On Thursday’s edition of NBC’s “MTP Now,” Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) stated that while he agrees with President Joe Biden’s assessment that Israel is not responsible for the Gaza hospital blast, he’ll leave it up to Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) whether they should apologize for and take down their posts blaming Israel and that he understands why Tlaib and Omar rushed to blame Israel before there was an investigation “because there are people who thought that it had come from that source.”
Host Kristen Welker asked, “Congressman, I want to ask you about one other issue, some tweets by your fellow members of Congress, Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar. They have tweets up saying that Israel is to blame for the hospital blast in Gaza. Those tweets have not yet been removed despite U.S. intelligence, an assessment which shows it was a rocket misfire from a militant Palestinian group in the region. Do you think your Democratic colleagues should delete those tweets and should they apologize?”
Clyburn responded, “I’m going to leave it all up to them. I do not pass judgment on that sort of thing. I stand with the President of the United States. Joe Biden made it very clear that he was there in Israel, he had seen all of the videos and the other pictures of what may or may not have happened, and he came to the conclusion that this was an error on the part of a third party to this conflict. And I am going to stand squarely with the President of the United States. We should have one voice when it comes to our foreign policy.”
Welker followed up, “So, given that, was it appropriate for your two colleagues to tweet out something that runs counter to what the President said and to U.S. intelligence, Congressman?”
Clyburn answered, “You implied that those tweets went out before the investigations were made. And if they did go out before the investigations were made, I understand that, because there are people who thought that it had come from that source. The investigations have been made, and they indicate that it may not have been. And I’ll let them decide whether or not their tweets ought to be taken down. I don’t do a whole lot of tweeting, especially when it comes to issues involving national security and our relationships with our allies around the world.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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