Senator Chuck Schumer

And right after October 7th, a week later, I was the first elected official to fly there and tell the Israeli people, we have your back.

And I met with the parents of people

One lady showed me a picture of her son, like 11, 12 years old, on a motorcycle, grabbed by these Hamas thugs, waving goodbye to her.

She was waving goodbye to him.

That picture stayed in my head every day.

There was another parent there who knew their son's arm was blown off, and would he survive?

And another parent who was there, we sat in the room talking, said, I'm a doctor, and oftentimes when you would know this better than me, the wounds can be self-healing.

So freeing the hostages, and I've gotten to know their families pretty well, is really important.

And also getting a ceasefire.

Look, the devastation that has occurred to the Gazan people has been awful.

And I criticized Netanyahu repeatedly for the way he conducted the war.

I thought they could have done more to minimize civilian casualties, as much as I think Hamas is a menace and danger.

And without Hamas, we have a much better chance for peace.

and getting more aid in, not using food and basic substance as a way.

So those two things have been accomplished.

And look, there are a lot of people who deserve credit.

Trump, other people, the Arab nations, some of the others, they deserve some credit.

But we have a long way to go.

And there's a real opportunity here, Mike.

Because I believe, and one of my severe disagreements with Netanyahu, even back then when I spoke critically of him, I wasn't critical of him wanting to get rid of Hamas.