President Joe Biden told the Democratic National Convention on Monday evening that the pro-Palestinian protesters “on the street” outside — who included supporters of Hamas, and who shouted antisemitic slogans — “have a point.”
Biden at the DNC: "Those protestors outside have a point."
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) August 20, 2024
The protestors: "I am Hamas," "Biden burn in hell" pic.twitter.com/DCVCmGlmVq
As Breitbart News reported, thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters rallied and marched near the convention at the United Center.
Some waved Hamas flags; many chanted slogans calling for the total destruction of Israel and said “Zionists” — meaning the majority of Jews — were not “welcome” in their procession or in the city of Chicago itself.
A man with a “Fuck Israel” t-shirt, with the swastika replacing the letter “s,” attaches the Hamas flag to a flagpole at a pro-Palestinian rally outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. August 19, 2024 (Joel Pollak / Breitbart News)
One protester wore a swastika. Many chanted against Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and the Democrats.
"Those protesters out in the street -- they have a point." @JoeBiden #DNC2024CHICAGO
— Joel Pollak (@joelpollak) August 20, 2024
Here they are, with the Hamas flag, earlier today. pic.twitter.com/ryiRZAFKOW
Biden never mentioned the word “Israel” once, but talked about the Palestinians, and empathized with the protests.
He claimed, falsely, to have written a “peace treaty” to end the ongoing war in Gaza; in fact, Hamas has never agreed to “peace” with Israel, and has merely considered releasing some Israeli hostages if Israel agrees to stop fighting back.
Biden said:
And we’ll keep working to bring hostages home and end the war in Gaza and bring peace and security to the Middle East. As you know, I wrote a peace treaty [sic] for Gaza. A few days ago, I put forward a proposal that brought us closer to doing that than we’ve done since October 7th. We’re working around the clock, my Secretary of State, to prevent a wider war and reunite hostages with their families and surge humanitarian health and food assistance into Gaza now, to end the civilian suffering of the Palestinian people and finally, finally, finally deliver a ceasefire and end this war.
Those protesters out in the street, they have a point. A lot of innocent people are being killed on both sides.
According to Fox News, the line about the protesters having a “point” was not in Biden’s prepared text. He added that in because that is how he feels — but he did not add a line about Israel or even mention Israeli victims of terror.
🚨 Joe Biden’s comment that the radical pro-Hamas DNC protestors “have a point” was NOT SCRIPTED on the teleprompter! pic.twitter.com/CCMCXCruDR
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 20, 2024
Ironically, Biden had used the “very fine people” hoax earlier in his speech, falsely claiming that Trump praised neo-Nazis in the Charlottesville riots of 2017. Trump had, in fact, condemned the neo-Nazis “totally” while saying that the non-violent protesters on both sides of the issue of the removal of a statue were good people.
Biden praised the pro-Palestinian protesters without condemning any of them — certainly not the pro-Hamas, antisemitic participants.
The protest outside the convention center turned violent at once stage, with demonstrators breaking through the steel fence around the United Center and shaking it vigorously before confronting police. Several protesters were arrested.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of “”The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.