Nicole Wallace: Some of our favorite reporters and friends, NBC News, White House correspondent Vaughn Hillyard is here, plus New York Times correspondent Teddy Schleifer is here. His focus is on billionaires and their impact on the world. Also joining us is former Obama Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes. Ben Rhodes. Too many people. Let me just speak for myself. I needed a reminder and a refresher of how important USAID is. Will you give us that real quick?
Former Obama Adviser and Democrat Ben Rhodes: Yeah. And it’s not just the things that you read off, Nicole, which, you know, most Americans might think of as worthy humanitarian objectives. There’s very significant national security objectives tied to USAID. It’s not just textbooks for Ukrainian children. It was the kind of sustainment of the Ukrainian government when it was in its most dire circumstances that USEG, USAID carried out. In areas where we have significant counter terrorism challenges. Places like Somalia where you have Al-Shabaab It’s USAID money that tries to build up a local capacity that can deal with long term security challenges.
Obviously, to take a recent example, pandemic preparedness, USAID is out in the field trying to stop epidemics before they reach American shores. Um, so there’s a whole range of, of dangers that USAID is meant to address by making, by being essentially preventive medicine. It’s cheaper to spend money on USAID than it is to spend money on a military intervention or on a pandemic. I think the other important national sturdy interests of people should keep in mind is that China spends a ton of money on their national development. This has been the centerpiece of their effort to build influence in the world of the last decade or two. You go to Africa, you go to the, say the African Union, the most important political institution in Africa. It was built the headquarters by China. China builds roads, China builds infrastructure across places like Africa to get influence.If the United States just withdraws things like health programming and food security programming, yes, that’s going to cause people to die. Let’s make a mistake from a humanitarian perspective, lives are at risk. But also we’re essentially just saying to the rest of the world, yeah, go with the Chinese international order, we’re out of business here in the United States. And that will have massive medium and long term consequences for US interest. Whether it’s geopolitical interest, whether it’s natural resource interest. It’s essentially seeding the whole globe, uh, to China and other countries to fill the space. It was once filled by the United States of America. So this is not just, you know, cutting some feel good programs. This is life saving assistance, but it’s also incredibly strategic national security interest in the United States, which, you know, uh, Elon Musk could just seems care less about and, and Donald Trump as well.
First, I’d like to ask Nicolle Wallace to stop taking notes with a marker in front of her microphone. It’s very distracting and makes it harder to understand what her guests are saying. Second, this is fake news.
The ex-Obama adviser said there are very significant national security objectives tied to USAID. Yeah, like what, Ben? Controlling and vaccinating the world? No, thank you. He said USAID is out in the field trying to stop epidemics before they reach American shores. That is such a lie. Democrats won’t secure our borders and vet the foreigners they allow in, which is the number one reason epidemics hit America.
Ben said stopping USAID is ceding the whole globe to China. But USAID operates in 130 of the 195 countries, so that’s not the whole globe. If sending nonstop billions, which turns into trillions of U.S. tax dollars, while also importing people from these countries, is the only way to not cede the whole globe to China, then it’s time for change. But what he said is not true. It’s a gross oversimplification. USAID’s budget has ballooned over the years with questionable outcomes in terms of national security or global influence. For instance, despite significant aid to Afghanistan, the Taliban regained control, showing that aid does not equate to control or stability. Additionally, the U.S. has other diplomatic and economic tools that can be more effective in countering China’s influence without the baggage of perceived imperialism that USAID often carries. Donald Trump and Elon Musk have a better way. It’s long past time for real change.