>> thanks everyone. [captions copyright national cable satee 2024] captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org. hunter biden will appear before house investigators in a closed door dosion on february 28. quy of president biden. the committees will transcribe the interview with other inrviews with other family members and societies -- associates. this week, c-span campaign 2024 coverage and on the ground with presidential candidates in the time week of■v hear the candidates' closing

arguments and hear what it is like. watch on the c-span network. c-span. campaign 2024.ur unfiltered vief politics. earlier today, the house homela s second impeachment hearing of secretary mayorkas. arizona sheriff and a mother of a woman killed. watch the hearing at 9:00 on c-span, or online at c-span. org. back to washington we ar■be joined by brian clark. from the hudson institute, nice to see you again. i wanted to start with iran.

earlier this week they launched strikes against syria, iraq and pakistan. what is there and the game? guest: they are trying to establish themselves as a regional power which is something they've done for the past few decades. they workough proxies like houthis, hezbollah, hamas. they try to use these proxy a%groups. so force their to establish itself as a country with freedom of action to drive competition in the region. host: i ran head pakistan and

they respond today and iran says people have been killed. where does this go? will there be an issue? guest: it's another region where there is and pakistan and area of pakistan just south of iran. that area has been somewhat contested. lthey are trying to force pakistan to defend that border. as well as pushing back on iraq. this is their effort to try to expand its field of control in the middle east. g" decided to take action

against a nuclear armed power. they are working with proxies against other countries but this direct attack on pakistan puts pakistan and direct confrontation. iran feels assembled and of his or a little bit on the defensive because of internal challenges. there have been a series of recent■$■> protest inside iran. they are succeeding overseas but at home is not so ground. eat. let's talk about the red sea, how effective have the u.s. strike spend? t: the houthi have not been

very effective. they have launched a lot of attacks and struck a few container ships with minimal damage and loss of life as far as we could tell. but the cost to defend against them,sea as well as other counts and a substantial outlay of the houthis successful by forcing a response and west to spend money. they are trying to continue to disrupt the efforts has it been? guest: the navy is done■c good

work and its ability with their defense. but the downside because they're using the capabilities they are using, they are using surface-to-air missiles that costs millions to shoot down drones. will become a problem for the u.s. going forward. it's not a sustainable effort. host: if you would like to call and you can do so. the lines are for democrats (202) 748-8000, ■=r republicans (202) 748-8001, for independente military on (202) 748-8003.

guest: houthithe terrorist listo negotiate a for a civil war in yemen. houthis have been fighting rebels in yemen so the attempt was to take them off the terroristist and work with saudi arabia to negotiate a settlement in yemen. obviously that has not panned the houthis have accelerated efforts with attacks ainst commercial fishing vessels. and shipping vessels.

putting them back on the terrorist list makes sense and help cut down on the financial ne them to limited resources. host: what are your co it is cln wants to expand this conflict to obtain an advantage for them. if they can get the u.s. drawn into a confrontation in the u.s. they can paint the u.s. as an #!enemy wh helpful domestically because they have is within iran. if they can somehow best th united states in some way it them a way to show that they are a player in the middle east.

this is a competition between iran and saudi arabia and israel. if iran can show the others to be iran is the player the goal state should gravitate towards as the leader. host: what is china thinking right now? guest: they are taking advantage of the series of confrontations by supporting iran through back iran is selling oil to the chineseis money coming as a result of that sale of oil and electronics are making their way to iransystems. there is also direct military action. taking it's opportunity to support iran and looking for

ways to take advantage of the united states if there comes to a conflict in taiwan. we have tom a republican in wyoming. caller: ares related to al qaeda? guest: the houthis group that me some relationship to al qaeda but for the most part, they are a shiite supported group. al qaeda was primarily a sunni supported group out of saudi arabia.

there are probably a few members that have floated back and forth. and independent. palestine will be free. i was looking at the hudson institute is nothing but american imperialism at its finest. iran has been the largest supplier ofian aid. the u.s. is hypocritical of yemen which is goinghrough a humanitarian crisis. the head of the world food program is senator john mccain's wife, thus an imperialist interest.

south africa stood up to the u.s. and china -- i would like to say once again from the river to the sea, palestine will be free. guest:!t i think there is a good point to be made that the yemen civil war has had an impact on the civilian population, all bad. the u.s. has to reduce the use of u.s. weapons provided to saudi arabia. the challenge is, how do you maintain security in the region when the yemeni population is caught in the middle? host: we have an independent

from colorado. caller: i would like to comment on the administration's of gaza and houthis. i think he has exercised great restint to make things any worse over there. helpingith shipping internationally and in coalition. people need to understand that. x palestinian people dug in■9 under hostility.

they have to deal with netanyahu right wing and hard to deal with. i just want to congratulate the administration what they are doing. guest: the admin of pulling toga coalition to respond to protect shipping and during these attacks the houthi. they took the timesupported go r these sites after they had done intelligence analysis and laid the groundwork so happening thy agreed they are hitting the right places. ■ccaller: i have been following

this veryhern california. it is easy to follow it. i guess my question is, given that the houthis have been pretty clear about what they are demanding. they have said the same thing since beginning. given that they have been very clear that if the aggression in gaza, israel has been that

there is no solution to take out hamas in gaza. isn't the best solution to get israel to stop its aggression and that helps the u.s. and shifting the narrative? host: we will get an answer for you. guest: the challenge for the united states is how do you get another country like israel to do or not do something, especially if they are an ally. it's hard to get israeli leadership to act in a certain way. the u.s. has to triedts

further so their effort to defend shipping as part of that. the target egted attacks by hod to be a stabilizing force when the ay each other. host: must speak to brandon from ca hi, hello. host: you are on the air. caller: that's awesome. i live in the united states and i have been here my entire life and i am 41 years old. why do all of these illegal immigrants give more money than

i do? host: that's really not our topic i'm afraid. caller:8■p [inaudible] host: i didn't get that to be honest. guest:ed here. uld not hear it. caller: what about wind energy? guest: most of the energy that

europeans deal with from the middle east because they are reducing the amount of oil and gas from russia comes over the red sea. ■fmaking that transit is diffict because you have a lot of g around the cape of good hope. weeks.ng time increases by host:r9 atlantic city, new jers, patty. caller: i feel that president is doing a fantastic job in my opinion. and showing restraint and organizing this horrible situation in the middle east. i just wanted to comment if i could on as caller who

said from the river to the sea, palestine should be free. i wanted to clarify, it is very hurtful to use that phrase because if you go back, that means to march all of the israelk'i's into the sea. i just wanted to know know whatr opinion was about that phrase? it is anti-semitic, if anyone is wondering. thethe definition is pure jew

hatred. where is his outrage for the hostages and the people of israel? guest: i don't know if i want to get into into the philosophy ofe palestinian people. clearly, the palestinians are trying to create their own state and trying to push israel to grant the more independence and the events of october 7heinous e happening that will have to get resolved or this will be a continued source of conflict. host:e t? hezbollah.

they have been attacking from the north and there have been concerns. north and there have been concerns. hezbollah has been careful to monitor attacks attacks so as no incur attacks. host: from michigan, we have donald. caller:gv i'm just calling it rl quick. republicans start all the wars. i was born through was born thrd the second world war. the war in korea, there was no peace agreement never signed. then kennedy got inthen kennedyd

he went to war in vietnam. w,he went as far to see that the president was assassinated. host: do do you have a question about the current situation in the middle east? caller: i'm just answering the other people who called. not all wars were caused by republicans. host: from baltimore and independent. caller: i just wanted to comment . in the 1990's, we became a superpower after the soviet union collapsed. we have become a dominant power

and we spent all of this time defending israel. speech, we have given them made and they have discriminated against essentially, people in the middle east have exposed us. everything we stand for is hypoisy. guest: i think one point that gets brought up is the u.s. is a declining power. it's not declining as much as the rest of the world being raised up. other countries can exert their influence and military pow,

taking care of technology to do that. i think you are seeing in evening of the playing field. as far as u.s. activities in the middle east. trying to spread democratic values but is challenging to do that with independent countries and their interest. the u.s. is mediating between interests. host: there has been an agreement over the request for more aid to israel. what do they need? guest: israel has a capable military but in terms of the air defense systems to protect

against hamas and hezbollah. so refilling those magazines. host: if they were to write t they would have to into the ward? guest: they would run out of weapons. that could impact that gaza. it seems they are reducing operations there so it seems u.s. support is not critical to the current war but it will afterion. host: a view of the top-flight budgetdepartment, what do you tf that of what the priority needs to be? guest: there is a slight amount of growth which with inflation

is even and priorities are can have to increasingly be■? ensurg readiness and capacity of the u.s. forces as opposed to driving that towards expensive, high tech jazz which assumes a lot of the budget. host: we will leave that right there [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2024] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> c-span "washington journal" a live forum. from washington dc and across the country. coming up friday morning, the annual march for life and the anniversary of the roe v. wade decision days away. political correspondent darren

mckinnon discusses the role abortion will play in the upcoming election. then we discussed border security and u.s. aid israel and ukraine with congressman glenn ivey and republican congressman matt rosendale. sp journal" join in the conversation live at 7 a.m.■n■= on c-span or online t c-span.org. here's what's head tonight on c-span. next, 2024 democratic presidential candidate dean phillips campaigns alongside 2020 presidential candidate andrew yang in new hampshire. a house security impeachment hearing -- for his immigration and border policy. and later attorney general merrick garland --