Former Trump adviser Coates says Defense Secretary Austin's comments on Gaza were 'confusing'

Former Deputy National Security Advisor to then-President Donald Trump Victoria Coates says Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's recent comments about there being no genocide in Gaza was confusing. 

"I think they were confusing because this is the same Secretary Austin who just a week or so ago was citing the Hamas-run Gaza health authorities' numbers [and] suggesting that there were many, many thousands more civilian casualties than there actually have been," Coates said on the Wednesday edition of the "Just the News, No Noise" TV show. 

Austin was asked during a Monday hearing whether he believed there was a genocide in Gaza to which he responded, “We don’t have any evidence of genocide."

The Palestinian-affiliated group Hamas launched a terror attack on Israel in October 2023, which resulted in Israel declaring war on Hamas in Gaza.

Coates said that the United States has to stand with Israel in order for the war to eventually end. 

"The best thing you can do to end humanitarian suffering in Gaza is to end this war by Israel winning it," she said. "It's a little bit like winning World War II."