Vice President Kamala Harris once again took a stance that was convenient for her progressive platform and damaging to the foundations of American security. This time in the form of an agreement with a 20-something college student who stirred up trouble at an event where Harris was speaking on Wednesday.
The Vice President was on another trip not to the United States/Mexico border at George Mason University in Virginia when a student asserted that “a lot of taxpayer money is allocated for funding the military, whether it’s in backing Saudi Arabia or in Palestine,” and then proceeded to talk about the “astronomical numbers” at pro-Palestinian protests over the summer during the May conflict between Israel and Gaza terror groups, according to the Times of Israel.
“But then just a few days ago there were funds allocated to continue backing Israel, which hurts my heart because it’s an ethnic genocide and a displacement of people — the same that happened in America — and I’m sure you’re aware of this,” she said.
Now, most people would think that the nature of an alliance would mean that Harris would stand up for the nation of Israel, maybe tell their side of the story. It wouldn’t need to be rude, but it’s the vice president, everything she says is on the record (hence, the reason this article is being written). But in this case, Harris didn’t even need to defend the nation’s actions, she just needed to define the word “genocide” and point out that it’s not what Israel did. Easy as that.
But that’s not what the second in command to Israel’s ally did, she responded to the student’s final comment of, “I just feel like I need to bring this up because it affects my life and people I really care about…” by saying that she was “glad” the student brought it up.
“And again this is about the fact that your voice, your perspective, your experience, your truth should not be suppressed and it must be heard, right?” Harris said. “And one of the things that we’re fighting for in a democracy, right, a democracy is its strongest when everybody participates…”
She added soon after: “The point that you are making about policy that relates to Middle East policy, foreign policy, we still have healthy debates in our country about what is the right path, and nobody’s voice should be suppressed on that.”
What was she thinking? Well, it’s hard to say. Maybe she was catering to other lawmakers, such as some of the newly minted Muslim congresspeople who believe that Israel is taking over Palestine without cause. Maybe it was an attack on anything that bolsters a partnership between free and independent countries versus a beholden to a global force. Maybe she just wanted to win political points in the moment. Who knows, but even if it were, at best, a slip up in the moment, she should have retracted it.
Democrats lept into damage control mode. Even up to and including Halie Soifer, who heads the Jewish Democratic Council of America who said on Twitter that having worked for Harris she could “personally attest to her strong & unwavering commitment to Israel’s security. The VP’s exchange with the student wasn’t about detailing her policy on Israel. It was about not silencing those who don’t share her view.”
Well Halie, why doesn’t Harris say that? It sure would clear a lot up.
Such was the opinion of several Republicans, such as Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri who tweeted that “Kamala Harris doesn’t have time to go the border, but she apparently has plenty of time to encourage anti-Israel, anti-Semitic falsehoods.” Amen Hawley, amen.
