On the recordJanuary 16, 2024
Mr. President, we are all returning to a snowy Washington, DC, but it never ceases to amaze me, when I come back to the Nation's Capital from home, back in Texas, the disconnect between what people are focused on back home--namely, their jobs, their family, and, well, football. That didn't turn out so well for us this weekend. But the mainstream media and, of course, social media, which amplifies what people are talking about or the message that they want to convey-- the so-called influencers, which are, really, in some instances, no more than propagandists--and even our foreign adversaries are engaging in a nonstop battle to control the narrative here in Washington, DC, on a variety of issues, including the terrorist attack that occurred in Israel on October 7 of last year. Yesterday marked 100 days since Hamas terrorists murdered more than 1,200 Israelis and took about 240 hostages. I traveled to Israel with several of my Senate colleagues on the Senate Intelligence Committee last week, and we witnessed the grief and the fear that has gripped the Israeli people over the last few months. It was a familiar feeling because it seemed very much like where the American people were 3 months after the attacks of 9/11/2001, when al-Qaida killed 3,000 Americans. In Tel Aviv, photos of the hostages who were still being held captive by Hamas lined the walkway.…





