On Tuesday, as Spencer covered, pro-Hamas agitators were arrested at the Senate cafeteria as they insisted their insane list of anti-Israel demands be met. Among those seen at the protest were those affiliated with CODE PINK, with their members also being kicked out. Those arrests didn't deter the group, though, as they sent more people to harass senators on Wednesday. That included Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), though that turned out to be a mistake, as he promptly schooled the "Code Pink crazies" and "Astroturf wackos" on China's role in the Uyghur genocide.
In a video clip shared to the senator's X account on Wednesday morning, Hawley can be seen approached by several members with CODE PINK, including some who painted their hands red and are wearing Palestinian keffiyehs.
At one amusing moment, as Hawley talks about the group "taking China money," one woman can be heard "keep money in the United States" before another with the group shushes her.
When Hawley brings up the plight of Uyghur Muslims, a group which reports have found the Communist Chinese Party is committing genocide against, the members he's speaking with look confused and shake their heads. "We don't know," says one, as Hawley asks if they "condemn Beijing for that."
Another member insists she will "condemn all genocide," though she refuses to say the words that she will "condemn Beijing," all while she and other members are there to lay charges against Israel.
When Hawley tells the members to "call on your organization to stop taking their money," one man can be seen laughing. Another woman is heard whining "Can you focus on one thing at a time?!"
It was such an insistence that prompted Hawley to respond he is "focused on one thing at a time," which is "defending the state of Israel from people like you who want to destroy it," leading to a cacophony of shouted protests from the members surrounding the senator.
In the midst of this, Hawley called them out for being "Holocaust deniers" and "funded [by] China money," making clear "this is China money talking right here! The Uyghur--the Uyghur [genocide] deniers, the Holocaust deniers, all right here, right here!" During an increasingly chaotic back and forth, Hawley argues, "And you will create another [Holocaust] with your current position!"
At the end of the clip, a protester is seen getting closer to Hawley, wagging her finger at him, claiming the senator is "creating another [Holocaust] right now" with his support for Israel, as she screeches, "You're creating a Holocaust in Gaza," during their exchange. One woman could be heard whining, "You're supporting genocide."
The anti-Israel Code Pink crazies are back roaming the halls of the Senate calling Israel a terrorist state. But when I confront them about all their dirty funding from China - they get suddenly tongue tied. 😂 They “don’t know” if the Uyghur genocide is real! Astroturf wackos pic.twitter.com/AOhj6nnNLY
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) April 10, 2024
Tuesday's events didn't look to stop the group's relentless harassment, though. Not only did the exchange with Hawley take place less than 24 hours after, but the agitators tried to block the senator from getting to the committee. Ultimately, a U.S. Capitol Police officer had to get involved in order for a path to be cleared. In video footage shared with Townhall, Hawley can be heard saying "excuse me" as he walks past members of CODE PINK who can be heard laughing and calling him "a liar!"
Another post from Hawley's thread offers evidence to his point, an article from The New York Times covering how "A Global Web of Chinese Propaganda Leads to a U.S. Tech Mogul." Code Pink is mentioned throughout the article, including with reference to the Uyghur Muslims, and in its own section in the lengthy report that details an investigation about the group's co-founder, Jodie Evans, and her husband Neville Roy Singham, who is described as "a socialist benefactor of far-left causes" who "works closely with the Chinese government media machine and is financing its propaganda worldwide."
"Code Pink once criticized China’s rights record but now defends its internment of the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs, which human rights experts have labeled a crime against humanity," the report mentions.
If that wasn't chilling enough, here's an example of how the group spreads pro-CCP propaganda:
Code Pink is not alone among left-wing groups in raising concerns about anti-Asian discrimination and tensions between Beijing and Washington.
But Code Pink goes further, defending the Chinese government’s policies. In a 2021 video, a staff member compared Hong Kong’s pro-democracy demonstrators to the rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 that year.
In June, Code Pink activists visited staff members on the House Select Committee on China unannounced. In the office of Representative Seth Moulton, Democrat of Massachusetts, activists denied evidence of forced labor in Xinjiang and said the congressman should visit and see how happy people were there, according to an aide.
“They are capitalizing on very legitimate concerns in order to push this pro-authoritarian narrative,” said Brian Hioe, an editor with New Bloom, a progressive Taiwanese news site. “And their ideas end up circulating in a way that affects mainstream discourse.”
Chinese state media accounts have retweeted people and organizations in Mr. Singham’s network at least 122 times since February 2020, a Times analysis found, mostly accounts connected with No Cold War and Code Pink.
Articles mentioning the "Uighurs" are from over a decade ago, with posts from 2010 and 2012, in a narrative that looked to be convenient for the group at the time. Chillingly, though, a more recent post, from 2020, links to a December 2019 article from The Gray Zone that downplays evidence of genocide as being the work of a "far-right researcher."
In an opinion piece from the Washington Examiner in February of last year, the American Enterprise Institute's Michael Rubin wrote that "Code Pink’s Denial of the Uyghur Genocide Makes It a Hate Group." Rubin argues that "Code Pink’s response is simply to amplify Chinese Communist Party propaganda" and points out that "on Code Pink’s resource list is Margaret Kimberley, a columnist with Black Agenda Report, who has become the David Irving of Uyghur camp denial , satellite imagery and eyewitnesses be damned."
A 2021 piece from CODE PINK even accuses the oppressed minority of terrorism, which has been a justification of the CCP for subjecting such people to genocide. Daring to lament the plight of detainees in Guantanamo Bay, the post from December 2021 mentions:
This gross violation of human rights continues, with most of the 39 remaining detainees never even charged with a crime. Yet this country that has locked up hundreds of innocent men with no due process for up to 20 years still claims the authority to pass judgment on the legal processes of other countries, in particular on China’s efforts to cope with Islamist radicalism and terrorism among its Uighur minority.
Code Pink denies the CCP’s actual genocide against Uyghurs while falsely accusing Israel of genocide.
— Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) April 4, 2024
Code Pink is a parody of useful idiocy, intent on delivering a geopolitical and diplomatic victory for Hamas. Ignore these crackpots. https://t.co/AFBKUfhjFH
Join the conversation as a VIP Member