Jayapal blasts Democrat’s challenge to Biden but says president needs ‘higher moral place’ on Israel
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Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington blasted a fellow House Democrat who is running against President Biden but made the case that the president needs to shift his stance on Israel’s war against Hamas.
Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota launched a bid for the Democratic nomination last week, arguing that Mr. Biden is too old to serve a second, four-year term.
“Listen, my colleague Dean Phillips, everyone’s got the right to run, but I’m sorry, I have no idea what he is running on that is different from what President Biden is running on,” Ms. Jayapal, who chairs the congressional Progressive Caucus, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “He took the same bold stances that President Biden has taken in this country on domestic issues. And I really don’t see what he is doing.”
Ms. Jayapal is part of a group of liberals in Congress who have been critical of U.S. support for Israel in its counterattack against Hamas that has claimed the lives of thousands of civilians. She said Mr. Biden “needs to call us to a higher moral place.”
“He is, I think, going to be challenged to explain an issue of this moral significance to people,” Ms. Jayapal said. “The American people are actually quite far away from where the president and even Congress — the majority of Congress — has been on Israel and Gaza. They support the right for Israel to defend itself, to exist. But they do not support a war crime exchanged for another war crime.”
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