What if the House abandons the Ukraine?

0:00 Speaker 1 With us this morning is Addamiral James Stavridis. He was the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, and he is with the Carlisle Group, and he’s also with the Rockefeller Foundation and one smart guy at most of Stavriti’s You’ve served our country in many, many ways over the last forty years we are in Have you ever seen it in

0:28 such disarray between Washington and the world.

0:34 Speaker 2 Certainly not in my lifetime. John. I feel as though we’re kind of disconnected here at home. We’ve got extreme parties on both sides that don’t want to cooperate, don’t want to come to agreement. This debacle and the House of Representatives throwing out a speaker for the first time in American history is just a a terrible thing to watch. And there’s no way that we

1:04 can continue to lead the world if we can’t organize ourselves here at home. So my ask to Americans is listen to the other side. If you spend a lot of time watching Fox News, spend some time listening to those on the left. And if you spend all your time on msnbccen spend some time listening to those on

1:29 the right. We’ve got to find a way to compromise in Washington, or we are not going to be able to create the kind of global environment we need to have a positive, a positive security situation. The two are interconnected.

1:47 And yes, I am worried.

1:50 Speaker 1 I am worried too because the week before I commended the Speaker Kevin McCarthy and I commended Hakeem Jeffries for working together to uh to to avoid the extreme left and avoid the extreme right. And they they made a deal, uh, and uh the budget was was passed to you know for the next forty five days. UH, and I was very,

2:23 very disappointed that it didn’t happen in the same numbers that they uh, you know, applauded everybody and everybody apported them for the Speaker of the House. And I was further disappointed. And I called Nancy Jacobson from the from the No Labels Institute that, uh, some of the Democrats that believe in in the middle of the road, that

2:51 they didn’t uh, you know, support uh Speaker McCarthy and and avoid the extremism on both sides.

3:01 Speaker 2 Yeah, And let’s think, as you and I always talk about the world, how does this look in Moscow, Beijing, and Tehran. Let’s start with Moscow. This is a great day for Vladimir Putin when he watches the US Congress rip itself apart, find itself unable to continue to have a speaker in place. First time we’ve been in that situation.

3:26 And so what does Putin decide to do. He will double down on trying to undermine US elections. He will try and enhance these terrible divisions in our country. He’ll unleash his social media attacks, he will use cyber to attack every element of our governance. And so much trouble ahead and great difficulty for Ukraine, which I think is

3:53 a worthy cause and is being undermined by this so great day over there in Moscow. How about in Beijing. We’ve got President G coming to the United States in about three weeks, maybe a month. He’ll be in San Francisco for a big summit, and we’re trying to organize the conversation between President G and President Biden. And that

4:22 is undermined because we end up in a situation where the Chinese Communist Party looks at our divisions and feels as though we can’t get organized, we can’t put a government in place. It enhances their narrative, their false narrative that democracy is fatally flawed. And so it’s a great day in Beijing when they watch this. And then finally

4:49 in Tehran, here you see this rotten theocracy that’s been in place for decades, and they’re encouraged. And here in particular, as we look at trying to bring the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia together with our partners and ally and friend in Israel, it’s just harder because if you’re the crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, you look at Washington and you think,

5:17 you know, can I really work with this kind of division. So it’s a very bad day all the way around, and shame on the extremes in both parties.

5:29 Speaker 1 I agree, one hundred and ten percent. The other thing is that, look, there’s an economic war going on worldwide and it’s being led by fossil fuels, the oil industry. You know, Russia and the Opic nations want one hundred dollars oil because Russia needs the money, the fundnail bars and et cetera, et cetera. And in the United States

5:56 refuses to open up the spigots and and push more oil. And what happens is the price went in sixty days, it went up from seventy dollars to ninety six dollars. And now all of a sudden, when when the and the FED was going to maybe relax because it looked like inflation was coming to you know, a standstill, but

6:24 maybe the worldwide powers don’t want and all of a sudden, oil came down ten dollars a barrel in the last three four days.

6:34 Speaker 2 And it reflects the uncertainty that’s out there. As follows. The world oil prices are tied to a couple of different things, but in particular the economy of China, which continues to struggle in the post COVID era, suffering from the damages of continued COVID lockdowns for several years. And so that’s one factor pulling down and thee there is

7:04 a sense that the as inflation is not under control, as you correctly put it, that interest rates are going to have to remain high, and that will have a dampening effect on the economies. I mean, we could watch through all of this point by point, but the real concern that I have is if we here in the

7:29 United States can’t come together and create smart strategies in the case of China, deciding how we want to approach them economically, militarily, in the tech world, in the microchip world, in our cultural interactions. We need a coherent strategy to do that. With Russia, I believe we need to continue to have the strongest possible front against Vladimir Putin, and

7:57 in the case of Tehran, need to bring Israel and Saudi Arabia together and work with those two nations. So if we can’t get security organized by organizing ourselves here at home, wats for that kind of fluctuation and spiking in the energy markets as well as global food markets that are going to continue to be disrupted by what’s

8:23 happening in Ukraine. A lot has to happen in Washington for us to have a coherent global strategy, and we need that if we’re going to have a strong economy.

8:36 Speaker 1 I agree with one hundred percent, Admiral, and the Republican Party and the Democratic Party has to learn how to work together for the benefit of the United States of America, a benefit for all Americans, and they’ve better learn some lessons real fast. And Admiral, I want to thank you for your service to our country and the world actually,

8:58 and we’ll catch up with you again real soon.

9:01 Speaker 2 Sounds great, John, Thank you so much, Thank you