CNN "Erin Burnett Outfront" - Transcript: Conflict in Gaza

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OUTFRONT tonight, the chairman of the House Homeland Committee, Congressman Michael McCaul.

Chairman McCaul, good to have you with us.

REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL (R), TEXAS: Hey. Thanks, Erin.

BURNETT: What do you think about what Ted Cruz had to say?

MCCAUL: Look, I put the safety of Americans on carriers flying anywhere in the world, I put their safety first. The fact is that Hamas is to blame for the violence in the rockets being fired. But the fact also is that one of these rockets hit just a mile away from the airport.

So I think the FAA is being precautionary, putting American lives and their safety first, and I think it's -- I think it's the right step to do. It will be reviewed on a 24-hour basis, so the next 24 hours, they'll look at conditions on the ground and decide what to do from there.

But the fact is, Hamas has 6,000 of these rockets that can -- and the range is far beyond Tel Aviv. So I think that's the concern from a safety standpoint, with respect to American carriers flying into Israel.

BURNETT: And, you know, as you know, it's a contentious decision. I mean, the former mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, flew on El-Al, the Israeli carrier, as a show of solidarity, probably has business interests there as well, so he has a personal stake in it, most likely. But he spoke to our Wolf Blitzer earlier and said restrictions on the flights are a mistake.

And I want to play explicitly what he said about the FAA for you, Chairman.

MCCAUL: Yes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: They make airlines and airports safe in America, but not as safe as Ben Gurion and El-Al are. And the fact that one rocket falls far away from this airport, a mile away, doesn't mean you should shut down air traffic into a country.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BURNETT: So, I mean, he makes an argument that a mile away is not very far away, and that the airports there are safer than the airports in the United States. Does he have a point? Did the FAA overreact?

MCCAUL: I don't think they overreacted. Look, we've already seen one Malaysian carrier with civilians that got shot down with 300 passengers onboard. And I think we're taking precautionary measures to make sure that doesn't happen.

But I do think that 24-hour review is important. I know that the FAA is in close consultation with the Israeli government, on an hourly basis, to see what the conditions is, and that could possibly change in the next day or two. And frankly, I hope it does.

But let's not forget who's to blame here for this. And that's Hamas, who is not -- you know, this Egyptian cease-fire agreement, the Israelis were willing to concede to that and have a cease-fire, and Hamas, actually, flagrantly, you know, thumbed their nose at that agreement.

So, I think the pressure is on Hamas now to do a cease-fire, stop firing these rockets in, and I do think the FAA did the right thing in this case.

BURNETT: The FAA did the right thing, and you made that clear. Just to make sure I understand. I know you obviously disagree with what Senator Ted Cruz said. But he does say the president used the FAA to launch an economic boycott to force Israel to do things that he wants them to do.

I mean, there's nothing about that -- is there anything about that, to you, that is fair? To imply the president himself was involved in this? Anything?

MCCAUL: Look, I would like to see this ban lifted, as soon as possible. But my first and foremost concern as chairman of homeland security is the safety of American lives, flying on airplanes.

BURNETT: Yes.

MCCAUL: And if there's a determination, because a rocket landed a mile away from an airport in Tel Aviv, I think that's a concern that must be addressed.

BURNETT: And, Chairman, you've said that in terms of the MH17 crisis, which no doubt is a big reason why the FAA was so quick to react, why Delta was so quick to turn its plane around, because of that rocket. You've said Russian president Vladimir Putin is responsible for that tragedy.

Senator Lindsey Graham is calling for unilateral sanctions to cripple the Russian economy, which may be difficult to do, as we've been reporting, because the United States is not the most important trading partner of Russia.

But I wanted to play for you exactly what Senator Graham said. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I want the Russian people to feel pain in response to the pain they've caused. The way to get to Putin is to basically make the Russian people pay a price for supporting this guy. They're part of the problem, as far as I'm concerned.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: I mean, that was pretty explicit. He didn't use the word "Russian people" and not mean it. He used it and said they're part of the problem.

I mean, do you agree the Russian people are partly to blame and the only way to make anything happen here is to make the actual people of Russia suffer?

MCCAUL: Well, I think Putin is responsible. Look, Erin, I've seen the imagery. It's very clear that this sophisticated weaponry came from Russia into Ukraine. They armed these rebel forces with these weapon systems. They trained them -- obviously, not very well. They're not very sophisticated. And they downed, you know, a civilian airline and killed 300 people.

So I do think, I think this is a game changer in this conflict. And I do think we need to take swift action against Russia on this.

First and foremost, a cease-fire in the region, but as you had in your program earlier, there were Russian troops going up to the border of Ukraine now. I think a cease-fire would be appropriate and I think Putin needs to stop arming these rebel separatists and stop training them, because it's just completely irresponsible.

The last thing is the crude oil ban would go a long way towards making Ukraine and Europe more independent from Russian energy, which is strangling them right now. And I have a bill to lift that ban, so we could export that from the United States, which would actually help our own economy, and I think create jobs in the United States.

BURNETT: All right. Chairman McCaul, thank you very much. An interesting angle on this. Of course, the United States would be one of the largest energy providers in the world if the United States was allowed to so much of the excess oil and gas that's being produced here.

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