Former Secretary of State and twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said Thursday night that those demanding a “cease-fire now” between Israel and Palestinian terror group Hamas “do not understand Hamas.”
Clinton’s comments came during Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy’s 30th-anniversary gala alongside former Secretary of State James Baker III, following recorded remarks from former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
“People who are calling for a cease-fire now do not understand Hamas. That is not possible,” said Clinton, who served as secretary of state from 2009 to 2013 during former President Barack Obama’s first term.
“It would be such a gift to Hamas because they would spend whatever time there was a cease-fire in effect rebuilding their armaments, creating stronger positions to be able to fend off an eventual assault by the Israelis,” she emphasized.
Earlier in the interview, Baker told moderator Norah O’Donnell of CBS News, “I think we are at one of the most dangerous times in decades.”
“I think back to my almost four years as secretary of state, and I can’t think of any time we were dealing with a war in Europe, a war in the Middle East, and an adversary that is as adversarial as China is to us,” he said.
Clinton said she believes the United States has “a number of very visible urgent crises…that we are having to handle simultaneously,” adding, “We have to hope that there is not an additional crisis or conflict that comes up in the immediate future.”
It is unclear exactly what Clinton said immediately after this, as the Baker Institute’s audio of the event had technical difficulties throughout its stream, but Clinton went on to identify “internal” threats after mentioning “divisiveness” in America.
“We have to look at our own country and think about how our own divisiveness is undermining our capacity to deal with these very real external challenges,” she added moments later before stating, “We have internal and external threats that have to all be dealt with at the same time.”
Later during the panel, Baker, who served as late President George H. W. Bush’s secretary of state, took aim at House Republicans, as many of them oppose continued aid to Ukraine.
After noting that he thinks the Biden administration is “doing a good job in Ukraine,” he said, “I hate to see my party in the House being negative on supporting Ukraine.”
“I mean, that is absolutely crazy. There are not many people who support that that are not named Putin,” he said, drawing a laugh from Clinton.
The House is set to vote on a stand-alone Israel aid bill on Thursday under newly minted Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). This breaks with President Joe Biden’s call for Israel and Ukraine aid to be bundled together following a speech from the Oval Office in which he likened Hamas to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Notably, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has backed Biden on bundling the aid.
As Breitbart News exclusively reported on Saturday, Donald Trump Jr. asked a room of more than 1,000 at an event in Illinois on Friday night if they viewed Ukraine as a top ten issue, and no one said yes.
WATCH: Don Jr Asks Crowd of More Than a Thousand if Ukraine Top Issue, No One Says Yes