The White House strongly denounced young Democrat protesters referring to President Joe Biden as “Genocide Joe” for his staunch support of Israel in its fight against Hamas.
Speaking with New York Post reporter Steve Nelson, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby called the nickname “Genocide Joe” inappropriate while standing on the side of free speech.
“We’re not worried about nicknames and bumper stickers. I mean, it’s First Amendment free speech. The president’s focused on … making sure that we can continue to support Israel as they fight a terrible terrorist group, Hamas,” Kirby said.
Kirby said that the term “genocide” has been misapplied, given that Hamas wants the extermination of Jews.
“People can say what they want on the sidewalk, and we respect that. That’s what the First Amendment is about. But this word genocide is getting thrown around in a pretty inappropriate way by lots of different folks,” he said.
“What Hamas wants, make no mistake about it, is genocide. They want to wipe Israel off the map. They’ve said so publicly on more than one occasion, in fact, just recently. And they’ve said that they’re not going to stop,” he added.
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Kirby warned that terrorists would continue to commit atrocities like October 7 “again and again and again.” He also addressed the high amounts of civilian deaths in Gaza while asserting that Israel was “not trying to wipe the Palestinian people off the map.”
“Israel’s trying to defend itself against a genocidal terrorist threat. So if we’re going to start using that word, fine, let’s use it appropriately,” he said.
As the New Yorker recently noted, the far-left has been coming hard against Biden for his unwavering support of Israel.
“Like all crises, the war has nonetheless revealed something important about our politics—a rift between the Democrats’ young and increasingly left-leaning base and an old-fashioned liberal of a President who is turning eighty-one on Monday,” it noted.
“A party divided against itself will only have a harder time standing up against Trump—or Xi for that matter,” it added. “Biden, as the drama of recent weeks has reinforced, is and will remain a proud and unyielding son of the twentieth century. Is it enough, in this age of TikTok, to give him another go?”
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Paul Roland Bois directed the award-winning feature film, EXEMPLUM, which can be viewed for FREE on YouTube or Tubi. A high-quality, ad-free stream can also be purchased on Google Play or Vimeo on Demand. Follow him on Twitter @prolandfilms or Instagram @prolandfilms.