{"id":1517399,"date":"2024-02-24T08:57:03","date_gmt":"2024-02-24T08:57:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacobin.com\/2024\/02\/andy-ogles-us-congress-genocide-gaza\/"},"modified":"2024-02-26T12:46:08","modified_gmt":"2024-02-26T12:46:08","slug":"us-elected-officials-keep-explicitly-supporting-genocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/02\/24\/us-elected-officials-keep-explicitly-supporting-genocide\/","title":{"rendered":"US Elected Officials Keep Explicitly Supporting Genocide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n  \n\n\n\n<h3>Rep. Andy Ogles\u2019s comment that \u201cwe should kill them all\u201d in Gaza has drawn little outrage, to say nothing of public censure like what Rep. Rashida Tlaib has faced. That\u2019s because openly calling for genocide of Palestinians has become normalized in America.<\/h3>\n<hr\/>\n\n<figure>\n  <img alt src=\"https:\/\/images.jacobinmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/23153726\/GettyImages-1255308937-900x600.jpg\"\/>\n  <figcaption>\n    Representative Andy Ogles, a Republican from Tennessee, during a hearing in Washington, DC, on May 16, 2023. (Nathan Howard \/ Bloomberg via Getty Images)\n  <\/figcaption>   \n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n  \n  <p>You probably never heard of Representative Andy Ogles, a Tennessee Republican, until this week. The former Maury County, Tennessee, mayor had been quietly assembling a formidable r\u00e9sum\u00e9 as one of Congress\u2019s resident buffoons, a former Koch network lobbyist, and a poor man\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/jacobin.com\/2023\/12\/george-santos-expulsion-lies-us-congress-corruption\">George Santos<\/a> who had largely flown under the national radar as he racked up a string of embarrassing lies and scandals: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/politics-news\/rep-andy-ogles-whose-district-includes-nashville-criticized-gun-filled-rcna76961\">posing<\/a> with his family with assault rifles while running in a district that experienced a school shooting, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennessean.com\/story\/news\/politics\/2023\/03\/16\/tennessee-rep-andy-ogles-faces-questions-about-gofundme-campaign\/70014412007\/\">raising<\/a> $23,000 on GoFundMe to bury his stillborn child then never spending the money, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newschannel5.com\/news\/newschannel-5-investigates\/businessman-economist-cop-international-sex-crimes-expert-the-stories-of-congressman-andy-ogles\">lying<\/a> about being an economist and an ex-cop who specialized in child sex trafficking.<\/p>\n<p>Now Ogles can add one more incident to this impressive CV: calling for literal genocide.<\/p>\n<p>The congressman was <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheTNHoller\/status\/1760094441199559041\">confronted<\/a> earlier this week by a pro-Palestinian activist pressing him to support a cease-fire in Gaza. \u201cI\u2019ve seen the footage of shredded children\u2019s bodies, and that\u2019s my taxpayer dollars going to bomb those kids,\u201d the young woman told Ogles as he walked through a congressional hallway.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think we should kill them all, if that makes you feel better,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">PRO-PALESTINE ACTIVIST: \u201cI\u2019ve seen \ud83c\udfa5of shredded children\u2019s bodies. That\u2019s my tax money bombing those kids.\u201d<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AndyOgles?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@AndyOgles<\/a>: \u201cI think we should kill em all, if that makes you feel better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>ACTIVIST: \u201cDo you even have a heart?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>OGLES: \u201cDeath to Hamas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A disturbing Ogles exchange. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Dpnjqzw43n\">pic.twitter.com\/Dpnjqzw43n<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheTNHoller\/status\/1760094441199559041?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 21, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cHamas and the Palestinians have been attacking Israel for twenty years, and it\u2019s time to pay the piper,\u201d he later added, to really drive the point home.<\/p>\n<p>Ogles\u2019s appalling statement has certainly made <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=andy+ogles+++%22kill+them+all%22&amp;sca_esv=1a30264c0409ca1f&amp;biw=1494&amp;bih=805&amp;sxsrf=ACQVn08HNbNhf5tOgoktGU9kzhdlejj9HA:1708701981956&amp;source=lnt&amp;tbs=cdr:1,cd_min:2\/21\/2024,cd_max:2\/23\/2024&amp;tbm=nws\">headlines<\/a> three days in, though largely in local Tennessean outlets and <a href=\"https:\/\/truthout.org\/articles\/republican-house-rep-on-gaza-we-should-kill-them-all\/\">progressive<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/post\/179177\/republican-congressman-andy-ogles-kill-them-all-palestinian-children-gaza\">media<\/a>. Other than coverage by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2024\/2\/21\/us-congressman-andy-ogles-stirs-outrage-with-gaza-comment-kill-them-all\"><em>Al Jazeera<\/em><\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/liveblog_entry\/we-should-kill-them-all-everybody-in-hamas-gop-lawmaker-tells-pro-palestinian-activist\/\"><em>Times of Israel<\/em><\/a>, the closest thing to a mainstream, national outlet consumed by Americans that has covered his remarks is, astoundingly, the pro-Israel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/gop-rep-doubles-down-message-hamas-kill-them-all\">Fox News<\/a>. And besides Muslim and Palestinian rights groups and a Democratic member of the Nashville Metro Council, there has basically been no public condemnation of Ogles\u2019s shocking comments by elected officials.<\/p>\n<p>If you want to get a sense of how warped and deranged views on the Israel-Gaza conflict are in the US Congress \u2014 views that are objectively, wildly <a href=\"https:\/\/jacobin.com\/2024\/01\/congress-sanders-israel-weapons-human-rights\">out of step<\/a> with those of the voters it\u2019s meant to represent \u2014 compare the muted response to what Ogles just said, to the firestorm that enveloped socialist Michigan representative Rashida Tlaib, Congress\u2019s only Palestinian member, last year.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"pq pq--center\"><q>Ogles\u2019s statement isn\u2019t being interpreted by some as a call for genocide. It is a literal call for genocide.<\/q><\/aside>\n<p>Tlaib\u2019s crime was daring to <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RashidaTlaib\/status\/1720520713226908144\">include<\/a> the Palestinian liberation slogan \u201cFrom the river to the sea\u201d in a video she posted on Twitter supporting a cease-fire, a slogan she later took care to specify was \u201can aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tlaib was immediately <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/congress\/rep-rashida-tlaib-faces-criticism-democrats-palestinian-remarks-rcna123735\">piled on<\/a> by fellow Democrats and even Vermont senator Bernie Sanders for using the phrase, seventy members of Congress signed onto a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RepSchneider\/status\/1721980944028991495\">statement<\/a> accusing her of using \u201ca rallying cry for the . . . genocide of the Jewish people,\u201d and outlets ranging from <em>Newsweek<\/em> and NBC News to the Associated Press and <em>Politico<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=rashida+tlaib+from+the+river+to+the+sea&amp;sca_esv=1a30264c0409ca1f&amp;biw=1494&amp;bih=805&amp;sxsrf=ACQVn0895JVGqmhdgtMWpKeIaLrkO3y6fw:1708699649781&amp;source=lnt&amp;tbs=cdr:1,cd_min:11\/5\/2023,cd_max:11\/8\/2023&amp;tbm=nws\">covered<\/a> her comments. The House even <a href=\"https:\/\/jacobin.com\/2023\/11\/israel-war-crimes-rashida-tlaib-censure-gaza-palestine\">absurdly<\/a> voted to censure her over use of the slogan, with twenty-two Democrats <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/house\/4298840-house-censures-tlaib-for-israel-criticisms\/\">joining<\/a> the GOP to do it.<\/p>\n<p>Needless to say, nothing remotely approaching this level of outrage \u2014 in either the US Congress, nor the Democratic Party, nor even the press \u2014 has met Ogles for his statement, which, unlike Tlaib\u2019s words, isn\u2019t being <em>interpreted by some<\/em> as a call for genocide, but is a <em>literal call for genocide<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>This is the repulsive absurdity of Israel\u2019s war on Gaza as filtered through the US Congress: call for Palestinian freedom, and you\u2019re slapped down and accused of supporting genocide; call for every single Palestinian to be killed, and everyone shrugs.<\/p>\n<p>But Ogles isn\u2019t even the first US politician to say something like this since the war\u2019s outbreak. Earlier this month, Representative Brian Mast, a Florida Republican, repeatedly <a href=\"https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/post\/178679\/gop-congressman-brian-mast-dead-palestinian-babies-not-innocent\">told<\/a> antiwar activists that Palestinian civilians, including children, should be murdered. \u201cYou haven\u2019t seen the pictures of all the babies being killed?\u201d one protester asked him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese are not innocent Palestinian civilians,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"US Congressman Brian Mast on babies killed in Gaza: \u2018These are not innocent Palestinian civilians\u2019\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/S5lg-owXuD8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe half a million people starving to death are people that should go out there and put a government in place that doesn\u2019t go out there and attack Israel on a daily basis,\u201d a smirking Mast added, referring to Israel\u2019s policy of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/news\/2023\/12\/18\/israel-starvation-used-weapon-war-gaza\">deliberately engineered<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/truthout.org\/articles\/famine-expert-israels-starvation-of-gaza-has-no-parallel-in-modern-times\/\">famine<\/a> in the territory. At another point, Mast told a protester that \u201cit would be better if you kill all the terrorists and kill everyone who are supporters\u201d \u2014 meaning, civilians \u2014 calling this \u201ca great solution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This is three months after Mast had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/gop-brian-mast-palestinian-civilians-nazi-israel_n_6542c552e4b00f9ca31e6025#:~:text=%E2%80%9CI%20think%20when%20we%20look,'%20during%20World%20War%20II.%E2%80%9D\">urged<\/a> his colleagues on the House floor \u201cto not so lightly throw around the idea of innocent Palestinian civilians,\u201d any more than they would \u201cthrow around the term \u2018innocent Nazi civilians\u2019 during World War II.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That same month, another Floridian, Republican state representative Michelle Salzman, was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2023\/nov\/10\/florida-republican-michelle-salzman-palestine\">caught on tape<\/a> saying basically the same thing in the Florida legislature as Ogles just had. \u201cWe are at ten thousand dead Palestinians. How many will be enough?\u201d asked her Democratic colleague Angie Nixon. \u201cAll of them,\u201d replied Salzman.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Florida Lawmaker Outraged As Republican Calls for \u2018All\u2019 Palestinians To Die\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/otjG_0u_O7o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The list goes on. Representative Max Miller, an Ohio Republican, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.semafor.com\/article\/10\/27\/2023\/ilhan-omar-slams-max-miller-palestine-parking-lot-comment\">told<\/a> Fox that \u201cwe\u2019re going to turn that\u201d \u2014 meaning, the Gaza strip \u2014 \u201cinto a parking lot.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">US congressman: \u2018Palestine will be turned into a parking lot\u2019<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/US?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#US<\/a> Congressman, Max Miller, spoke openly about genocide against Palestinians on Fox News stating that Palestine is \u2018about to get eviscerated &#8230; to turn that into a parking lot.\u2019 He has previously called on the Biden\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Ob7tNbvWuX\">pic.twitter.com\/Ob7tNbvWuX<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Middle East Monitor (@MiddleEastMnt) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MiddleEastMnt\/status\/1717576384217071890?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 26, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs far as I\u2019m concerned, Israel can bounce the rubble in Gaza,\u201d tweeted Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, in a <a href=\"https:\/\/arktimes.com\/arkansas-blog\/2023\/10\/17\/tom-cotton-calls-for-mass-slaughter-of-palestinian-citizens-in-gaza\">reference<\/a> to a Winston Churchill quote about the destruction caused by nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">As far as I&#39;m concerned, Israel can bounce the rubble in Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>Anything that happens in Gaza is the responsibility of Hamas.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TomCottonAR\/status\/1713643404414865825?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 15, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>South Carolina Republican senator Lindsay Graham has made a variety of similarly deranged genocidal comments. He <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/video\/6339071128112\">call<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/video\/6339071128112\">ed<\/a> on Israel to \u201clevel the place,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/video\/2023\/11\/05\/lindsey_graham_dont_whitewash_the_most_radicalized_people_on_the_planet_live_in_the_gaza_strip.html\">charging<\/a> that \u201cthe most radicalized people on the planet live in the Gaza Strip\u201d who \u201chave been taught since birth to kill and hate the Jews,\u201d and stating flatly that \u201cthere is no limit\u201d to the amount of civilian casualties Israel can inflict in its nominal goal of destroying Hamas.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not just Republicans. Democratic New York governor Kathy Hochul recently <a href=\"https:\/\/jacobin.com\/2024\/02\/kathy-hochul-gaza-israel-canada-buffalo\/\">justified<\/a> what has now been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2024\/01\/27\/1227397107\/icj-finds-genocide-case-against-israel-plausible-orders-it-to-stop-violations\">declared<\/a> by the International Court of Justice a plausible genocide by Israel by telling an audience the United States would do the exact same thing. \u201cIf Canada someday ever attacked Buffalo, I\u2019m sorry my friends, there would be no Canada the next day,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">NY Gov Hochul last night on local opposition to Israel\u2019s war in Gaza:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf Canada someday ever attacked Buffalo, I&#39;m sorry my friends, there would be no Canada the next day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s a natural reaction. You have a right to defend yourself and to make sure it never happens again.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/UCHUBmU6ka\">pic.twitter.com\/UCHUBmU6ka<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jacobkornbluh\/status\/1758613522634666295?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 16, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>This is itself an echo of the words of President Joe Biden, <a href=\"https:\/\/jacobin.com\/2024\/02\/biden-administration-gaza-israel-war\">reportedly<\/a> the driving force behind current US steadfast support for Israel\u2019s military campaign, who just over forty years ago <a href=\"https:\/\/jacobin.com\/2023\/10\/joe-biden-menachem-begin-israel-lebanon-war-civilian-casualties-canada-gaza\">disturbed<\/a> even then Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin when he endorsed his destruction of Beirut: \u201cIt was great! It had to be done! If attacks were launched from Canada into the United States, everyone here would have said, \u2018Attack all the cities of Canada, and we don\u2019t care if all the civilians get killed.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s been a lot of talk about how Congress could angrily condemn a statement by Tlaib they misconstrued as genocidal toward Israelis, while supporting what has now been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tehrantimes.com\/news\/495103\/Genocide-without-any-doubt-in-Gaza-says-UN-special-rapporteur\">declared<\/a> by <a href=\"https:\/\/contendingmodernities.nd.edu\/global-currents\/statement-of-scholars-7-october\/\">numerous<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/6334409\/is-whats-happening-gaza-genocide-experts\/\">experts<\/a> an actual, ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people. It may well be that, as many of them have said quite openly, a shocking amount of US politicians simply genuinely believe in and support the mass extermination of Palestinians.<\/p>\n\n  \n\n    \n           \n    \n\n   \n  <hr\/>\n  \n\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/jacobin.com\/2024\/02\/andy-ogles-us-congress-genocide-gaza\/\">Jacobin<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You probably never heard of Representative Andy Ogles, a Tennessee Republican, until this week. The former Maury County, Tennessee, mayor had been quietly assembling a formidable r\u00e9sum\u00e9 as one of Congress\u2019s resident buffoons, a former Koch network lobbyist, and a poor man\u2019s George Santos who had largely flown under the national radar as he racked [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1445,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1517399"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1445"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1517399"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1517399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1520261,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1517399\/revisions\/1520261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1517399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1517399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1517399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}