LIVE: Speaker McCarthy to Hold Media Availability

We are crafting legislation to help solve many of these problems. The AFAA reauthorization, we'll go through that. That's on the floor now. We're taking up a number of amendments for the appropriation process. I know this is unusual if you sit side, cuz not a lot gets done over there. But really, after the debt ceiling, putting a provision in, if you don't get the 12 bills done and 1% cut, I'm actually proud of the Senate to actually have through the committees getting some of their work done. That's a new day. But I do wanna remind the Senate, I will not put an omnibus on the floor of the House. We should do our work, we should do our job, and I'm thankful that you're here in Statuary Hall, continuing to see that this is the people's house. We keep it open to the public. Members are now back to have to actually work in Congress. They can't stay home. Bills have to go through committee. It is a new day. It is a new era inside this Congress, and we'll continue to work for the American public and our commitment to America. Yes, with that- Two controversies from over the weekend. One, Amila Jayapal calling Israel a racist state, but she walked it back. Do you think that there should be any action the House should take against her? And secondly, R.F.K Jr. said that COVID-19 was spared somehow, was ethically targeted to somehow spare Jewish people. Can he still testify before the House Judiciary's weaponization? So- Okay, you got two questions here. Let's take the first one, Jayapal's comments. This isn't the first person in the Democratic conference that has continued to make anti-Semitic comments. We've watched what they have continually to do. There are a number of them over there. I think if the Democrats want to believe that they do not have a conference that continues to make anti-Semitic remarks, they need to do something about it. Because they've defended these individuals time and again. The only time action has ever been taken is when we had to take the action. I think this is a role for the leader, Hakeem, to prove that, no, they're not anti-Semitic. They cannot allow their members to continue to say what they have said in the past. I mean, think about what we're talking about. You just raised the one issue of what she called Israel. On a week when we have the President of Israel, Mr. Herzog, coming to give a joint session on the 75th anniversary of the creation of Israel. The closest ally. Within minutes of Israel becoming a country, America recognized it. But now we have leaders in the Democratic Party. She's not just elected as a Democrat in their conference, she is a leader of their caucuses. And she's making these comments. But think of before what also Congresswoman Omar said. She equated the US military and Israel security forces with Hamas and the Taliban. She said support for Israel is all about the Benjamins. Supporters of Israel have allegiance to a foreign country to lead. What did she say inside their conference? That she had a calming feeling when discussing the Holocaust. Who in their right mind could even say that? Betty McCollum introduced a resolution to condemn Israel and support Palestinian terrorist organization. These are just multiple Democrats on multiple times consistently saying anti-Semitic remarks and it has got to stop. These are all individuals in the Democratic conference. Do they think Israel is an evil state? Well, they believe differently. They should take action against their own for the comments coming from their leadership within their own Democratic Party. And that's wrong. Your question about RFK, disagree with everything he said. The hearing that we have this week is about censorship. I don't think censoring somebody is actually the answer here. I think if you're gonna look at censorship in America, your first action to censure them probably plays into some of the problems we have. Speaking of censures, the Democrats plan to introduce a resolution to censure Congressman George Santos. You had said that the ethics investigation should end promptly. Will it end before the August recess? And how do you think Republicans should vote if that censure resolution comes? Well, first of all, think about what the Democrats are doing. They have brought this up numerous times. This is their entire agenda. I think the American public wants them to focus on a little more. But the one thing I will tell you here is we have this cent to ethics. Ethics needs to do their job. As all of you know, cuz you've covered this body, ethics is an equal number of Republicans and Democrats. We don't get involved within the ethics committee. These are individuals who will do their job and get their work done and follow through on whatever they need to do. Some of your members have said- Yes. Speaking of ethics, ethics for the Supreme Court. McConnell has basically said that Congress doesn't have jurisdiction over the Supreme Court to be able to do this, but yet Senate Democrats want to continue to bring ethics reform to the Supreme Court. I think the Supreme Court, with three separate branches of government, has the ability to oversee themselves in this process, just as the House is doing their work here. But the one thing I will say as well, when we look at the commitment to America when the Republicans took the majority, we said we'd open the House up. We'd hold ourselves accountable in the process. We'd make our streets safer. We'd put parents in charge of education, Parents' Bill of Rights, we'd pass. We'd make ourself energy independent, HR1, we've been able to pass. We've watched the Congress be able to cut more than $2 trillion in our debt ceiling. We've made, bring back work requirements, help people get their jobs. We've been done a number of things, exactly what we say in the commitment to America. I don't know what the commitment the Democrats have is just to bring censure resolutions, anti-Semitic comments. I think America expects more. Let's make our streets safer, our economy stronger, hold more accountability to this government, and that's exactly what we're focused on. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Speaker McCarthy. Did you try to invite Prime Minister Netanyahu to Congress before inviting Herzog to speak, given the criticism from the right that President Biden's visit with Herzog is instilling Netanyahu? And were Netanyahu to come to Congress, would he address a joint session with Congress? Okay, let's just get history right. We invited Herzog in the last Congress to come, based upon the 75th anniversary. So the President of Israel's coming has nothing to do with Bibi Netanyahu. But I have said when I was in Israel speaking at the Knesset, if President Biden snubs Prime Minister Netanyahu, I will gladly invite Netanyahu to America. A couple of different concerns. I do not want to see government create an agency to approve whether someone can build upon AI. I've watched what the European Union has done, that has actually, in their guidelines, has taken capital away and people walking away from Europe and investing in AI. I want to see an ability to foster AI here in America, but also at the same time protect us from any fears that we may have. If you have followed and covered some of the things we have done here already, I think it's appropriate that we educate all members on the artificial intelligence. So I have brought in MIT. MIT has actually, has a course that teaches AI and quantum to the generals in our military. So two years ago I took a number of members over to MIT, working with them to develop courses for members of Congress. We have brought them into joint sessions down in the auditorium. I brought Sam Altman. We will continue to do that. I have convened a number of members on both sides of the aisle, following those meetings based upon those who have interest in AI and others. And we want to work collaboratively together on being able to craft legislation that fosters the growth of AI while protecting it from any fears that some might have. Not at all. Because I think we'll be able to cure cancer and many other things based upon AI. I think we'll have greater efficiencies when it comes to AI. I think we can actually be able to foster a lot of positives through artificial intelligence. Why wouldn't we want to advance America? Why wouldn't we want to advance society? Why wouldn't we want to make somebody safer? We could battle wildfires with AI. We could predict where a fire would start, where it would grow, pre-position individuals to be able to knock that fire out. That would not only save lives, it would save the environment. We've watched many times within smoke. With AI we could find a better way to actually treat you. With AI our military will be able to be stronger. With AI today we actually use in the military, when you always get these reports like a number of planes, 50% of planes can't fly. We use AI to predict the part that is going to fail in the plane, so now we're up to 75 and 85% of planes that can fly. Because we change that part before it collapses upon itself. AI can help government save money, provide a greater service, be more efficient. I'm always looking for improvements and that's where AI can be. Now the fear of other things, that's what we can look to make sure we can protect. But I'm one who believes that tomorrow is going to be greater than today, and I'm one who firmly believes America has had the greatest advancement, especially in technology, and we should be the leaders in this, and really how government handles this will determine if America continues to lead in technology. bring the bill, and will the... Well, you know, the most important thing is not the Freedom Caucus, it's America. You know, I know this is different than Washington, but the new thing here, because we have now become the majority based upon the American public trusting us, we have kept our word. The bills now get 72 hours to read them. You can now see the 12 appropriation bills that have come out. That's not heard, that's unheard of. You actually have to ask this question, but unfortunately for America to understand, that's how Democrats ran this place, that people couldn't see what you could vote on. So we like America to know we're not ashamed of the work we're doing. We want people to see that this is their house, this is their money of how it's supposed to be spent, and they should have a say in it, and that's exactly what we're going to do. But we have already put out forth a number of the approach bills to start offering amendments to. I believe three of them we noticed on Friday. I think it was MilCon, I think it was Ag, and Defense. So those will be the first that would come to the floor, but we want people plenty of time to be able to offer more amendments. I know last week a number of you were really concerned that I was offering amendments to the NDAA. Let me be very clear to all of you. We like the idea that all members have some say in what bill's done. That's the way government is supposed to be designed in a democracy that we have here. So that may be different in a new Congress, where people actually have a say and can have more input, and you could actually have an amendment you vote on and it can fail, or you could have an amendment that can pass and improve the bill. That's the will of the people, that's the will of the House, and that will take place. So when's the next time? Next week we'll start with the vote. Yeah. I'm not quite sure what you're talking about. Amendments are offered on the floor so people could have their input, people could debate them, and people could actually find the truth behind it instead of just putting some taglines. So we'll look forward to seeing how it goes. Maybe on student loans, President Biden's student loan program, some say it's gonna cost $558 billion more than what was expected. You know, the Supreme Court has made a decision on that. I'm not quite sure what the president's thinking about doing. He's trying to make about 70-some percent of America to pay for about 10% of America. I don't think that's right. You take out a loan, you say you're gonna pay it back, in America, you pay your loan back. It's improving your life skills, so if you wanna take that investment, you pay your loan back. Yes, sir. I will meet with the 13 Gold Star families. The main purpose, I want to make sure that their loved ones are never forgotten and the sacrifices that they made. This is a personal meeting and I'm not going to share what goes on it, but I want these families to know that their loved ones will never be forgotten, that their sacrifices that they made, this country is very grateful. I've met with some of them before and I will continue to meet with them to express gratitude for the service that their children, their loved ones, their brothers, their sisters, have done. On the DCA slot, do you have any thoughts on that? Going to cross parties, what are your views on that? I think these are good discussions, healthy discussions. The one thing that we found are people are living longer. It's unique about, that's a good thing, people live longer. And people want to continue to work more. And the one thing we've learned about pilots, even if you read Malcolm Baldwin's books, 10,000 hours you approve itself. We have requirements for how long somebody has to train, how many hours before they go. This is actually good for the workforce. If people want to continue to work and they have a lot of experience with a lot of flight hours, that's actually a very positive thing. Flight safety, we've watched that we have a pilot shortage. That we're looking at a number of cancellations. So if we can have more people working with more experience for a longer term, and they get to make that decision, that's called freedom in America and safer travel and solving some problems. So I think that's a pretty positive thing. Was the U.S. notified of a UAP hearing? I will continue to see, but I think if we had found a UFO, I think the Department of Defense would tell us because they'd probably want to request more money. So I'd love to see whatever facts and information we have. I'm very supportive of letting the American public see whatever we have. There we go. Thank you for reminding me the day of the week. It's Monday. And on Monday, you reporters asked me, can I pass a bill by a certain date? So you just asked me a question about 12 appropriation bills. This is the entire funding outside of mandatory spending. But not one part of your question dealt with any policy within those 12 bills. Your concern is, will we pass it by a certain day, and could we pass all of them, and whether there'd be a seal, okay? So what's interesting to me is, you always ask me about a lot of bills, but no one really quite asked me about policy very much, but you did, thank you. We will get our bills passed. Like I said, we will. This is a new Congress with new leadership. So in the old Congress, I understand why you want to ask that question, because you ask it to me every single Monday. And by the time we get to the final part of the week, tomorrow you're gonna ask me, would I still bring it up this week, because you think it's gonna collapse, and will I still be speaking? Then by Wednesday, you're gonna ask me, are you sure it's gonna be brought up? Then on Thursday, when it passes, you're gonna say, well, that was no big deal. And then we're gonna come right back down to Monday, and I'm gonna come back with the same question. I'm never gonna give up on the American public. This is a new House. We run this differently. People are invited to come. Bills go to the floor, and there'll be amendments, because the people want to have their voices heard. And at the end of the day, we're not gonna do a nominee. We're gonna make members show up for work. Bills are gonna be debated in committees. And you know what? You're gonna get 72 hours to be there. So thank you for asking Monday's question. You win the prize today. Yes. I know a few talk about including salt. Well, you guys are very good to try to categorize individuals based upon some conference or not. But let me tell you one thing, we have a Republican conference. And every day we work with the entire Republican conference to solve our different concerns. But the one unique thing is, everybody gets to voice their concerns. So as we move through different bills, everybody has an ability to talk about it. We're always looking at ways that we are allowing people to keep more of what they earn. We want fairness. We want equity to be able to go through this. So as bills come through Ways and Means, where they marked up a number of them, this isn't a full tax reform bill. So continue to keep posted on that. Look, I look forward to talking to you all week. I look forward to your Tuesday questions, your Wednesday questions. And then I look forward on Thursday when you write about how we passed the FAA bill. But on Monday, you thought we couldn't do it. Thank you all.