Team Biden Slams Squad
Democrats aren’t quite in lockstep for a change, as there’s some serious disagreement over Israel and Hamas.
Joe Biden has been working for nearly three years to resurrect Barack Obama’s horrendous nuclear deal with the world’s preeminent state sponsor of terrorism, Iran. Last month, he unfroze $6 billion for Iran in exchange for some American prisoners. After years of appeasement and within weeks of that ransom payment, Iranian-backed Hamas attacked Israel, killing more than 1,200, including 25 Americans — so far.
But Joe Biden will have you know he’s not going to stand for any rhetoric from his party that’s favorable to Hamas. He’d certainly rather Americans pay attention to some House backbenchers than to his own failures.
Now, don’t get us wrong. Biden absolutely should condemn the “repugnant” and “disgraceful” Jew hatred coming from the likes of the House Democrat “Squad.” Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and Cori Bush in particular have all said outrageous things, going back well before the assault against Israel. At best, they’ve morally equivocated between Hamas jihadists wantonly killing civilians and Israeli retaliation in which there are inevitable civilian casualties because Hamas hides behind children and puts military bases below hospitals.
“I strongly condemn the targeting of civilians,” said Bush, “and I urge an immediate ceasefire and de-escalation to prevent further loss of life.” Israel had barely even had a chance to respond yet.
Omar has a particularly long history of hating Jews, so her response was hardly surprising. “Palestinians have few recourses for justice and accountability,” she complained. “Attacks by the IDF and settlers against Palestinians are regularly met with impunity. Efforts to seek justice in international courts are stonewalled by the Israeli government, with U.S. support. As the world is condemning Hamas’s attacks, we must also oppose an Israeli military response that has already taken the lives of hundreds of Palestinians, including nearly two dozen children.”
She later called the Israeli response “a war crime.”
Tlaib released a statement Sunday, saying, “I grieve the Palestinian and Israeli lives lost yesterday, today, and every day.” She added, “The path to that future [peace] must include lifting the blockade, ending the occupation, and dismantling the apartheid system that creates the suffocating, dehumanizing conditions that can lead to resistance.” It’s Israel’s fault, you see. Shouldn’t have worn that short skirt.
The outrage wasn’t only about what Tlaib said but about what she stubbornly refused to say. Asked repeatedly to condemn the beheading of babies by Hamas, Tlaib offered only an angry scowl at the reporter and just kept walking.
🚨WATCH: I asked Rep. Rashida Tlaib about Hamas terrorists chopping off babies heads, children being burned alive, and women being raped - she had nothing to say. pic.twitter.com/a3UvuvJ4hW
— Hillary Vaughn (@hillaryvaughn) <a href=“https://twitter.com/hillaryvaughn/status/1711908229762945088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>October 11, 2023
After that video went viral, Tlaib finally weighed in — to blast her critics for making “bigoted assumptions about my faith and ethnicity.”
Oh please.
Other Democrats circled the wagons for the Squad. Congressman Dan Goldman protested, “There are conservative marches in the South with swastikas all the time.” What? The only swastika we’ve seen lately was at the protest in Goldman’s New York — on behalf of Hamas.
Still other Democrats just pretended the whole thing was made up. “[Democrats are] absolutely unified behind Israel’s right to exist and Israel’s right to defend itself,” insisted Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin. What about the comments we just quoted? “Well, I just — I haven’t seen any of those.”
Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin: “[Democrats] are absolutely unified behind Israel’s right to exist!”
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 11, 2023
Q: “What do you make of the comments from your colleagues that sort of indicate otherwise?”
Raskin: “Well, I just— I haven’t seen any of those” pic.twitter.com/G5aNszaN2f
Profiles of courage, right there.
Eventually, Team Biden had had enough. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre didn’t name names, but she didn’t have to.
A reporter asked, “What is the president’s message to members of Congress who seem to be equating the Hamas terror attack with actions that were previously taken by Israel?”
KJP initially wanted to know “which congressional members,” but she quickly abandoned that waffling and came down strongly:
So, look, I’ve seen some of those statements this weekend. And we’re going to continue to be very clear: We believe they are wrong, we believe they’re repugnant, and we believe they’re disgraceful.
Our — our condemnation belongs squarely with terrorists who have brutally murdered, raped, kidnapped hundreds — hundreds of Israelis. There can be no equivocation about that. There are not two sides here. There are not two sides.
We agree. We only wish that such strong comments were coming from a strong administration that hadn’t spent nearly three years enabling the Iranian sponsors of the terrorists they now condemn. Squad rhetoric is indeed reprehensible — what else is new? — but Biden administration policy is far more consequential than the unhinged rantings of a few haters in Congress.
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- Karine Jean-Pierre
- Joe Biden
- Democrats
- Middle East
- Israel
- Hamas
- Palestinians
- Ilhan Omar
- Cori Bush
- Rashida Tlaib