The Biden administration's strong response to the surprise attack on Israel has won praise

from around the globe this week, including from some of the president's toughest Republican

critics.

That work the president and secretary of state Blinken are doing is critical.

I've been on a lot of these trips before, and it's showcasing how the administration

is meeting the moment or doing the best they can to do that in real time.

In contrast, the U.S. House of Representatives remains effectively shut down thanks to the dysfunction of the Republican majority.

Despite nominating Congressman Jim Jordan in a series of secret votes behind closed doors, they're no closer to electing a speaker than they were

last week. As Susan Glasser wrote on The New Yorker this week, the chaos party, it appears,

is going to keep on chaosing for a while. This unseemly spectacle of internal Republican disarray

could hardly have come any more embarrassing moment for the party. I'm joined now by Andrea Mitchell,

she, Foreign Affairs correspondent for NBC News,

and Susan Glasser, who's a staff writer,

as I just mentioned, at The New Yorker.

So before we get to the dysfunction here,

I did want to start by asking you both

about Secretary Blinken remarks.

I'm going to start with you, Susan,

because they are walking a very tricky tightrope.

I mean, you've been on these trips,

I've been on these trips. The objectives they're laying out, standing by Israel, worrying about

the hostages, preventing this from spreading, dealing with the humanitarian crisis, those can be

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