Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy raised the alarm about the potential of terrorist “sleeper cells” in the U.S. in the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel.
The California Republican and recently ousted speaker warned of the possibility that the number of terrorists entering the country has been increasing as President Joe Biden continues to let the southern border roll out the red carpet for illegal migrants.
“If you simply look at what’s the chaos right now, a wide-open southern border. I’m concerned about a cell sitting inside America today,” McCarthy told NBC’s “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker.
“We just caught 18 people just last month on the FBI terrorist watch list coming across our border. More than 160 have done it this year,” he continued.
“When we’re looking around the Middle East and the uprisings popping up around Europe and others, they could be sleeper cells right now in America,” McCarthy warned. “But this administration [hasn’t done anything] to change what’s happening on the southern border. We got government funding where our troops wouldn’t be paid sitting here in a month.”
According to the US Customs and Border Protection, in just the past 12 months 169 people on the FBI terror watch lists were apprehended at the US southern border.
“Tom Emmer has been a part of our successes from not just winning the majority but being in the room to help us pass a border security bill to make us energy independent, Parents Bill of Rights to stand up when the Democrats wanted to defund the police and decriminalize some of those laws. And he has been successful. This is not a time for a learning experience as speaker,” McCarthy added, referring to House Majority Whip Tom Emmer who is making a bid to fill the vacant speaker seat in the House of Representatives.
Welker asked the former speaker about his plans as a member of Congress in dealing with some of the volatile issues facing the nation. He spoke about plans to help in the Middle East in the wake of the terrorist attack on Israel and again reiterated the importance of securing America’s border.
“I am still a member of Congress and I am going to lead in any capacity I can help to protect America,” he said.
“I’m going to work to secure our border. I’m going to work to stop the inflation. I’m going to make sure war does not break out in Israel and that Israel has every resource they need to defend themselves,” McCarthy continued.
‘But most importantly, I’m going to press this administration,” said, adding that “We have to destroy Hamas, but you cannot do it without confronting Iran” which, he said, is “getting billions of dollars to fund terrorism around the world.”
“And you cannot stop Hamas, you cannot get the American hostages back without confronting Iran. And they cannot make the same mistake they did in Afghanistan. We have to be very clear. Every single American has to come home. No one will be left behind. And I can do that as a congressman. I can do that as a citizen,” he told the NBC host.
“I would look at our own border that we don’t have sleeping cells here that we would stop these terrorists coming across our own border, and I would have made sure from that perspective going forward that Israel had every sophisticated weapon they needed to defend themselves,” he concluded.