Democratic Indiana Rep. André Carson refused to say whether or not he agreed with the State Department’s designation of Hamas as a foreign terrorist organization during a Thursday interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Carson was exiting a press conference where he stood alongside union leaders and Democratic colleagues Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Missouri Rep. Cori Bush, Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and California Rep. Ro Khanna to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. The State Department designated Hamas a terrorist group in 1997. (RELATED: Democrats Freak Out Over Biden’s Reported Plans To Bring Back Trump-Era Border Policies)
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“Well I certainly feel like now is the time for us to really talk about the establishment of a proper state for the people of Palestine. This cannot continue, these useless and destructive resolutions cannot continue to go on to gain political points,” Carson said.
“As I’ve said before, I condemn the attack on Oct. 7, but we cannot bully our way into this,” Carson said.
This reporter then pressed Carson further, but he again refused to directly answer the question.
“I agree with the majority of the American people. I think that antisemitism needs to be condemned, I think that Islamophobia needs to be condemned, I certainly think anti-blackness needs to be condemned and I certainly think that this is the time for us to look at our disagreements, look at the critiques on both sides, extract the truths from those critiques and work together toward a workable solution because I fear 2024, this issue will impact elections,” Carson said.
The Biden administration instituted sanctions Wednesday against eight Hamas “officials and facilitators for their actions representing the group’s interests abroad and managing its finances,” State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement. It is the fourth time the administration has taken such actions against Hamas since the Oct. 7 terrorist attack.
“The United States and our allies and partners are steadfast in our commitment to dismantling networks that support Hamas funding streams as part of our continuous effort to prevent and deter its terrorist activity,” Miller said.
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