During a Democratic Party fundraiser in Detroit this past Saturday, Vice-President Kamala Harris was confronted by a female heckler who claimed Israel was engaging in genocide. Harris responded to the heckler in this way:
For the past eight months, President Biden and I have been working every day to bring this conflict — I’m speaking right now. I value and respect your voice, but I’m speaking right now.
Although order was restored, I think the Vice-President sent the wrong message to the heckler, audience and the public.
Let's keep in mind that Harris is publicly stating she values and respects the voice of a woman who claims Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Suppose this woman had instead heckled Harris on the question of abortion - something the VP has been vocal about in recent weeks. I simply cannot imagine Harris telling an anti-abortion activist that she values and respects her voice.
It is also worth noting that President Biden has rejected claims Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. If this is the stated position of the Biden Administration, then the Vice-President ought to have amplified the White House position and told the heckler she was wrong.
I realize that in so doing Harris might have risked a backlash among some within her own party. To which I say a leader is never wrong for saying the right thing even if it isn't the popular thing. It could have been something along the lines of when the late John McCain got booed for rebuking an audience member at a rally for calling Barack Obama "an Arab" during the 2008 presidential campaign. But I think Harris lacks McCain's firm and steely resolve.
Indeed, let us go back to September 2021 when during a speech at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, a student claimed Israel was committing "ethnic genocide". To which Harris told the student she was "glad" she spoke up adding, "Your voice, your perspective, your experience, your truth cannot be suppressed, and it must be heard." Harris ended up doing a lot of damage control with her then Press Secretary Symone Sanders stating, “The vice president strongly disagrees with the student’s characterization of Israel.”
Well, it might have been helpful had Harris made that position clear to the student instead of telling the student "her truth cannot be suppressed."
Have I mentioned that I cannot stand it when someone utters the phrase your "your truth"?
Needless to say, Harris failed yet again last Saturday night to rebuke defamatory claims of Israeli genocide. Even though I will cast a ballot for her this November, shame on her.
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