As Matt reported on Wednesday, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) hysterically repeated the falsehood that Israel was responsible for a blast that occurred at a hospital in Gaza on Tuesday, when it was, in reality, determined to be the result of a misfire by terrorists in the Gaza Strip. This happened the same day that protesters demanding a ceasefire stormed the Cannon House building. As of Thursday, Tlaib's posts on X repeating the same debunked narratives are still up, despite being hit with Community Notes multiple times.
"Rashida Tlaib" and "Tlaib" have been trending on X from Wednesday into Thursday as a result of her posts and her comments.
Even before Tlaib's unhinged rant full of falsehoods on Wednesday, there were calls for her to address her false claims. From the Senate floor, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) addressed the post, discussing it as a matter of "holding our members accountable here on Capitol Hill," likening the post's language to "false statements we've seen from Hamas and other groups who want to foment death and hate in the region."
Tlaib's published her comments on X on Tuesday, just a few hours after the blast, with Tillis stressing her comments came "before we knew anything, before any of us could have possibly had a secure briefing, before we had gotten an assessment from the President of the United States, or any of our intelligence sources, before we could go down to the SCIF and understand any of the details."
As Tillis said, "you'd think that had come from a member of Hamas," before uncovering the posterboard and revealing it to actually be from Tlaib. "If that member of Congress wants to take responsibility for the protests that we now see in Beirut, good on you, and Jordan, and Oman, and in Egypt," Tillis continued, speaking out on the unrest sparked in other parts of the world by false reports of Israeli responsibility for the explosion. "This sort of leadership, or failure of leadership, has no place on Capitol Hill."
As is typical for the mainstream media, ABC News made a post with the 'Republicans pounce' angle. Their report cited examples from Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK).
Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib refused to apologize Wednesday for saying Tuesday that Israel is to blame for the hospital explosion that day in Gaza, an accusation that sparked political backlash against Tlaib from Republicans as Israel denies fault. https://t.co/IP0oZbbsPX
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) October 18, 2023
It took until the 16th and 17th paragraphs of the article for ABC News to acknowledge the Biden administration's determination that Israel was not responsible for the hospital blast.
Such an acknowledgment comes only after a rather curious framing of Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar's (D-MN) anti-Israel positions:
The backlash also showed continuing fault lines within the Democratic Party on Israel, with the two representatives standing out in criticizing Israel's government as other Democrats have said they do not believe Israel was responsible for the explosion.
Tlaib and Omar were the first two Muslim women elected to Congress and have been among Israel's strongest critics. Their comments have at times been alleged by colleagues and others in congressional leadership to be antisemitic. Some of the criticism leveled against Tlaib and Omar over past comments has also been criticized as including Islamophobic or racist rhetoric.
It was not merely Republicans, though, who called out Tlaib for doubling down on her debunked lies about the explosion at a hospital in Gaza. As the body and even subheading of the ABC News piece acknowledges, Democratic members have called out the false narrative as well. Those mentioned by name include Reps. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ).
Critics falsely accused Israel of deliberately bombing a hospital before the facts were known.
— Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) October 18, 2023
Did any of these critics condemn Islamic Jihad for causing the hospital explosion? Did any retract the false accusation?
Could it be that these critics are driven not by a love of…
Erroneous reports and some Members of Congress took the word of Hamas terrorists as truth following the horrific Al-Ahli Arab Hospital bombing.
— Rep Josh Gottheimer (@RepJoshG) October 18, 2023
They should remove their posts, update their headlines, and remember not to trust terrorists who brutally murdered innocent civilians.
There were other House Democrats who made similar posts as well, including Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL). He also posted about Wednesday's events, having quite a different take compared to Tlaib and her fellow squad members.
My democratic colleagues who blamed Israel should take down their posts. https://t.co/0Gl4swf4ul
— Jared Moskowitz 🟧 (@JaredEMoskowitz) October 17, 2023
Jews are NEVER going back to the policy of appeasement.
— Jared Moskowitz 🟧 (@JaredEMoskowitz) October 18, 2023
Appeasement means no more Jews. https://t.co/rDKY99CIJy
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) also called out issues with furthering such a false narrative, though he specifically directed his ire towards "news organizations" and, in a later post, The Los Angeles Times, rather than fellow members of Congress such as Tlaib.
News organizations that immediately took the word of a Hamas controlled entity falsely accusing Israel of striking the hospital should apologize. These news organizations not only got it wrong, their rush to judgement caused other nations to wrongly interpret the hospital blast. https://t.co/gbUvDK4yeq
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) October 19, 2023
Below is today’s lead headline at @latimes. The Times simply accepts what terrorist organization Hamas said even though it’s false. This both sides journalism is factually wrong. A true headline would say “Rage spreads over Gaza hospital blast amid false narrative from Hamas.” pic.twitter.com/Uiv77e9IqF
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) October 19, 2023
There is, however, as our friends at Twitchy highlighted — citing coverage from National Review's John McCormack — some deafening silence when it comes to Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).
Pelosi, in fact, even claimed that "I don’t know who’s doing what. I really haven’t paid attention to other members," while Jeffries similarly said "I haven’t seen those comments."
Let's not forget that Pelosi has had a habit of defending Squad members. Back in 2019, in response to Omar's antisemitic remarks, then Speaker Pelosi claimed "I do not believe she understood the full weight of the words."
As McCormack's report also noted, Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), who is running for U.S. Senate, provided a statement to National Review saying that "Rashida Tlaib should stop spreading misinformation."
It's worth noting that Tlaib's post is actually a repost from Imam Omar Suleiman, who has made other anti-Israel posts since Hamas terrorists attacked the country on October 7, resulting in the bloodiest day in Israel's history and the most Jews being killed since the Holocaust.
As Townhall covered at the time last week, citing reports from the Washington Free Beacon, Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX) — who is running to challenge Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) next November — posted a photo of him and Suleiman in 2019, which also offered his support for the imam. Despite having issued statements in support of Israel in the immediate aftermath of the attack, Allred has been mostly quiet of late, including any statements about Tlaib's false narrative.
Tillis and Mullins aren't the only senators to vocally call out Tlaib, either. She's facing opposition from her own party as well, with statements from Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), in the form of multiple threads posted to his official X account.
I grieve for every innocent person and brave Israeli soldier killed since Hamas started this war.
— Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) October 18, 2023
If not for the horrific attacks by Hamas terrorists, thousands of innocent Israelis and Palestinians would still be alive today.
Now is not the time to talk about a ceasefire. We must support Israel in efforts to eliminate the Hamas terrorists who slaughtered innocent men, women, and children.
— Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) October 18, 2023
Hamas does not want peace, they want to destroy Israel. We can talk about a ceasefire after Hamas is neutralized.
I will always stand with Israel and look forward to supporting any military, intelligence, or humanitarian aid to get the job done.
— Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) October 18, 2023
Tlaib's post and remarks could create an issue for Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a fellow Democrat and Michigander who is running to replace retiring Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI). Especially because Tlaib's remarks called out her fellow Democratic members for "policing" her anti-Israel and antisemitic claims, saying "as an American I am ashamed, I am ashamed" that they would dare to defend Israel and push back on her falsehoods.
Although Tlaib did not call out Slotkin by name in those remarks, that hasn't stopped the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) from tying the two together.
Does former Middle East analyst for the CIA Elissa Slotkin have thoughts on this? https://t.co/WodztOF0Cy
— Torunn Sinclair (@TorunnSinclair) October 19, 2023
WATCH: @ElissaSlotkin pretends to take a phone call when asked why she called pro-Hamas congresswoman Rashida Tlaib a "badass" #MISEN pic.twitter.com/Whme0X3feJ
— Senate Republicans (@NRSC) October 13, 2023
Did @ElissaSlotkin speak after her again? https://t.co/Rx1CIKbA9G pic.twitter.com/tBo1mc7bs1
— Senate Republicans (@NRSC) October 18, 2023
Support for Israel is largely seen as a bipartisan issue both in Congress and with the American people overall, though it's an area where Democrats can find themselves in disarray when the conference includes Tlaib and Omar, but also other Squad members such as Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Cori Bush (D-MO), and Summer Lee (D-PA).
Despite this, and while she herself previously called the anti-Israeli, antisemitic remarks from the unnamed Squad members "repugnant," among other aptly harsh labels, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed that they were "not sensing division" in the Democratic Party over support for Israel.
REPORTER: "Does [Biden] feel that his party is supporting him [in assisting Israel]? Or does he sense division?"
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 12, 2023
JEAN-PIERRE: "We're not sensing division." pic.twitter.com/vEWMjH1nLD
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