Jean-Pierre Refuses To Condemn Activists Destroying Posters Of Kidnapped Israelis
During Tuesday’s press conference, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to condemn hundreds of anti-Israel activists and outspoken antisemites who have been caught on video pulling down posters of Israeli nationals who were kidnapped in the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack.
People have put up posters of the kidnapped men, women and children in cities across the world — although most of them were put up in the U.S. and Europe. A massive number of video clips have since emerged of anti-Israel activists and blatant antisemites ripping down the posters soon after they were put up.
Jean-Pierre was asked about the White House’s response to the matter during Tuesday’s press conference — specifically whether the Biden administration believes the people who are pulling down the posters “should be condemned” or whether they believe that tearing down the posters constitutes a form of “peaceful protest.”
“Look, I — eh… I’ve sort of kind of seen the reporting here and there, I think it was from last week, right?” Jean-Pierre replied.
The reporter immediately responded by pointing out that “there’s been like 30 million videos that have gone around on this” — meaning that it’s nearly impossible that the White House hasn’t been aware of the issue and discussed it.
“No, I know. I hear you. I hear you,” Jean-Pierre responded. “I’m just not going to. We’re not going to, I’m not going —”
The reporter pushed back again, asking her to give an answer as to whether the White House believes people should be tearing down posters of Israelis currently being held hostage by terrorists — to which Jean-Pierre responded, “I’m just not going to go into specifics on that particular thing.”
She went on to try to dismiss the issue, saying that there are “real violent protests and threats that are happening right now” that the Biden administration is focused on.
Despite being press again on the matter, Jean-Pierre continued to refuse to answer the question.
However, the press secretary received a lot of backlash online for her refusal to condemn individuals who were effectively covering up the actions of Hamas by removing reminders of their victims — which prompted Jean-Pierre to publish a post on social media finally condemning the incidents.
“As a result of the Hamas terrorist attacks, communities and families are grieving. For the past month, the families of those who have been taken hostage have lived in agony. Tearing down pictures of their loved ones – who are being held hostage by Hamas – is wrong and hurtful,” Jean-Pierre wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, later Tuesday afternoon.
