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Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel appeared on Fox News midday Saturday to comment on Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel. That, in and of itself, might not seem especially notable, though the RNC chair described the crisis as “a great opportunity“ for her party’s presidential candidates to draw contrasts with President Joe Biden.
Evidently, McDaniel’s fellow partisans were thinking very much along the same lines. NBC News reported on Saturday afternoon:
Republican 2024 presidential candidates blamed the Biden administration for the attacks Hamas terrorists launched against Israel on Saturday, pointing to the deadly developments as evidence of U.S. weakness on the world stage and claiming that the administration is partly responsible.
It was difficult to keep up with the prominent GOP voices scurrying to blame their own country’s leadership for Hamas’ attack. For example, Sen. Tim Scott, who somehow cultivated a reputation for being the nice guy in his party's 2024 field, insisted that “the truth” is that the Democratic president “funded these attacks on Israel.”
That wasn’t even close to being “the truth,” as the South Carolinian — a former member of the Senate Armed Services Committee — really ought to know, but Scott was hardly alone. Donald Trump spent much of the weekend lashing out wildly at his presidential successor, at one point even issuing a clumsily worded statement that suggested the Biden administration attacked Israel: “Sadly, American taxpayer dollars helped fund these attacks, which many reports are saying came from the Biden Administration.”
On Capitol Hill, the rhetorical offensive was just as aggressive. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a leading contender for House speaker, also blamed Biden for the crisis in Israel, as did Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, who falsely claimed that American tax dollars “funded” Hamas’ attack, adding that the militants bought weapons with “our money.”
Not to be outdone, Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida also falsely argued that the incumbent American president “funded this attack.” Media outlets aligned with the party followed suit.
Part of the problem with all of this is that the Republican line is rooted in misinformation. While it’s true that the United States recently reached an agreement with Iran over the release of several hostages, and as part of the deal Iran gained access to oil revenue that had been frozen, the details matter.
“All of the money held in restricted accounts in Doha as part of the arrangement to secure the release of 5 Americans in September remains in Doha. Not a penny has been spent,” Treasury Undersecretary Brian Nelson tweeted. “These restricted funds cannot go to Iran — it can only be used for future humanitarian-related purposes. Any suggestion to the contrary is false and misleading.”
National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson added, “I can’t comment on 2024 because of the Hatch Act. But I can clarify the facts: Not a single cent from these funds has been spent, and when it is spent, it can only be spent on things like food and medicine for the Iranian people. These funds have absolutely nothing to do with the horrific attacks.”
As for Vance’s assertion that American tax dollars were somehow involved, that’s plainly not a claim to be taken seriously, since it doesn’t even make sense within the GOP’s own framework, which is itself misleading.
But as important as the factual details are, there’s also a broader problem with the Republicans’ rhetorical tack.
In 1984, during the Republican National Convention, Jeane Kirkpatrick delivered a speech that included a catchphrase that she repeated five times during her remarks: “They always blame America first.” In reference to Democrats, she went on to condemn the “blame America first crowd.”
It was an ugly line of attack, but it caught on and became a favorite of the right, and it’s still embraced by prominent Republicans a generation later. In Nikki Haley’s 2020 remarks at the Republican National Convention, for example, the former ambassador quoted Kirkpatrick and again accused Democrats of “blaming America first.” Last year, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas pushed the same line, declaring on Fox News, “[Biden] and other Democrats like him always blame America first.”
There’s never been any real value in casually throwing around such obnoxious attacks on other Americans’ patriotism, though the line of rhetorical attack has certainly taken on a greater hypocritical dimension as Republicans rush — yet again — to blame their own country’s leadership for deadly violence for which the United States is obviously not responsible.