Shortly after the U.S. House of Representatives voted Rep. Mike Johnson (R) as Speaker, the first order of business was to vote on a measure to support Israel's right to defend itself after the recent terrorist attack that left 1,400 Israelis and foreigners dead, but as expected, members of the House of Representatives infamous “Squad” voted against the measure.
In an overwhelming show of bipartisan support, lawmakers rallied behind the bill sponsored by Rep. Mike McCaul and cosponsored by 425 members of the House of Representatives. The final vote tally was 412-10 with 6 members voting "Present" and five skipping the vote altogether.
Reps. Jamal Bowman, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Cori Bush, all voted against the pro-Israel bill.
All 28 members of the Florida congressional delegation, including Reps. Jared Moskowitz, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Carlos Gimenez, Mario Diaz-Balart, Kathy Castor, and Brian Mast, all voted in support of Israel
Moments after the vote, The Floridian caught up with Rep. Scott Franklin, the former U.S. Navy fighter pilot who was baffled at how any legislator could and would vote against such a bipartisan bill.
Rep. Franklin believes that anyone who does not support Israel’s right to defend itself after the terrorist attack is “endorsing terrorism.”
“I don’t know how on earth you come out against something like that,” said Rep. Scott Franklin. That just makes no sense to me whatsoever, I don’t care what their position is. If you can’t support that, then you are endorsing terrorism.
Freshman Congressman Maxwell Frost (D)—one of the co-sponsors of the bill— also told The Floridian about his support for Israel and the appropriate condemnation of the Hamas terrorist group.
Rep. Frost, who also supports the recently-introduced House ceasefire resolution, said that he “wanted to show solidarity” with Israel against the “horrible terrorist attack” perpetrated by Hamas.
It's definitely missing somethings, but I think timing is big part of it.
“What Hamas did we have to condemn it,” said Rep. Frost, adding that he would have liked the measure to contain language that address the current situation that Palestinians in Gaza find themselves in as a result of Israel’s response to the attack.
Israel is reported to be very close to launching their much-anticipated ground offensive into Gaza to root out Hamas terrorists.
