House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries attempted to distance Democrats from the scores of anti-Israel protesters who rampaged through the nation’s capital on Wednesday, despite the demonstrators professing left-wing goals.
Jeffries (D-NY) highlighted how many of those protesters have targeted Democrats over recent months – but glossed over the fact that many of those attacks came from the left.
“It’s not clear to me that any of the protesters associate with the left wing of the Democratic Party when these are individuals who have been aggressively protesting members of the House Democratic Caucus,” Jeffries (D-NY) told reporters Thursday.
Several of the protesters Wednesday were seen waving Hamas flags, carrying antisemitic signs, including one praising Hitler’s “final solution,” and attempting to breach the Capitol grounds’ security perimeter. At one point, a mob burned down an American flag that had been hanging up at Washington DC’s Union Station, replacing it with a Palestinian flag.
“It is unacceptable to deface public property, desecrate the American flag, threaten Jews with violence or promote terrorist organizations like Hamas,” Jeffries said. “Unacceptable. Anyone who engages in that activity should be held accountable to the full extent of the law.”
A group of anti-Israel protesters were caught on video ripping down an American flag at Union Station, then lighting it on fire and stomping on it.
Earlier Thursday, Jeffries released a statement denouncing the activity at Union Station, which he similarly stressed “is not acceptable under any circumstance.”
On Wednesday night, Republican House lawmakers later trekked over to the railroad and metro station, which is located about half a mile from the US Capitol building, to replace the flag that had been burned.
Other jarring acts from the anti-Israel agitators Wednesday included at least one Hamas flag that was spotted just outside the Capitol and a scourge of maggots and crickets that a pro-Palestine group claimed to have unleashed at the Watergate hotel where some of the Israeli delegation was staying.
There was also an effigy of a scowling Netanyahu that was burned, as well as a paper mache red-paint soaked mockups of President Biden and the prime minister paraded around the streets of DC.
There are just under three dozen Jewish members in the Democratic conference across both chambers of Congress.
Some of the activists Wednesday had signs that pushed for socialism and many of the ones whom The Post spoke with expressed left-leaning political views, albeit often against Biden.
Inside the House chamber, while Netanyahu’s speech was underway, “Squad” Rep. Rashida Tliab (D-Mich.) waved a sign that said “war criminal” on one side and “guilty of genocide” on the other.
Jeffries denied seeing Tlaib’s protest during Netanyahu’s address to the joint meeting of Congress and sidestepped a question about whether it was appropriate.
“I didn’t see the activity of Rashida Tlaib, as I understand it, she was to my left. I was focusing on the speech that was being delivered and processing the information,” he said.
“Rashida Talib is an elected member of Congress. Okay, she has a responsibility to her district in the same way that I have a responsibility to my district,” he later added.
At least six individuals were arrested due to unlawful activity in the House gallery around the time of Netanyahu’s speech, according to US Capitol Police.
Vice President Kamala Harris also on Thursday condemned the anti-Israel protests who expressed support for Hamas.
“I condemn any individuals associating with the brutal terrorist organization Hamas, which has vowed to annihilate the State of Israel and kill Jews,” she said in a statement.
“Pro-Hamas graffiti and rhetoric is abhorrent and we must not tolerate it in our nation. I condemn the burning of the American flag. That flag is a symbol of our highest ideals as a nation and represents the promise of America. It should never be desecrated in that way.”