Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Thursday condemned protesters who burned the American flag and expressed anti-Israel sentiments near the U.S. Capitol to protest an address from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Schumer, the nation’s highest-ranking Jewish lawmaker, was the last of the top congressional leaders to denounce the demonstration nearly 24 hours after it occurred outside of Union Station on Capitol Hill.
“What happened at Union Station was vile, offensive, wrong,” Schumer posted on social media. “Hamas is a terrorist organization. Exalting them and burning Union Station’s American flag is disgraceful. Defacing public property is illegal. Hateful, antisemitic messages and threats against Jews have no place here.”
Pro-Palestinian protesters, some of whom espoused support for Hamas with flags and graffiti on statues, burned American flags erected outside the popular Union Station travel hub and replaced them with Palestinian ones. Some altercations turned violent when police intervened to quell the vandalism and arrest individuals, including some demonstrators who attempted to physically drag officers away.
The White House and Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, denounced what Harris labeled “unpatriotic protesters.”
“I condemn the burning of the American flag,” she said in a statement. “That flag is a symbol of our highest ideals as a nation and represents the promise of America. It should never be desecrated in that way.”
Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators swarmed the streets of the nation’s capital on Wednesday. At times, police said they were forced to deploy deterrents like pepper spray against agitators who threatened security perimeters around the Capitol, where Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress.
U.S. Capitol Police and D.C. Metropolitan Police were assisted by officers from other agencies in preparation for the protests, including as far away as the New York Police Department.
In addition to burning the American flag, demonstrators burned Israeli flags, chanted “Allahu Akbar,” graffitied a Christopher Columbus statue with “Hamas is coming,” and burned an effigy of Netanyahu.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) urged federal prosecutors on Thursday to pursue charges against those who broke the law with “equal vigor” to cases from the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
“My view has always been that when extremists violate our nation’s capital, the government should throw the book at them — no matter their motivation, no matter their politics,” McConnell said.
Roughly 100 House Democrats and more than two dozen Senate Democrats boycotted Netanyahu’s speech to protest his handling of the war in Gaza. Schumer attended, but he and Netanyahu declined to embrace with a handshake and simply nodded to one another.
Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD), prior to Schumer’s condemnation, accused Democrats of “running scared” from their constituency.
“I think it’s internal Democrat politics. I think they’re afraid of those voters,” Thune said. “I just think they are running scared of that constituency in Michigan and other places around the country that gets radicalized to the point of what you saw happening yesterday at Union Station.”
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Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), the lone Palestinian American in Congress, held up a double-sided sign at points during Netanyahu’s remarks that read “war criminal” and “guilty of genocide.”
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), a leading Israel advocate, described her actions to the Washington Examiner as “beneath her office” and “really trashy.”