A White House spokesman condemned the words of 20-year-old Khymani James, who said during a disciplinary hearing in January that “Zionists don’t deserve to live” and “Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.”

“These dangerous, appalling statements turn the stomach and should serve as a wakeup call,” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement confirmed by the Washington Examiner. “It is hideous to advocate for the murder of Jews. President Biden has been clear that violent rhetoric, hate speech, and Antisemitic remarks have no place in America whatsoever, and he will always stand against them.” 

Bates also said that if a White House employee had made similar comments, that person would be “fired immediately.”

James took to X to apologize for his violent words, but he also expressed he was “frustrated” that his words “have become a distraction from the movement of Palestine liberation.”

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“I also want people to have more context for my words, which I regret,” James said in a statement shared on X. “Far right agitators went through months of my social media feed until they found a clip that they edited without context. When I recorded it, I had been unusually upset after an online mob targeted me because I am visibly black and Queer.”

The January hearing was conducted by Columbia University’s Center for Student Success and Intervention, and it was focused on a comment James shared on social media centered on him fighting a Zionist. “I don’t fight to injure or for there to be a winner or a loser, I fight to kill,” he wrote.