Mitch McConnell Slams Karine Jean-Pierre's Controversial Answer To Question About Anti-Semitism
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00:00 Now in another matter, it's been 18 days since the brutal terrorist attacks of
00:07 October 7th. 18 days since savages confronted the world with the depths of
00:17 human depravity. Since one of the oldest form of hatred in human history reared
00:25 its ugly head. Since radical Islamic terrorists reminded us they pose a
00:34 persistent threat to the civilized world. In our shock, the West vowed solidarity.
00:48 We pledged not to look away from the horrors Israel was grieving. We reaffirmed
00:55 Israel's right to defend itself. And we promised to stand with our ally as it
01:03 fought back against pure evil. But in the last 18 days, silence, amnesia, cowardice,
01:16 and outright hate have begun to take their toll. All too quickly, the West
01:24 resolved has shown signs of weakness. First, we saw the most elite corners of
01:32 higher education rush to blame Israel for the death of its own children. We saw
01:42 college administrators tie themselves in grotesque moral knots to avoid
01:49 acknowledging reality, even in the face of alumni revolts. Last night, for
01:59 example, at George Washington University, here in the nation's capital, student
02:05 activists projected anti-semitic messages on the side of a campus
02:10 building named for a pair of Jewish benefactors. They issued a call to, quote,
02:18 "free Palestine from the river to the sea." For anyone unfamiliar with Israel's
02:26 geography, that is a call for the destruction of the Jewish state. But just
02:34 a few blocks away, the Biden administration is in denial. After
02:39 protests in Times Square displayed the Nazi swastika, and an Israeli student at
02:46 Columbia University was beaten with a stick, the White House press secretary
02:51 replied to a question about rising concerns of anti-semitism that, quote,
02:56 "we've not seen any credible threat." That's the White House press secretary. Even
03:05 more absurd was how, in the very next breath, without even uttering the word
03:10 "Jew," she pivoted abruptly to condemning Islamophobia. Seriously, Mr. President,
03:21 after thousands of Jews have been tortured and murdered, after hundreds
03:27 have been taken hostage, after the sight of Jewish bodies paraded through Gaza
03:31 was met with rejoicing from Arab capitals to London, after all of this,
03:37 President Biden's press secretary reverted to the disgraceful "both
03:44 sides" talking points. Of course, as I've discussed before, the media organizations
03:50 who engage with her deserve their own share of shame. Some in the press are
03:58 already indulging the same tired language designed to sap the free world
04:03 sense of moral clarity. Headlines are already warning about the indiscernible,
04:11 quote, "cycle of violence," end quote, and amplifying moral bankrupt calls for a
04:19 ceasefire. For anyone who needs a reminder, a ceasefire is what Israel
04:28 thought it had with Hamas and with Palestinian Islamic Jihad earlier this
04:37 summer. A ceasefire today is an amnesty for Hamas, a free pass for terrorists
04:49 from the same savage tribe as ISIS and Al Qaeda. So, less than three weeks after
05:01 the deadliest slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust, too many prominent corners
05:07 of our society already need a reminder, a reminder of the terrorist horrors that
05:14 actually started the war. Yesterday, I welcomed a group of important visitors
05:20 to my office. Among them were family members of Israelis being held hostage
05:26 by Hamas. Two had survived the attacks and witnessed the terror firsthand. I'd
05:34 like to share with our colleagues two of their stories. First was Netta, a 20-year-old
05:43 student who lived in a kibbutz in southern Israel. Netta told me that he woke
05:49 up on October 7th to the sound of sirens. He talked about how he armed himself
05:57 with a kitchen knife, barricaded himself in an interior room, and leaned against
06:06 the door as terrorists ransacked his apartment. Netta told me about how he
06:13 realized hours later when his mother stopped replying to his texts that his
06:19 parents had been taken hostage by Hamas. I also heard from a young woman named
06:24 Maya, who was at the music festival that morning with her friends. Maya described
06:32 to me yesterday the sounds of rockets interrupting the party at sunrise. She
06:38 described how she cried the first time she saw a victim lying in the road as
06:44 she fled, not knowing if he was alive or dead. She recalled how she turned left on
06:51 a road in search of safe haven, while many of her friends, two of whom would be
06:57 murdered, turned right. She told me how she called her father to say, "I love you
07:04 and I don't know if I will make it out," and how she waited hours in a kibbutz
07:12 shelter, assuming that her time was coming. She remembers how news spread in
07:22 message groups about which of her friends had made it out alive, and how
07:28 friends witnessed bodies blown apart by grenades. Maya told me she is haunted by
07:37 the images her friends shared of Hamas desecrating bodies, and by how they seem
07:45 to enjoy it. She said she feels guilty for encouraging her friends to join her
07:51 at the music festival that Saturday. Mr. President, this is why Isbjel fights.
08:02 The attacks of October 7th confronted the world with the sort of horrors Jewish
08:08 communities have no choice but to remember for generations. From European
08:15 villages caught in pogroms, to the horrors of Nazi Germany, to Israeli
08:22 kibbutz burned and bloodied by Hamas terrorists. For decades the free world
08:28 refrain has been, "Never forget, never again." God help us, we do not mean what we
08:39 say. There's no room for false moral equivalency. Let me repeat that, there is
08:47 no room for false moral equivalency. We must not forget who is responsible, and
08:57 we must hold them accountable. Terror and self-defense are not the same thing. One
09:06 side started the war, but the other side will finish it. And the United States
09:13 must give Israel the time, space, and support to bring innocent people home
09:19 and bring murderers, terrorists, to justice.