House chaos is masking the Senate GOP’s danger to national security

When a former president implied that an American military leader should be executed, it did not make front page news because top editors dismissed it as more bombastic, empty rhetoric from former President Trump.

But now there is no ignoring it: Trump’s Republican Party is a genuine threat to U.S. national security, and at the moment, specifically a threat to Israel.

Let’s look at the facts. First, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) is holding up military promotions, including the nomination of the commander of the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet. The Fifth Fleet, responsible for operations in the Middle East, could well be called upon to aid Israel. Tuberville says he will not lift his blanket hold, but will allow nominees to proceed individually. That could take weeks or even months. 

Second, there is no U.S. ambassador to Israel right now. That is because Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is blocking the nomination.

Paul, along with Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and JD Vance (R-Ohio), is holding up U.S. State Department nominations, including the U.S. ambassadorships to Israel, Egypt, Oman and Kuwait. Paul refuses to confirm anyone to those critical posts until the State Department produces documents related to the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.

Third, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has proposed diverting U.S. aid from Ukraine to Israel. Hawley seems to be ignoring possible Russian ties to Hamas, which attacked Israel. Russia’s priority is its invasion of Ukraine. It would of course welcome the end of U.S. support for Ukrainians.

Finally, it is not hard to see the threat to U.S. national security created by Trump himself when he allegedly shared secrets about U.S. nuclear submarine capabilities with an Australian billionaire.

Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, is awaiting trial for mishandling classified documents that put at risk intelligence-gathering sources and methods of the U.S. and our allies — like Israel. 

Trump and his Republican imitators are pulling in donations with these stunts. But they are getting even more attention overseas by signaling dysfunction in the world’s leading democracy.

America’s enemies are celebrating.  

Add in that far-right Republicans loyal to Trump have paralyzed the U.S. House of Representatives. They ousted the Speaker without immediately replacing him. Without a Speaker, the House may not be able to act to support Israel and other U.S. interests.

This is what those enemies wanted when they interfered in the 2016 campaign to help Trump win. 

The breakdown of American government is welcomed by Chinese authoritarians counting on a slow American response if they invade Taiwan.

Trump’s former chief of staff Gen. John Kelly now calls Trump a “a person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators.” Barry McCaffrey, a former four-star general, says bluntly, Trump is “a serious threat to U.S. national security.” 

Think back to the 2004 Republican National Convention, just three years after the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

In the keynote speech, Sen. Zell Miller, a Georgia Democrat who had turned on his party, won applause from Republicans by claiming that Democrats voicing doubt on U.S. foreign policy “can only encourage our enemies.”

Miller’s speech amounted to hype. There was legitimate concern about the U.S. sending young people to die in a war based on the lie that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

“Fainthearted self-indulgence will put at risk all we care about in this world,” Miller said.

Now it is not political rhetoric to say the self-indulgent behavior of Republicans on Capitol Hill is risking that and the lives of millions of Israelis and Ukrainians.

It is heartbreaking that Tuberville continues to get Republican support for putting a wrench in U.S. military operations. Tuberville claims to be protesting a Pentagon policy allowing reimbursement of women in the military for out-of-state travel to get abortions.

Consider how these domestic political stunts performed by Republicans, following Trump’s example to gin up fundraising and get on TV, have demonstrably risked and harmed U.S. national security interests. They signal weakness and division to U.S. allies and adversaries alike. 

For shame. 

“It wasn’t that long ago that Congressional Republicans criticized anyone who did not stand up for the military as unpatriotic, unworthy of the sacrifices made by the one percent of Americans in uniform, and willing to fight to protect the U.S.,” I wrote a month ago, lamenting Tuberville’s dangerous political grandstanding. This situation is all the more dire because of the attack on Israel.

Now I am reminded of a scene from the 1962 classic film “The Manchurian Candidate.” A U.S. senator opposed to the red-baiting of Senator Johnny Iselin (who is of course based on real-life Sen. Joe McCarthy) says the following to Angela Lansbury’s character: “There are people who think of Johnny as a clown and a buffoon, but I do not. I despise John Iselin, and everything that Iselin-ism has come to stand for. I think if John Iselin were a paid Soviet agent, he could not do more to harm this country than he’s doing now.”

To update that memorable line for the situation we find ourselves in October 2023, it is time to say that if Trump and Tuberville were paid Hamas agents, they could not do more to harm this country, and our ally Israel, than they are doing now. 

Juan Williams is an author and a political analyst for Fox News Channel.