James Risch Speaks In Opposition To Bill Blocking Israel Arms Sales—Then Bernie Sanders Responds

4/3/2025

During remarks on the Senate floor Thursday, Sen. James Risch (R-ID) spoke in opposition to Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-VT) resolution to block the sale of weapons to Israel.

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Transcript

00:00Mr. President, first of all, I agree with one and only one thing that my friend from

00:05Vermont said, and that is we do live, at least think, in an alternate parallel universe.

00:12I'm on the Intelligence Committee.

00:14I'm the most senior Republican on the Intelligence Committee.

00:17I have seen the film from what Hamas did on October the 7th.

00:22These were animals.

00:23They killed hundreds and hundreds of people.

00:27They took hostages.

00:29They cut babies out of the mothers.

00:31They killed children in front of their parents.

00:34They killed parents in front of their children.

00:36They tortured people.

00:37They knew exactly what they were doing, and that was that they were going to get a response

00:41from Israel that would be what it is today.

00:46All of this talk that my friends have laid out in front of us, no one in the world is

00:52coming to the support of Hamas.

00:55No one, with the exception of some misguided people in this organization.

01:01The Middle East has an opportunity to free itself from Iran's grip, and America will

01:05be safer for it.

01:07To promote stability in the region and protect our national security, we need to continue

01:12to support Israel's successful efforts.

01:14President Trump, Secretary Rubio, and soon-to-be Ambassador Huckabee will work day in and day

01:19out to make sure that American interests are protected in Israel, and Congress must

01:26do its part.

01:28We really must provide Israel with the force they need to resist and eliminate Hamas.

01:36Just before I walked in here, I was handed the official, written position of the President

01:41of the United States, who urges us to defeat these two resolutions.

01:45In December, this body overwhelmingly opposed similar resolutions in a bipartisan fashion.

01:52I hope we can do that again today.

01:55As such, I ask my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to vote no on these two resolutions.

02:01Mr. President?

02:02I recognize the Senator from Vermont.

02:04Very briefly, nobody here is supporting Hamas.

02:08Hamas is a disgusting terrorist organization that began the war.

02:14Israel had a right to defend itself against Hamas, but it did not have the right to kill

02:1950,000 Palestinians and wound 112,000, 60% of whom are women, children, and the elderly.

02:28It did not have a right to bomb every university in Gaza.

02:35As Senator Van Hollen indicated, what we're talking about here is whether or not we support

02:40U.S. law.

02:42And U.S. law is clear.

02:44We cannot supply weapons to a country which is acting in violation of international law.

02:52Starving children is a violation of international law.

02:58And with that, Mr. President, I would yield the floor and ask for a yea vote on these

03:03resolutions.

James Risch Speaks In Opposition To Bill Blocking Israel Arms Sales—Then Bernie Sanders Responds

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