Christian Smith
Senator Rick Scott (R-Florida) attacked President Biden, calling him part of the Democratic Party’s “pro-Hamas group,” after he threatened to withhold weapons from Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proceeds with an operation in Big scale. invasion of Rafah, in southern Gaza.
Asked on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” about his reaction to Biden’s latest threat, Scott called it “disgusting.”
“He only cares about his election. So he is, we have a pro-Hamas group in the Democratic Party, and he is part of it now,” he later added.
Biden, in an interview with CNN released on Wednesday, warned that it would stop supplying Israel with offensive weapons, including bombs and artillery shells, if Israeli forces launched an invasion of Rafah. The White House has repeatedly urged Netanyahu not to send forces to Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians seek refuge amid the violence.
Netanyahu said the move to Rafah was necessary to go after the leaders of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007 and carried out the October 7 surprise attack on Israel that killed around 1,200 people.
Scott suggested that Biden’s support for humanitarian aid to Gaza continues to empower the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), a key UN agency that provides food, water and shelter to Palestinians in Gaza.
Several Republicans in Congress pushed for UNRWA funding to be suspended following allegations that a dozen of its employees participated in the October 7 Hamas attack.
“[Biden’s] clearly on the side of Hamas,” Scott continued. “I mean, look, what did he want, right? He wanted the aid so he could give it to Gaza, which goes to Hamas, and then we saw yesterday that UNRWA is stealing the aid and selling it. I mean, you knew this was going to happen, we knew this was going to happen.”
The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.
Scott reflected on his recent trip to Israel, where he met with Netanyahu at Gal On, a kibbutz in the south of the country.
“Let’s go out [Osama] Bin Laden in a corner and just retreat because the world doesn’t like the way we’re fighting a war? And they are [Israel] all committed to ensuring that civilians have enough time to get out of Rafah,” Scott said, adding later: “Think about it, I mean, if they attacked America, if someone attacked America, we will say, ‘Oh, no, no. Are we going to go after the people who killed our women and children?’”
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson (La.), in an interview with Politico on Wednesday, said he hoped Biden would be having a “senior moment” when he made the threat. He suggested that Biden’s comments violated what the House speaker saw as promises to secure Johnson’s support for the $95 billion emergency foreign aid package.
“I hope – I believe he’s off script,” Johnson said. “I don’t think that was something the team told him to say. I hope it’s an important moment, because that would be a big departure from what is supposed to be politics there.”
Scott claimed that Biden was primarily interested in aid to Ukraine and Gaza when he pushed for supplemental emergency aid, but did not provide any evidence to support these claims.
“I knew this was going to happen. I said this was going to happen with this, with the supplement, because that’s what he wanted. All he wanted was help for Ukraine. That was all he cared about, and humanitarian. He realized. He didn’t believe in Israel’s help,” Scott said.
