Congress
Democrats call for Trump administration to intervene in Gaza amid accelerating humanitarian crisis
A growing number of Democrats from across the party’s ideological spectrum are speaking out about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, calling for the Trump administration to intervene in the Israel-Hamas war amid warnings from global leaders and international relief groups that the situation in the war-torn strip has reached a breaking point.
The barrage of statements come after international leaders and aid organizations issued dire warnings this week that the nearly 2.1 million Palestinians in Gaza face starvation as a result of Israeli aid blockages.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries bashed the administration’s approach to the conflict in a statement posted to X on Saturday.
“During the first six months of Donald Trump’s time in office, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has reached a breaking point,” Jeffries wrote.
“Hostages are still being held by Hamas despite the President’s promise they would be released and the pre-existing ceasefire the administration inherited has been breached. The starvation and death of Palestinian children and civilians in an ongoing war zone is unacceptable,” the Democratic leader wrote. “The Trump administration has the ability to bring an end to this humanitarian crisis. They must act now.”
Global outrage at the crisis in Gaza has been bubbling for months, reaching its loudest this week. The leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Germany issued a joint statement on Friday calling for an end to the war, and for the Israeli government “to immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid” and “uphold its obligations under international humanitarian law.”
On Saturday, amid the increased condemnation globally, the Israel Defense Forces announced that aid airdrops would begin Saturday evening and humanitarian corridors for United Nations convoys would be opened.
But the Israeli military maintained that “there is no starvation in Gaza,” and said such claims were “a false campaign promoted by Hamas.” The military did not say when or where the U.N. convoy corridors would open.
Progressives in the Democratic Party have remained firm in their assessment of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war in Gaza, with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) calling Netanyahu’s unrelenting military operation an “extermination of Gaza.”
“The White House and Congress must immediately act to end this war using the full scope of American influence,” the Vermont senator, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said Friday in a statement on X. “No more military aid to the Netanyahu government.”
Anna Kelly, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement that “President Trump wants a better life for the people of Gaza because he has a humanitarian heart. Tragically, the people of Gaza are struggling because of Hamas’ clear lack of desire to reach a ceasefire and work in good faith towards a permanent peace.”
She touted the work of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — an aid organization backed by the U.S. and Israeli governments — to deliver “85 million meals to date — aid which was only possible because of President Trump’s call for creative solutions to help the Palestinians.”
The Democratic Party has been roiled by the Israel-Hamas war, which began after Hamas launched a terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Progressives in the party — like Sanders — have criticized Israel, saying its military response to the attack has devastated Gaza and killed tens of thousands of innocent people.
But as the Israeli offensive has dragged on, more Democrats have increasingly condemned Netanyahu’s government — particularly over the last several days, as global outrage mounted over the humanitarian crisis facing Gazans.
Reps. Hillary Scholten (D-Mich.) and Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), two Democrats who have remained staunch supporters of Israel, joined the outcry of concern for those in Gaza — while still keeping the onus on Hamas.
“The humanitarian situation in Gaza is a full-blown crisis, with innocent women and children who are starving,” Scholten wrote in a press release Saturday, adding that “we must remain clear-eyed about one thing: Hamas started this war and can end it today. But they choose not to.”
Goldman gave a similar response, expressing concern for the amount of starving Palestinians, while keeping the blame on Hamas: “And let’s be clear: Hamas could end it today if they wanted to. Israel has agreed to a ceasefire proposal, Hamas has rejected it. Release the hostages and end this travesty.”
Still, some Democrats haven’t viewed this moment in Gaza as the time to break from Israel’s leadership.
Rep. Josh Gottenheimer (D-N.J.), who has positioned himself as one of the most pro-Israel Democrats in Congress, hit back hard on a decision by French President Emmanuel Macron, who announced that his country will become the first G7 country to recognize the state of Palestine.
“France’s decision is deeply misguided,” the New Jersey congressman wrote on X on Saturday. “It rewards Hamas for the atrocities of October 7 and is counterproductive to real, lasting peace.”
The overwhelming uproar from Democrats comes just two days after special envoy Steve Witkoff announced that the U.S. was pulling out of ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel, claiming that “Hamas does not appear to be coordinated or acting in good faith.”
The Trump administration has sought to bring the war in Gaza to a close after a fragile ceasefire deal struck in the transition between the Biden and Trump administrations collapsed in March.
On Friday, Trump told reporters that Hamas “didn’t want to make a deal.” When asked if he had spoken to Netanyahu about foreign aid drops in Gaza, the president said they had spoken but declined to share details.
At times, Trump has appeared optimistic that the parties would agree to a peace deal, despite Netanyahu’s stubborn refusal to consider permanently stopping the war and Hamas’ ever-shifting negotiation tactics.
Meanwhile, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has rapidly escalated as relief organizations say Israel has withheld aid from Palestinians in the war-torn strip, despite global outcry. World Health Organization chief Tedros Ghebreyesus on Thursday warned that the more than 2 million Palestinians trapped in Gaza face mass starvation, in addition to threats posed by continual bombing.
Ghebreyesus, along with other global leaders, has warned for months of the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza strip, cautioning that it was on course to reach mass-starvation levels.
Hours after Democratic socialist candidates swept to victory in New York primary races, Republicans celebrated those victories as a boon for their own party as it struggles against headwinds from the Iran war and cost of living issues ahead of the November midterms.
Inside a closed-door House GOP meeting Wednesday morning, the head of the Republican campaign arm said the victories of candidates backed by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani offered an opportunity for GOP House candidates to draw a sharp contrast.
Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina said “Democrats have a Bolshevik revolution going on in their primaries,” according to three people in the room granted anonymity to discuss the private event.
Speaker Mike Johnson also delivered remarks to Republicans setting the stakes of the election after the “radical” left-wing wins and urging Republicans to dig in and raise money to defeat Democrats this fall. He received a standing ovation, the people in the room said.
Hudson said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will take the socialists’ wins as a sign he needs to navigate further to the left. There will be no cooperation with Republicans, he added.
Other Republicans publicly seized on the left-wing triumphs Wednesday, including Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio — who said “the lesson is clear: if Republicans don’t act now, we will lose this country as we know it.”
“We need to be clear about what we stand for,” he wrote on X. “Closed borders, secure elections, economic prosperity for all Americans, and, most of all, proudly protecting the American way of life against socialism.”
President Donald Trump abruptly canceled a bill signing for major bipartisan legislation on housing affordability on Wednesday, saying he wouldn’t back the law until Congress passes his elections bill.
“Today’s Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency,” Trump said in a post to Truth Social.
Trump was scheduled to sign the 21st Century ROAD to Housing bill on Wednesday afternoon, which passed both chambers with wide bipartisan support.
Trump announced the cancellation as Speaker Mike Johnson and top House leaders held a news conference touting the bill.
President Donald Trump Wednesday will come face-to-face with Senate Republicans for the first time in months as the party struggles to set its priorities heading into the midterms.
After weeks of shadowboxing with each other, Trump is scheduled to visit Capitol Hill and press the conference to pass his signature election security bill that has languished for months. Senate Republicans — several of whom have openly agonized that Trump isn’t focused enough on helping their party keep its tenuous control of Congress — have their own agenda for talks.
Let’s be clear: Wednesday’s lunch isn’t going to change the fate of the GOP election bill. Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Tuesday that “people at some point have to come to grips” with the fact that there aren’t the votes to nix the filibuster or pass Trump’s No. 1 priority.
But Trump is showing no sign of being ready to accept that — and indicated he intends to make the case for doing whatever it takes during the lunch with Senate Republicans.
“We’re just going to talk about SAVE America. … We have to pass it so we’re going to have to talk about that and many other things,” Trump told reporters.
Asked about Thune saying the party lacks the votes for passage, he added: “That’s what being a leader is about. … John is a leader and hopefully he can get the votes.”
While Trump wants to focus on the SAVE America Act, GOP senators expect a wider-ranging conversation, including how both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue can turn their collective attention off of a string of recent intraparty fights and toward Democrats.
“My question is how do we get all on the same page and get unified rather than squabbling amongst ourselves,” Sen. John Cornyn said he’ll ask Trump. Cornyn told reporters it’ll be his first time speaking with the president since losing his primary against Trump-backed Ken Paxton.
That may mean Trump and senators Wednesday confront festering questions about the highly unpopular Iran war in the lead up to elections.
Senate Republicans openly criticized Trump’s agreement last week to end the Iran conflict, including a $300 billion reconstruction fund. And congressional Republicans are chafing at the idea Trump is asking for tens of billions of dollars in fresh military funding without briefing most of Congress on the plan.
As lawmakers prepare for a roughly $80 billion emergency Pentagon funding request to land as soon as this week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is also set to meet with the Republican Study Committee Wednesday. While the briefing is meant to focus on the funding requests, Speaker Mike Johnson suggested it could be lawmakers’ only chance for the time being to get questions answered about the administration’s Iran endgame.
“I’m sure he’ll provide a lot of information,” Johnson said when asked about further briefings beyond Hegseth’s. “I mean, we’ll see what the secretary does, and then evaluate after that.”
Also on our radar Wednesday: Democratic lawmakers are teeing up a host of amendments on the war against Iran at a House Appropriations markup of the fiscal 2027 Defense bill, where more funding talks are guaranteed to take place.
Read also: Republicans push to add billions in farm aid to Iran war package
What else we’re watching:
— DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY SPLIT SCREEN: A Zohran Mamdani-backed trio of progressives pulled off a string of upsets during New York’s primary elections Tuesday, dealing a blow to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his leadership allies.
—- HOUSE GOP HUDDLES ON RECON 3.0: Johnson and key House Republicans will meet Wednesday to discuss the next steps for a possible third reconciliation bill as the clock ticks to get a budget resolution moving before the July 4 recess. The speaker said he will know more about the timing for any budget resolution to kick off another party-line bill afterwards. Still, several Budget Committee Republicans are still skeptical the effort will actually gain momentum.
Madison Fernandez and Nick Reisman contributed to this report.
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