President Biden was lambasted overnight after critics drew comparisons between his comments on anti-Israel protesters and comments by former President Trump he has long criticized.
“Those, those protesters out in the street, they have a point,” Biden said Monday at the Democratic National Committee – referring to anti-Israel protesters who converged on police fencing outside the United Center in Chicago throughout the day.
“A lot of innocent people are being killed on both sides.”
Biden has repeatedly invoked 2017 antisemitic violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, when criticizing Trump – which the latter has dubbed the “very fine people hoax.”
BIDEN SAYS DNC ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTERS ‘HAVE A POINT’
Neo-Nazis, Alt-Right and White supremacists take part on the night before the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. White supremacists march with tiki torches on the University of Virginia campus. (Zach D Roberts/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
After torch-bearing bigots descended upon Thomas Jefferson’s hometown that year, and a paralegal was killed in the melee, Trump said there were “very fine people on both sides.” He has since maintained he was comparing a local group opposed to the destruction of the city’s Gen. Robert E. Lee statue and those seeking its removal.
Trump and others have suggested the antisemitic gang co-opted the position of the peaceful locals opposed to the desecration of their home-state Confederate general. The statue was ultimately melted down.
“Biden just gave the Hamas/Israeli conflict a very fine people on ‘both sides’-type line. Disgraceful,” said former McConnell adviser Scott Jennings in response.
Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, wrote on X, “And just like that, Joe Biden legitimizes Nazis.”
“[That’s s]omething he falsely accused Trump of doing earlier in his speech.”
TRUMP CONDEMNS ‘BRAINWASHED’ ANTI-ISRAEL MOB, QUESTIONS SCHUMER’S SILENCE
People take part in the March on the DNC in Chicago on Monday, Aug. 19 2024. Pro-Hamas demonstrators have descended on the Windy City to protest the government’s handling of the conflict in the Middle East. (Fox News Digital)
Fox News contributor Mark Thiessen pointed out that Biden’s defense of the anti-Israel mob and the latest condemnation of Trump regarding Charlottesville were almost simultaneous.
During Biden’s only debate appearance prior to backing out of the Democratic nomination, Trump said, “that story has been totally wiped out – he says he ran because of Charlottesville – he didn’t run because of Charlottesville: He ran because it was his last chance [to be president].”
On X, the New Mexico Republican Party flagged Biden’s comments against a backdrop of photos and videos of protesters, including a throng chanting “DNC, go home – Or we’ll bring the war home.”
Meanwhile, former Trump speechwriter Stephen Miller said it showed Biden is “leaning fully into the Charlottesville Hoax,” going on to call it the most “debunked, disproven and discredited hoax in existence.”
Miller, now the president of America First Legal, said the president is deliberately “stirring up hatred” only weeks after Trump was nearly assassinated.
“[It] is beyond vile, it’s psychotic,” he said. “It’s their pretext for authoritarianism.”
British American conservative writer Ian Haworth also expressed incredulity at Biden’s comment, writing on X how the president said protesters “have a point.”
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“The ones wearing Hamas headbands, waving Hezbollah flags, and screaming ‘intifada’? This from a man who claims to be a Zionist.”
“This should be Biden’s ‘fine people on both sides’ moment with one difference: he actually said it,” Haworth added, noting Trump’s characterization was to that of the Lee statuary proponents.
New York City radio host Mark Simone distilled Biden’s contrasting statements further.
“So the only one saying there were fine people on the Nazi side was Joe Biden,” Simone said.