Indiana Democrat André Carson invoked the threat of physical force to silence fellow House Democrat Josh Gottheimer.
With the ascension of Mike Johnson to the speakership, the House of Representatives finally got around to conducting some of the business that had piled up since Kevin McCarthy’s ouster. One of the chamber’s first orders of business was to respond, albeit belatedly, to the Hamas-led massacre of Israelis on October 7.
Last week, the House passed a resolution committing the U.S. to “standing with Israel” in its war against “Hamas and other terrorists” and calling on Hamas to cease its attacks on Israel and return all “living hostages.” Hardly the most objectionable series of aspirations, but the language was sufficient to convince nine Democratic members to oppose the resolution while another six registered their dissatisfaction by merely voting present. To this, one of the 412 House members who supported the resolution, Democrat Josh Gottheimer (N.J.), couldn’t contain his revulsion.
“Last night, 15 of my Democratic colleagues voted AGAINST standing with our ally Israel and condemning Hamas terrorists who brutally murdered, raped, and kidnapped babies, children, men, women, and elderly, including Americans,” he posted on social media. “They are despicable and do not speak for our party.”
Gottheimer didn’t pull any rhetorical punches, but his verbiage isn’t out of place within the context of a strongly worded denunciation. To hear Democratic representative André Carson (Ind.) tell it, however, these were literally fighting words.
“I think he’s shown himself to be very emotional. Like most cowardly people, when you confront them, they’re afraid. I’m unafraid of the guy. And if he wants to call us despicable, I’m saying he’s a coward and he’s a punk,” Carson told CNN’s Manu Raju. “And if he wants to play some kind of tough guy or gangster, we can handle it like gentlemen, or we can get into something else.”
Carson finds himself in the company of “Squad” members like Cori Bush, Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Ilhan Omar in voting against the nominally pro-Israel resolution, but Carson’s instinct to invoke the threat of physical force to silence Gottheimer puts him in another category. This is the language to which thugs appeal. It is in keeping with the effort to intimidate Israel’s supporters into silence via the menacing demonstrations in the streets and on college campuses. This is the message that is conveyed by the campaign aimed at tearing down images of kidnapped Israeli children being held hostage by Hamas — an expression of the urge to physically purge the landscape of reminders that Israel and its citizens are the victims.
Carson’s cry-bully act is familiar. It combines the special pleading of the allegedly victimized and oppressed with absolute confidence in their capacity to retaliate disproportionately and without fear of consequence. The aim is not to convince an adversary with reason or cajole with the support of overwhelming social consensus. Rather, the objective is to make their opponents think twice about picking fights with the social-justice Left. After all, someone with fewer scruples than Carson only has to get lucky once.
His remarks are repugnant, particularly given the appeals to public sympathy the so-called Squad has made following the influx of genuinely frightening threats these members have received since the October 7 attacks. The intimidation tactics to which these members have been subjected are abhorrent, and they deserve to be condemned. But if Israel’s critics in the House were truly interested in taking the national temperature down, this isn’t how they’d go about it. Indeed, Carson’s remarks suggest he knows full well which side of the Israel issue deserves to be afraid.