Last Wednesday, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) decided to take a page from Bowe Bergdahl’s book and get himself captured. It wasn’t the Taliban in this case, but Israeli settlers in the West Bank. Khanna went down a road that was closed to civilians, apparently with a camera crew and a New York Times reporter. It was the perfect setup for a political stunt, though one poorly executed that quickly fell apart like Swiss cheese.
He refused to meet with survivors of the October 7 attacks or attend a briefing on Israel’s border situation. He wanted to be captured in what he called some violent event. The footage was released. This ‘hostage’ video was as calm as Hindu cows are. The intent was clear: gin up anti-Israel hatred at home and declare a 2028 presidential bid. It’s a circus:
🚨 Ro Khanna’s team has released the footage of their “violent detainment” pic.twitter.com/gGEwWuZEAU
— DSA Watch (@DSA_Watch) July 13, 2026
In this video released by a man who was with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), there is no violence or detention that can be seen as he has claimed. https://t.co/5xK3b0fseP
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) July 13, 2026
“It’s an extremely irrelevant event… The congressman is a lying liar.”@HavivRettigGur says Ro Khanna grossly exaggerated what happened during his West Bank visit to advance his own political agenda back home. pic.twitter.com/jIDkXZTVQE
— The Free Press (@TheFP) July 13, 2026
So you had a camera crew with you the whole time huh? https://t.co/QMgJrI4xqO
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) July 14, 2026
Even New Jersey Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer torched Khanna:
Let’s be honest, this was a publicity stunt. Channels exist to protect elected officials, and Khanna intentionally entered a restricted, unstable area without coordinating to provoke a response.
— Rep Josh Gottheimer (@RepJoshG) July 13, 2026
What’s appalling is that Ro ignored requests to meet 10/7 survivors and hostages, or…
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Also, Israeli Ambassador Michael Leiter mentioned on Face the Nation Sunday that Khanna didn’t really coordinate with Israeli officials about his visit, for obvious reasons: he wanted to put on a show:
WATCH: Margaret Brennan gets COOKED by Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Leiter over Ro Khanna's incursion in the West Bank
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) July 12, 2026
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, before I let you go, there were two high-profile incidents I want to quickly touch on here. One, a CNN crew attacked in the… pic.twitter.com/WUgo3w8zzT
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, before I let you go, there were two high-profile incidents I want to quickly touch on here. One, a CNN crew attacked in the West Bank by what they say were four settlers. There was also an incident with Ro Khanna, the congressman from California, who said he was his vehicles he was in were stopped by Israeli settlers, and then when the IDF showed up, they were on the side of the settlers, not him. He said "[i]t's not a good idea to detain longshot presidential candidates". It was a warning to your government. Do you think your government needs to apologize to both him and those CNN journalists?
MICHAEL LEITER: Any violence is to be condemned. No excuses, no explanations. Okay. So if CNN crew was attacked, that needs to be condemned, and I'm doing so right now. And we need to do a better job.
BRENNAN: You are condemning it [unint]--
LEITER: --If- if- if it was- actually took place as they've reported it, absolutely condemning it. We need to rein in violence on all sides. Now, in terms of Ro Khanna, we reached out to him when we heard he was going to Israel, the Israeli embassy here in Washington. As all congressmen do, they coordinate their trip with the Israeli government. We suggested he visit with- with survivors of the October 7th massacre. That he visit the borders, so he understands the, the issues that we have in our borders and so on. He ignored that and he decided to coordinate his trip not with Israel, but with Palestinian activists and with J Street, which is a anti-government, anti-Israeli government advocacy group here in Washington. So you know he coordinated--
BRENNAN: It's a Jewish lobby group…
LEITER: Well, it's--
BRENNAN: …that is supportive of a different path for Israel.
LEITER: Yeah, yeah. I- I play tennis once a year. That doesn't make me a tennis player. The fact that they call themselves a Jewish organization is- is irrelevant. They're- they're- an advocacy group against the government of Israel. That has to be clear.
BRENNAN: The current government, Netanyahu government.
LEITER: Yes. Yes--
BRENNAN: That's what you mean, the government you work for.
LEITER: And Congressman Khanna, there has been no secret about his antipathy towards the government of Israel as well. So perhaps if he would have coordinated the trip- and then you know to have this incident on Wednesday and wait to release it on Saturday, maybe this had more something to do with his support of- of Graham Platner beforehand and the difficulties he had with that, and trying to shift the focus to something else. Perhaps I'm asking a question.
BRENNAN: Well, we did hear from Congressman Khanna, who said that there was an alert to the embassy on his behalf, and that they asked for the news…
LEITER: --There was not, there was not--
BRENNAN: …to be held until he had left the country, as well.
LEITER: There was a question. There was not an alert. There was a question about visas. That's all. But when we requested that he coordinate the trip with us, he rejected that by basically staying silent. So that's unfortunate. This whole incident is unfortunate. And if- if somebody, it's kind of interesting that somebody wants to declare a presidential run by running off to Israel? Not strange?
BRENNAN: Well, we're going to have to leave it there, sir. There's so much more to talk about with you, but I'm out of time. Thank you for coming.
Absolutely cooked.
On Monday, Khanna was pressed for details about his detention. It was not pretty.
🚨 NEW: Fox News CALLS OUT Ro Khanna for his story on being detained in the West Bank:
— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) July 13, 2026
FOX: You didn't know that entering a restricted military area would get you stopped?
KHANNA: American Congresspeople have been there before.
FOX: With prior coordination.…
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