Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) appeared on CNN on Sunday and was pressed about her lack of condemnation of Hamas. Specifically, Jayapal and other Democrats in the "ceasefire now" caucus have refused to speak against the rapes that the terrorist organization carried out during its October 7th attack.
When Dana Bash brought it up, Jayapal clashed with her over the topic, with the congresswoman instead calling for a "balanced" approach.
“I’ve seen a lot of Progressive women. Generally speaking, they’re quick to defend women’s rights and to speak out against using rape as a weapon of war, but downright silent on what we saw on October 7th and what might be happening inside Gaza right now to these hostages.”
“Why is that?” Bash asked Jayapal.
“I don’t know that that’s true,” Jayapal said. “I think we always talk about the impact of war on women in particular.”
Jayapal insisted that she has “absolutely” kept the topic in mind since Oct. 7 “and I’ve condemned what Hamas has done.”
“Specifically against women?” Bash asked.
“Of course!” Jayapal responded. From there, though, she pivoted to the scrutiny Israel has received over the unprecedented civilian death toll in Gaza while the war against Hamas continues.
All Bash was fishing for was a direct condemnation of Hamas raping women. Jayapal, ever the far-left intersectional warrior, sees Jews as oppressors, though. That won't allow her to just speak clearly, and she quickly tried to turn the conversation back to condemning Israel.
To Bash's credit, she wasn't having it. She retorted that she was speaking about Hamas and wanted an answer on that front. Jayapal then equivocated again, calling for a "balanced" approach to condemning Palestinian actions. She also cited the Hamas-provided death toll number of 15,000. As RedState has noted many times, that total makes little sense and would be impossible to garner through actual means of recovery. People have certainly died, but the "Gaza Health Ministry" death totals that are released within hours (or sometimes minutes) of an air strike are obviously not accurate.
Jayapal's answer to the pushback by Bash was to claim she doesn't "want this to be the hierarchies of oppression."
“And it’s horrible,” said Bash, “but you don’t see Israeli soldiers raping Palestinian women.
“I don’t want this to be the hierarchies of oppression,” Jayapal retorted. She continued to warn about the humanitarian crisis caused by the conflict in Gaza, saying “this is not the way that we are going to beat terrorism.”
What a grotesque thing to say when confronted with the rape and mutilation of women. It's also clearly false, given Democrats always bring up a hierarchy of oppression when formulating any part of their worldview. When it comes to terrorists raping Jews, though, suddenly, they don't want to specify. What a coincidence, right?
The simple answer is probably the right one. Do with Jayapal's comments what you will.