President Joe Biden praised Michigan Democrat Rep. Rashida Tlaib during his latest trip to the Midwestern state this week, as the member of “the squad” demands divestment from Israel during conflict with Hamas.
“I want to say to you that I admire your intellect, I admire your passion, and I admire your concern for so many other people,” Biden said at a Ford plant in Dearborn. “You’re a fighter, and God thank you for being a fighter.”
Joe Biden says he admires radical anti-Israel Rep. "Rashid" Tlaib and thanks her for being a "fighter" pic.twitter.com/e8VcHLXdwC
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 18, 2021
On the same trip, Tlaib confronted Biden on the airport tarmac in Detroit and reportedly demanded the president condemn Israel and support the Palestinians. Biden’s approach as Israel faces its worst attacks in years from the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas has remained largely muted, with the president only saying he hopes the conflict comes to a quick end while professing the Jewish state’s right to self-defense.
On Wednesday, Biden told Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the White House expected “a significant de-escalation today” to reach a ceasefire.
The president’s praise of Tlaib follows just days after the Michigan congresswoman reiterated calls to divest from Israel and condemned the nation as embracing apartheid, elements of which she said existed within the United States.
“What we are telling Palestinians fighting apartheid is the same thing being told to my black neighbors and Americans throughout that are fighting against police brutality here,” she said on the House floor.
Tlaib, the first member of Congress of Palestinian descent, has long been one of Hamas’s fiercest defenders, branding Netanyahu as “Apartheid-in-chief” and demanding the U.S. stop “enabling” Israel as Israelis face rocket attacks from Hamas.
