Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday quadrupled her and President Joe Biden's policy on Israel's war with Hamas, despite backlash from progressives in her party.
In an interview with several reporters from the National Association of Black Journalists, Harris asked Politico's Eugene Daniels asked her whether she would implement policy changes regarding U.S. aid to Israel if she became president.
“But what I've heard a lot from you is that neither you nor the president have said they're going to make policy changes. As president, are you going to make specific policy changes to support Israel?” he asked.
Harris deflected.
“We need to get this deal done, and we need to get it done quickly. That's my position, that's my policy. We need to get this deal done,” she said, without elaborating.
“But are there concrete policy changes in how we send weapons, how we interact as allies?” Daniels continued.
Harris then noted that President Joe Biden had suspended the shipment of 2,000 bombs being sent to Israel.
“In Eugene, for example, one of the things we've done that I support is we suspended the 2,000-pound bond, so we used that to have some leverage,” she said.
This is significant given the strong backlash she received from the progressive left after her interview with CNN's Dana Bash, in which she dodged Bash's first question about withholding “some” weapons supplies to Israel, then said “no” when asked a second time about “changing arms policy or anything like that.”
The next day, Ryan Grimm Counterargument points Editor Drop Site News,guest Co-organized by A populist alternative media show Breaking Point Along with regular host Crystal Ball, he zeroed in on the “some” framing of Bash's question.
“The Biden administration has even said it will restrict some weapons, such as 2,000-pound bombs that are used for offensive purposes,” Grimm said.
“People keep saying Harris has better rhetoric and she has more empathy. Where is the empathy when she hasn't actually supported even the smallest of concessions that the Biden administration, her administration, has made?” he asked.
Harris added in her response on Tuesday that she had discussed the need for an agreement with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and regional Arab leaders.
“I won't reveal my private conversations, but I can tell you I have had direct conversations with the prime minister, the president of Israel, the Egyptian leadership, our allies, and I think I have made it very clear that this agreement needs to be reached in the best interest of all the people in the region,” she added.
Harris doubled down on her Biden-Harris agenda during her Bash interview, but tripled down on it during last week's debate with former President Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, the left-wing “Irresponsible” movement, which began in the Democratic primary to protest the administration's handling of the war, has continued even after Harris became the candidate. More than 500,000 Democrats nationwide voted for “Irresponsible” in the primary, and Democrats won by surprising margins in key battleground states such as Michigan and Wisconsin.
These voters are demanding a ceasefire and a change in arms policy, and are threatening to stay home in November.
