The office of speaker of the house is hereby declared vacant. George speaker Kevin Mccarthy ousted. The conservative agenda was being paralyzed. These eight individuals torpedoed the conference. George can the party unite behind another leader . We need to resolve our differences inside this house chamber. I think im better equipped to unite the conference. George well get the latest from rachel scott on capitol hill, plus ken buck and pete aguilar. And while the ashes may have settled, our hearts still ache. George two months after the west maui fires, mola lenghi reports on the return of tourists and the lahaina residents pushing back. George good morning, and welcome to this week. Allout war has broken out in the middle east and all signs point to a long and bloody war. It began with a surprise attack to hamas. It came by land, sea, and air with paragliders, speedboats, motorcycles and rockets. Hundreds have been killed. Hostages have been taken. Its being called a 9 11 moment for israel, and Prime Minister netanyahu promises that they will retaliate with a might and scale the enemy has not yet known. Tanks are rolling towards the border. The shock waves are spreading across the region and the world. Foreign correspondent James Longman starts us off from tel aviv. Good morning, james. Reporter yeah, good morning, george. Im at a strike site in central tel aviv. You can see this building entirely destroyed. The cleanup operation has started. Cars all along this street destroyed as well. This doesnt happen in an area like this. People are in shock. They should be enjoying their weekend. Instead this is a country at war because the fighting is continuing in six locations along the border with gaza where hamas militants infiltrated, and the images are truly shocking. Taking them by surprise, killing them on the spot where they found them. We now understand at least 500 israelis have been killed and as many as 2,000 injured. Hostage situations are also ongoing both here in israel and in the gaza strip. Hamas says theyve taken dozens of hostages, men, women, children, and the elderly, and that is going to further complicate israels response. Yes, weve seen air strikes overnight as many as 250 palestinians dead, but will israel send in Ground Troops . Weve seen them amassing on the border with gaza, and what will that do to the region . Weve already heard this morning of an altercation between hezbollah and israel from lebanon, and so there is deep concern about regional security, but make no mistake. This is the beginning of israels wider response, george. George and james, you talk about the shock right there. Some even calling this worse than the attack in 1973, the start of the yom kippur war. Reporter yeah, george. Its extraordinary. I have been to this country already this year just four times for various different terrorist attacks and incidents. Theres a level of kind of resolution that israelis have come sadly to expect, terror incidents in their country. This is completely different. Terror, shock, desperation, and seeing image of women and elderly people being transported on motor bikes and in cars over into gaza. They want a resolution quickly, but that doesnt happen overnight anywhere in this region and certainly wont in this situation, george. George thanks very much. Lets bring in steve ganyard. The big question, how could this happen . What a massive intelligence fail year. Yeah, and george, theres a saying. Complacency kills and certainly complacency was part of this huge intelligence failure, but theres also a deeper systemic failure that the israelis will have to figure out. The 73 war was the only other war where they had this sort of failure, but that was very different. It was nation states, israel and egypt and it was force on force. This is hamas and hamas working in small groups, using personal encrypted communications, infiltrating into israel. So very different kind of failure, but a failure that is inexcusable nonetheless. George weve only seen the beginning so far of the israeli response. All but certain to go into gaza with Ground Forces . Yeah. Netanyahus going to have to go into gaza, but hamas knew this, and so hamas has likely beefed up its internal defenses because urban warfare is particularly horrible. Think about bakhmut or even when israel went into beirut. Its very, very difficult, and so this phase one will be much less bloody. The phase two when israel has to go into gaza will be much bloodier for israel. George but steve what makes it for complicated is that israeli hostages are being held inside gaza right now and israel hasnt wanted to go into gaza for more than a decade because its so difficult to control. Exactly. So netanyahu has some very difficult choices to make. Does he go all the way into gaza and retake all of gaza . Very bloody, very long, very expensive, or does he go and do something punitive . Very tough choices and none of them are good. George meantime, we know the United States has been trying to broker a peace deal between saudi arabia and israel. Is that dead . It is dead for now, but this the brilliant on its die boll ball, but its brilliant on irans part. They used hamas as its proxy. They go in knowing that u. S. And Saudi Arabian talks are going well. Thats to show a united front against iran, and iran uses its proxy of hamas knowing that only hamas will pay the price. George steve ganyard, thanks very much. Lets go to secretary blinken. Thank you for joining us this morning. I know you have been working through the day and through the weekend. What is the United States doing right now . What comes next . Well, george, first to put this in perspective and as some of your correspondents just said, this is the worst attack on israel since 1973, the yom kippur war almost exactly 60 years ago. There was a fundamental difference. That was state to state, country to country, army to army. This is a massive terrorist attack that is gunning down israeli civilians in their towns, in their homes and as weve seen so graphically, lit i dragging people across the border with gaza, including a holocaust survivor in a wheelchair, women and children. So you can imagine the impact this is having throughout israel and the world should be revolted at what its seen. We have immediately engaged our israeli partners and allies. President biden was on the phone with Prime Minister netanyahu yesterday to assure him of our full support. I was on the phone with the israeli president , the foreign minister. The entire government has engaged early on to make sure to build support for israel and make sure every country uses whatever means it has and whatever influence it has to pull hamas back and also to make sure we dont see conflict erupt in other areas. The president sent a very clear message that no one should try to take advantage of this elsewhere. George how do you explain this intelligence failure, especially especially on the anniversary of the yom kippur war . George, there will be time to look at that, and to make determinations about what may have been missed, and right now the focus has to be on the effort to get to repel the aggression by the Hamas Terrorists, to push them back, and to put israel in a position where this doesnt happen again. George but there are implications for the United States as well, of course. We rely on Israeli Intelligence, dont we . We have a very close relationship with Israeli Intelligence as well as with the israeli military, as well as with israel more broadly, so yes, of course, this is something they and we will be looking at, but the effort right now has to be in dealing with the aggression from hamas with these attacks. There remains intense fighting around gaza. We continue to see that, and the rest of the country right now seems to be calmer, but the intensity of the fighting is real, and we had about 1,000 hamas militants who infiltrated israel. Most of them seem to have been killed or have gone back into gaza, but as i said, intense fighting remains, and thats also the focus. The focus is also taking steps to make sure to the best of their ability for israel this doesnt repeat itself. George can israel control gaza if they go in . Look. I dont want to get ahead of what israel may or may not do when it comes to gaza. What they need to be able to control one way or another is as i said, putting in place measures so this doesnt happen again. No country should be expected to live with the fear, the possibility, and now the actuality of terrorists crossing a border, coming into peoples homes, gunning them down in the street, dragging them across the border, and making hostages of them. That is intolerable for any democracy. Its intolerable for israel, and one way or another, theyre going to have to take steps to make sure to the best of their ability this doesnt repeat itself. George as i discussed with steve ganyard, there were negotiations between saudi arabia and israel. What happens to that now . George, its no surprise that those opposed to the efforts to normalize relations with countries throughout the region and beyond, who opposes it . Hezbollah, hamas, and iran. To the extent this was designed to control the efforts that were being made, that speaks volumes. Now we have to deal with this attack, deal with hamas, and well come to the normalization efforts which by the way are incredibly difficult when it comes to saudi arabia and is israel. Lots of hard issues to work through, but if we could get there, that would significantly advance stability in the region. It would offer so many greater prospects for people in all of these countries, and theyre basically two paths that are before the region right now. One is the path of normalization, of integration, of people working together, and by the way, in that and on that path, its not a substitute for resolving the differences between israelis and palestinians. On the contrary, it needs to be used to advance that effort as well. Thats one path. The other is what weve seen from hamas, terrorism, horror, and something that offers not only nothing to people throughout the region. It offers nothing to the palestinians. On the contrary, everything that hamas does makes their situation, their plight even worse. They bring nothing but death and destruction not only to israelis, but to palestinians. So the paths are clear. We know which path we want to follow. Were determined to do, that but right now the focus has to be on helping israelis as it defends itself against this terrorist attack. George does dealing with hamas mean dealing with iran . Was iran behind this . So theres a long relationship between iran and hamas. In fact, hamas wouldnt be hamas without the support its gotten over the many years from iran. We havent seen direct evidence that iran was behind this particular attack or involved, but the support over many years is clear. Its one of the reasons that over the last couple of years we have been resolutely working against irans support for terrorism, for destabilizing actions in other countries. Weve sanctioned more than 400 iranian individuals and entities precisely for the kind of support theyve offered hamas in the past, and its something weve remained extremely vigilant about. George many are laying blame on the Biden Administration in the wake of the deal to unfreeze iranian assets that were unfrozen for humanitarian purposes in return for the release of those american hostages. Heres what Steve Scalise, one of the candidates for speaker put out yesterday. The Biden Administration must be held accountable for the appeasement of these Hamas Terrorists including handling over billions of dollars to them and their iranian backers. Your response . Im not going to comment on specific comments, but i can say this. Its unfortunate that some are in effect saying things that may be motivated by politics at a time when so many lives have been lost and israel remains under attack, and the facts are these. They should be well known. This involved iranian resources, not american taxpayer dollars. These were resources that iran had acquired from the sale of its oil that were stuck in a bank. In this case in south korea. They have always been entitled to use those funds under our law and our sanctions for humanitarian purposes, and the funds were moved from one bank to another to facilitate that. By the way, not a single dollar from that account has actually been spent to date, and in any event, its very carefully and closely regulated by the Treasury Department to make sure its only used for food, for medical equipment. So some who are advancing this false narrative, theyre either misinformed or theyre misinforming and either way its wrong. George are we in for a long war . The challenge for israel and the challenge for all who support israel and oppose horrific acts of terrorism is again, to take measures that provide for accountability for whats happened and also to do our best to ensure that this doesnt happen again, and that is likely to take some time, and its fraught with very difficult decisions for the israelis to make. I dont want to speculate, get ahead, get into hypotheticals, but this is now were 24 hours or so into this. As i said, there remains intense fighting in the gaza area, and the focus has to be on helping israel recover the territory that has been taken briefly by hamas, protecting its citizens, and taking whatever measures are necessary to avoid this repeating itself. George mr. Secretary, thanks for your time this morning. Thanks, george. George lets get a gop response now from president ial candidate Chris Christie. Chris, thanks for joining us this morning. Thank you. George if you were in the oval office, what would you be doing . What i would be doing is making sure one, that israel has everything that it needs to be able to take whatever actions it needs to take, and this is the problem with not having a speaker right now, george, and the actions taken by some members of my party were wholly irresponsible without this going on. Theyre now even putting a brighter light on the irresponsibility of not having someone in place, but first make sure they have everything they need. Second to be talking to our allies in the region, and trying to make sure that this doesnt escalate. Youve got to be talking to the saudis, and to others to make sure jordanians that we make sure we keep things contained in that area, and three, then speaking to the Prime Minister netanyahu and making sure that youre a sounding board for him to think through the ramifications of every step theyre going to take to defend themselves, and to try to do the best they can to eliminate the leadership of hamas has made the decision to do something as horrific as what was done this week. George you mentioned the gop dysfunction in the house right now, getting rid of Speaker Mccarthy. I want to talk about, that but first, your campaign. You have been the most openly critical of donald trump, and nothing you or the other candidates are doing seems to be putting a dent in his lead and he seems to be calling all the shots right now including in that House Speaker situation. Look. This is the problem. Theres always been when you look at it though, george, its a very small element of the members of the house who made this happen. You have eight members who made it happen, and i dont know what Donald Trumps influence was or wasnt over them, but in the end, those eight members are the ones who are responsible. On the larger question, look. I think there is progress being made in places like New Hampshire for certain against donald trump, and theres been polling thats indicated that in the last week or so. This is going to take some time. Its patience and persistence to put forward the message that he cannot win a general election. He doesnt deserve to be the nominee of this party based upon his conduct in office, and his conduct after office, and, you know, im making that argument all over the country, but particularly in New Hampshire and south carolina, and im hearing people respond to it, but were not going to see it show up in polls until much later i suspect, if not, as late as election night. George is it going to show up in polls as long as hes not in the debate, as long as he has this stranglehold over the Republican Base . You even see these House Republicans say they want him to be speaker even by their own rules, someone whos indicted cant be speaker. This is them knowing what he likes. Which is kiss his rear end in public. If you do that, you he says nice things about you, even if what youre saying is demonstrably untrue, right . Thats part of the problem with this, but you talk about the stranglehold. It manifested itself this week. Ramaswamy and i, where we would have had 40 minutes of air time, the rnc prevented us from doing it because they dont want to have more pressure put on donald trump or anybody else to be speaking out. More information is better than less, and by trying to restrict how much we can interact with each other, just only on those debate stages, i think its a mistake for the party near term and long term to do that, and i expressed that to Ronna Mcdaniel when we had our conversation earlier this week, but let me be clear, george. She made it clear to me if i did that conversation i would be banned from future debates by the rnc. George we dont know how long it will take to find a new speaker of the house. Do you have a favorite candidate . I dont have a favorite. I dont know jim jordan well at all, so i cant really speak to him expect for what i see publicly. I know Steve Scalise and i like Steve Scalise, and i respect him, but i wont weigh in and endorse somebody, but i know steve and i think hes a responsible and good guy. George if this continues to go and donald trump gets the nomination, you said he cant win. Any doubt about that . None in my mind, george. To get back to your other question, i believe hell show up at the debates. I think it will happen at some point. I think when it gets narrower, but the rnc is trying to kick people off the stage too. They increased the number of donor