Kevin McCarthy tells 'Brian Kilmeade Show' Iran was emboldened to strike Israel directly
US facing a world that looks like the 1930s with new 'Axis of Evils': Kevin McCarthy
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy joins ‘The Brian Kilmeade Show’ and breaks down congressional efforts to address growing foreign threats.
Since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, the world has seen escalating tensions and numerous conflicts erupt, with critics blaming President Biden's leadership. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy warned on "The Brian Kilmeade Show," Wednesday, that the Biden administration's "weakness" is creating a precarious world mirroring the run-up to World War II.
KEVIN MCCARTHY: If you look at history, and remember, history only repeats itself if you ignore it. If we were sitting in the 30s, that would be the exact same thing you'd be reading about Germany, Italy and Japan as they started entering other countries. Think for one moment, when Iran made the decision to send missiles for the first time in history from Iran directly into Israel, the world has now changed. They believed they could. But would they have done it if they hadn't created a relationship with Russia and China? And what did China say? China didn't criticize. China is now getting an advantage of all this, because they are able to buy Russian and Iranian oil at a discount. And it all stems back to the leadership of Biden. Iran was only producing 4,000 barrels a day when he entered. They're now producing 300,000. That's billions of dollars a day. And China's comments coming out…they didn't criticize October 7th. China's comments coming out too, after the missiles coming in, is Israel shouldn't fire back. And now the technology that they have been sharing, with the drones and others … they're being able to grow and get synergy between the two.
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FILE: In this file photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi, right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping pose for a photo on the sidelines of a meeting at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on Sept. 16, 2022. (Shen Hong/Xinhua via AP, File)
If we think being isolationist keeps us safe. We have forgotten what happened on 9/11. If we think we take ourselves off the playing field, the world becomes safer, we have forgotten what happened when Neville Chamberlain went in for appeasement with Hitler. What we are doing right now, supplying weapons to Ukraine, not one American is dying. What's happening is Ukraine is defending their own nation from an attack. And if Putin falls, you know what happens? More freedom and safety. That means Taiwan is safer, longer. That means Iran thinks second thoughts. Go back to when President Trump took out the Iranian general [Soleimani]... I was with him that night at Mar-A-Lago having dinner.
Qasem Soleimani, an Iranian military officer who served in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was killed in a U.S. strike in Iraq on Jan. 3, 2020. ( Pool / Press Office of Iranian Supreme Leader/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
I was with him when we went up to the SCIF and identified what transpired and came back down. I know what world leaders called. Everybody else was scared. The world became safer. And you know what? Iran didn't send missiles into Israel that day or anything else because they knew the strength of America and the world was safer. When they see weakness after Afghanistan, we have pushed our allies closer to China, and we've watched the atrocities of October 7th. But those new axis of evils don't say anything negative to it, because any of them could do anything they want now.
A split image of President Joe Biden and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
The Biden administration has a long list of foreign policy blunders since the president came into office. However, the most recent incident was not only historic but also unnerving as the Middle East nears a wider conflict.
Iran launched hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel on Saturday in response to an apparent strike on Iran’s embassy compound in Syria on April 1 that killed 12 people, including two Iranian generals. Iran blames Israel for the attack, although Israel has not claimed any involvement.
Israel, with help from the U.S., the United Kingdom, neighboring Jordan and other nations, successfully intercepted nearly every missile and drone that Iran launched. Israel boasted of a 99% success rate, through the use of its Iron Dome and David’s Sling systems.
Israel and Iran have waged a shadow war for decades, with the war coming to a head over the past few months as Iran has supported Hamas, which carried out the deadliest terror attack in Israel’s history on Oct. 7.
Saturday’s attack was the first direct Iranian military attack on Israel.
Objects are seen in the sky above Jerusalem after Iran launched drones and missiles towards Israel, in Jerusalem April 14, 2024. (REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)
Following the attack, President Ebrahim Raisi spoke Wednesday at an annual army parade warning Israel of a "massive and harsh" response, as the country braces for potential Israeli retaliation after Iran’s missile and drone attack over the weekend.
Raisi said Saturday’s attack was a limited one, and that if Iran was provoked to carry out a bigger attack, "nothing would remain from the Zionist regime," the official IRNA news agency reported.
Conflict in the Middle East is only one arena seeing heightened tensions. Since Biden took office, Russia has attacked Ukraine and started an ongoing war. The multi-faceted China has also evolved since 2020 with increased aggression and blooming relations with Russia and Iran.
Fox News' Peter Aiken, Lawrence Richard and Hannah Grossman contributed to this report.
This article was written by Fox News staff.
