Vice President Kamala Harris only condemned Wednesday’s anti-Israel and pro-Hamas protest and vandalism in Washington, DC, after Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance and others called her out for her silence.
Harris was mum on Wednesday’s protests — which saw Union Station desecrated with antisemitic graffiti — until almost midday Thursday, prompting criticism from Vance.
“Anti-American and pro-Hamas rioters burned the American flag in front of the US Capitol, and the woman who wants to be our president is still refusing to condemn it,” he wrote in a post on X at 10:54 a.m.
Anti-American and pro-Hamas rioters burned the American flag in front of the US Capitol, and the woman who wants to be our president is still refusing to condemn it. https://t.co/R8K9VM6HaN
— JD Vance (@JDVance) July 25, 2024
Harris’s team put out its own statement on X fifteen minutes later, finally condemning the protests after many Democrat and nearly all Republican politicians in Washington, DC, had.
“Yesterday, at Union Station in Washington, D.C. we saw despicable acts by unpatriotic protesters and dangerous hate-fueled rhetoric,” she said before condemning Hamas associates and the flag burning that occurred.
Read my full statement on the protests in Washington, D.C. yesterday. pic.twitter.com/zJpZvdQDt9
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) July 25, 2024
Her post also came shortly after Jewish Insider senior national correspondent Gabby Deutch noted Thursday morning that she had contacted multiple Harris campaign spokespeople for comment on the protest but had not received a response.
I asked two spokespeople on VP Harris’ campaign to comment on these protests yesterday, where anti-Israel activists burned American flags next to pro-Hamas graffiti. The White House called it “disgraceful.”
Harris’ campaign didn’t respond to my questions. https://t.co/3VDfHVouZD
— Gabby Deutch (@GSDeutch) July 25, 2024
Perpetrators notably scribed the phrase “Fuck Israel” on the Freedom Bell and brick pavers outside Union Station. Columbus Fountain bore the phrase “Hamas is Comin” in red graffiti, as Breitbart News noted.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg comes out vocally against pro-Hamas vandalism.
Still nothing from Harris campaign. https://t.co/koiSc0ivgH
— Josh Kraushaar (@JoshKraushaar) July 25, 2024
The US Capitol should not look like a war zone. This is disgusting. pic.twitter.com/UBM98u2Vbh
— Gabrielle Dankanich (@gndankanich) July 24, 2024
Just days into her presidential campaign, Harris is left to navigate a Democrat Party at odds over the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
Before he stepped aside as the Democrat Party’s presumptive nominee on the heels of a pressure campaign from top Democrats, donors, and the Hollywood elite, President Joe Biden had to grapple with the “uncommitted movement” during the Democrat primary.
The grassroots movement, comprised of young voters, Muslims, Arab-Americans, and progressives, began with the Listen to Michigan campaign; voters in the state’s primary selected the “uncommitted” option as a way to protest Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war, which — at least at first — was on the more pro-Israel side.
The group aimed to secure 10,000 votes for the option, but more than 100,000 Democrat primary voters helped shatter the goal, and the movement spread rapidly to other states, including other key swing states Democrats won by tight margins in recent elections, like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania in 2020 and Minnesota in 2016.
“These primaries are an early litmus test for how much Biden’s stance on Gaza could hurt his reelection bid; the threat to Biden’s reelection isn’t that anti-war Democrats will vote for Trump, it’s that they won’t vote at all,” Listen to Michigan had noted.
For instance, Biden only won Michigan by 154,188 votes in 2020. The “uninstructed” vote count in Wisconsin more than doubled the 20,682 vote margin between Trump and Biden in 2020, and the threat of uncommitted voters staying home in November greatly imperiled his reelection bid.
On Sunday, after Biden dropped out and Harris became the frontrunner for the nomination, the Uncommitted National Movement called on Harris to support halting weapons to Israel.
“For months, we’ve warned that Biden’s support for Israel’s assault on Gaza would hurt his electability,” the group said in a statement shared on X. “Now, it’s crucial for Vice President Harris to take a clear stance against weapons for Israel’s war and occupation against Palestinians.”
Supplying weapons to Netanyahu’s regime makes a mockery of Democrats’ claims to fight against MAGA authoritarianism. By funding a government committing human rights abuses, we undermine our party’s stance against far-right extremism and contradict our commitment to democracy.
— Uncommitted National Movement 🌺 (@uncommittedmvmt) July 21, 2024
