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Sunday Show Round Up: Suspending Egyptian Aid

Kelly Ayotte joins calls to suspend aid to Egypt on Meet the Press

August 18, 2013

In light of Egypt's escalating violence, more lawmakers are calling for an end to federal aid.

"In light of recent actions, we tried to give some time to the administration. They obviously tried to get the military government to not crack down in a violent way, to restore democracy, to move to elections, to release political prisoners. [The Egyptian Military has] ignored all of those requests and now with the recent violent crackdown, I do not see how we can continue aid. I believe it must be suspended," said Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R., N.H.).

Ayotte, who originally supported keeping aid in place, said during NBC's Meet the Press the United States needed to use their "leverage" by suspending aid until democracy is reinstated.

"They're obviously getting the impression that no matter what they do, our aid will continue," Ayotte said. "We've tried to go down a road to get them to do the right thing. They're not doing that."

Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) appeared to change his opinion on aid, telling ABC's This Week "the actions of the last week, no doubt, are going to cause us to suspend aid."

"I don’t want to cut off our relations," Corker added. "I think we need to tier [aid]."

Some in Congress still believe that aid to Egypt should be maintained.

"We certainly shouldn't cut off all aid," Rep. Peter King (R., N.Y.) told Fox News Sunday.

"There are no good choices in Egypt," King continued. "Of the two, I think there's more opportunity to protect American interests if we work with the military ... we have to have access to the Suez Canal, al-Qaeda should not be allowed to gain a foothold, the treaty with Israel should be enforced. I don't think that can be done with the Muslim Brotherhood, it possibly can be done with the military."

Rep Eliot Engel (D., N.Y.), appearing alongside Corker, said he did not think cutting off aid was the right decision.

"We essentially have two choices in Egypt, and that’s a military government which hopefully will transition as quickly as possible to civilian government or the Muslim Brotherhood. I don't think the Muslim Brotherhood is a choice," Engel said.

"For us to sit back and watch this happen is a violation of everything that we stood for," Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) said on CNN's State of the Union.

McCain was an early advocate of suspending aid. Rep. Keith Ellison (D., Minn.), Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.), and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) also expressed support for suspending aid on Sunday.

Domestically, a court ruling on New York’s "Stop and Frisk" policy and new revelations about NSA surveillance programs brought civil liberties to the forefront.

The Washington Post reported Thursday that the NSA had more privacy violations in their surveillance programs than previously known.

Supporters, like Rep. Peter King, say this shows the program has a "99.99% batting average" and that "inadvertent" mistakes do not discredit the program.

Sen. Paul and Rep. Justin Amash (R., Mich.), key critics of the NSA, pointed to this as further example of a program they say is unconstitutional.

"It's important to understand that even if all the procedures had been followed, there would still be government violation of people's rights," Amash said on State of the Union.