“Smoke Those Terrorists”: GOP Candidates Compete to Be Biggest Israel Hawk

Not a single Republican presidential candidate thinks Benjamin Netanyahu has gone far enough in his assault on Gaza.

During the Republican presidential debate on Wednesday, each candidate was asked what advice they would give the Israeli prime minister if they were president right now.

“I would tell Bibi finish the job once and for all with these butchers Hamas,” said Ron DeSantis. “I’m sick of hearing the media, I’m sick of hearing other people blame Israel just for defending itself. We will stand with Israel, in word and in deed, in private and in public.”

“Would you consider humanitarian pause?” NBC moderator Lester Holt then asked Nikki Haley.

“The first thing I said to [Netanyahu] when it happened was I said, ‘Finish them. Finish them,’” she replied, before stressing that we need to “support Israel with whatever they need whenever they need it.”

Vivek Ramaswamy went even further: “What I would tell Bibi is that Israel has the right and the responsibility to defend itself. I would tell him to smoke those terrorists on the southern border. And I would tell him as president of the United States I’ll be smoking the terrorists on our southern border.”

“You have the responsibility and right to wipe Hamas off the map and we will be with you,” added Tim Scott. “I would say to Biden diplomacy only is a weak strategy. Appeasement leads to war.”

The South Carolina senator went on to blame the conflict on Joe Biden and Barack Obama’s diplomacy with Iran—and argue for strikes on the country.

“There is blood dripping from the hands of President Obama and President Biden, he said. “You actually have to cut off the head of the snake, and the head of the snake is Iran and not simply their proxies.… You cannot negotiate with evil. You have to destroy it.”

Christie, for his part, at least noted that it is essential to work with both sides to resolve the conflict, but he too called for supporting Israel. “The first thing I would say to Prime Minister Netanyahu is pretty simple: America is here no matter what it is you need at any time to preserve the state of Israel.”

Vivek Ramaswamy kicked off the GOP’s third presidential debate with a flurry of insane back-to-back comments Wednesday night.

“We’ve become a party of losers,” Ramaswamy lamented, referring to conservatives’ sweeping loss during Tuesday’s off-year elections in Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio.

In the same breath, Ramaswamy demanded someone take responsibility for the failure, calling for the resignation of the party’s chairman, Ronna McDaniel.

The entrepreneur then continued to attack the NBC moderators, proposing that they should be replaced by Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, and Elon Musk—for ratings’ sake.

Ramaswamy also lobbed an accusation at NBC News anchor Kristen Welker, calling her a member of the “corrupt media establishment,” before throwing one last bomb into his two-minute answer by insisting the 2020 presidential election was rigged.

Donald Trump said Wednesday that he would consider picking Tucker Carlson as his running mate, revealing a potential ticket of your worst nightmares.

During an interview on the conservative podcast The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show, the eponymous hosts asked Trump if he would consider Carlson for vice president.

“I like Tucker a lot! I guess I would, I think I say I would,” Trump said. “He’s got great common sense.”

Trump, the Republican front-runner, does seem to genuinely like Carlson. Trump has refused to participate in the primary debates, and during the first one, he chose to air an interview with Carlson instead. Trump apparently also decided to take the Covid-19 pandemic seriously after Carlson urged him to do so.

But it’s unclear how the pair’s dynamic would work in the long run. When Fox was sued by Dominion Voting Systems, the electronic voting machine maker released troves of personal messages sent by the network’s on-screen talent. Among them were messages from Carlson proclaiming just how much he hates Trump.

Just two days before January 6, 2021, the erstwhile Fox host texted someone about Trump’s time in office. “We’re all pretending we’ve got a lot to show for it, because admitting what a disaster it’s been is too tough to digest,” Carlson said. “But come on. There really isn’t an upside to Trump.”

Carlson also said that Trump was only good at “destroying things.”

“We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can’t wait,” he texted, adding, “I hate him passionately.”

Republicans—and 22 Democrats—voted to censure Representative Rashida Tlaib on Tuesday, formally reprimanding the Michigan Democrat for her vocal support of a cease-fire in the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. But was what she said any more inflammatory than the GOP’s own rhetoric around the war?

Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress, drew the ire of the Republican caucus for attending an October 17 Jewish-led sit-in on Capitol Hill calling for peace between Israel and Palestine. Since then, Republicans have called Tlaib a terrorist and claimed she promotes the destruction of Israel. They’ve also lambasted her for describing the chant “from the river to the sea” as an “aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence.”

Here are some of the things her Republican colleagues have said:

Max Miller: “We’re going to turn that into a parking lot.”

In an October interview with The Ingraham Angle, Ohio Representative Max Miller attacked the presence of a Palestinian flag outside Tlaib’s office while glibly suggesting that the nation would be “eviscerated.”

“I don’t even want to call it the Palestinian flag because they’re not a state, they’re a territory, that’s about to probably get eviscerated and go away here shortly, as we’re going to turn that into a parking lot,” Miller said.

“For once, can people say they condemn calls to completely wipe out Palestinians? It shouldn’t be hard to condemn genocidal rhetoric,” slapped back Representative Ilhan Omar, retweeting Miller’s comments.

Brian Mast compared Palestinians to “Nazi civilians.”

Last week, Florida Representative Brian Mast compared “Palestinian civilians” to “Nazi civilians.”

“There is not this far stretch to say there are very few innocent Palestinian civilians,” Mast said on the House floor last Wednesday.

A Democratic resolution to censure Mast has been put on hold.

Lindsey Graham: “Level the place.”

Republicans on the other side of Congress have proved equally incendiary in their analysis of the conflict. In an appearance on Fox News’s Hannity, Senator Lindsey Graham said that Israel should “level the place.”

“We’re in a religious war here. I am with Israel,” Graham said. “Do whatever the hell you have to do to defend yourself. Level the place.”

During a segment on CNN’s NewsNight earlier this month, Graham said there’s “no limit” to the amount of civilian deaths that would lead him to question Israel’s military directive.

Tom Cotton: Israel can “bounce the rubble in Gaza.”

In an interview with Shannon Beam on Fox News Sunday, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton argued that the mass-bombing of Palestinian women and children is a justified counterattack since Hamas militants attacked women and children in the October 7 massacre in southern Israel.

“As far as I’m concerned, Israel can bounce the rubble in Gaza,” Cotton said, voicing his support should the U.S. ally choose to assault already devastated areas.

This is nowhere near a comprehensive list—and none of these members have been censured. Republicans have also taken their opinions a step further, rallying behind a bill introduced last week by Representative Ryan Zinke that would revoke the visas and refugee status of a number of Palestinians living in the U.S.

In the month since Hamas militants killed 1,400 Israeli civilians in the October 7 massacre, more than 10,000 Palestinian lives have been lost in the conflict, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Ivanka Trump testified Wednesday in her family’s New York business fraud trial. But before she took the stand, protesters outside the courthouse made their feelings about her clear.

Ivanka was initially listed as a co-defendant in the lawsuit alongside her father and brothers when New York Attorney General Letitia James filed the suit in September 2022. But an appeals court dismissed the claims against her in June, ruling that the statute of limitations on her alleged involvement had run out.

The oldest Trump daughter was still called to testify about the Trump Organization’s business practices, though. As she walked up to the courthouse, a crowd of protesters began to chant, “Crime family!”

Trump did not acknowledge the protesters, who continued to chant as she entered the building. Once she took the stand, she promptly had to explain an email exchange that undermined her family’s entire defense.

James accused Donald Trump and his allies of fraudulently inflating the value of their real estate assets to get more favorable terms on bank loans. She alleges that Trump claimed his Trump Tower apartment in Manhattan was three times its actual size and worth $327 million. No New York City apartment has ever sold for that much.

He also valued Mar-a-Lago far more than its actual worth. Presiding Judge Arthur Engoron noted in October that Trump’s estimates went as high as 2,300 percent more than the Palm Beach County tax appraiser’s valuation.

The trial is only to set damages, because Judge Arthur Engoron determined in September that Trump committed fraud. Engoron ordered that all Trump’s New York business certificates be canceled, making it nearly impossible to do business in the state and effectively killing the Trump Organization.