchanges of rocket fire between the Israeli Defense Forces and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group that dominates southern Lebanon and is a regional power in its own right. GZERO correspondent Fin DePoncier is in Beirut to hear from its diverse population about what they think about their country's precarious position and what it would mean if Lebanon gets dragged into Israel's war with Hamas. Some people see themselves as entirely removed from the conflict, and others would pick up arms to fight, but everyone is bracing for the worst. For now, all eyes are on Hezbollah and the southern border.
Catch GZERO World with Ian Bremmer every week at gzeromedia.com/gzeroworld or on US public television. Check local listings.
- The Israel-Hamas war: Where we are, two weeks in ›
- World powers weigh in on Israel-Hamas War ›
- US and Canada respond to Israel-Hamas war ›
- Israel-Hamas War: The race to avert escalation in the Middle East ›
- Ian Bremmer: Understanding the Israel-Hamas war ›
- What kind of leverage does Biden really have with Bibi? ›
- Biden seeks urgent aid package for Israel, Ukraine ›
- What we know (and don't know) about Iran's role in the Israel-Hamas war - GZERO Media ›
- Israel-Hamas war: Biden's second foreign policy crisis - GZERO Media ›
- Israel-Hamas war: "Just bring them back," says brother of 9-year-old Israeli hostage - GZERO Media ›
- Israel-Hamas war set to expand & directly involve US - GZERO Media ›
- Israel’s geopolitical missteps in Gaza - GZERO Media ›
- Yuval Noah Harari on the perils of viewing Israel-Palestine through the 'victimhood' context - GZERO Media ›
Congress after the attempt to overthrow democracy: Democratic Senator Chris Murphy
Two-term Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut joins Ian Bremmer to talk about his harrowing experience during the Capitol riots of January 6, why he thinks an impeachment trial is still valuable even if Republican support for a conviction looks increasingly unlikely, if he believes President Biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus package will pass both chambers, and how he thinks US-China foreign policy should change under the new administration.
Watch this extended interview from the recent episode of GZERO World: After the insurrection: will Congress find common ground?
Senator Murphy on abolishing the filibuster, a Senate tool he has famously employed
One of the most heated debates happening on Capitol Hill right now is whether Democrats should push to eliminate the Senate filibuster in order to overcome Republican opposition to their legislative agenda. Bremmer posed this question to Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, a man who famously launched a 15-hour long filibuster of his own on gun control in 2016.
"I would certainly support reforming it, allowing for more measures to be passed by 50 vote majorities rather than 60 vote majorities," Murphy told Ian Bremmer on GZERO World. "Maybe that's a first step before we eliminate it entirely." The hedged reply by Senator Murphy indicates that eliminating the procedural rule may be harder than many progressives may have hoped. This episode of GZERO Worldalso features an interview with Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace.
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Senator Chris Murphy on why impeachment trial should proceed despite a likely acquittal
Although many Senate Republicans have signaled their intentions to acquit former President Trump of impeachment charges, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy thinks the trial should proceed anyway. "Ultimately we have a constitutional responsibility in the Senate to process these articles…you can't skip the accountability phase for a President who tried in the final days of his presidency to lead either a non-violent or a violent insurrection against democracy." If the situation was reversed, Murphy adds, and it was a president from his own party being impeached, he would still want to hold that president accountable. Sadly, he concludes, the same cannot be said about many of his colleagues across the aisle.
Murphy's conversation with Ian Bremmer is part of the latest episode of GZERO World, in which Bremmer is also joined by freshman Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace. The episode will start airing on public television nationwide beginning this Friday, January 29th. Check local listings.