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.
House Republicans have advanced a bill that would prohibit members of Congress and their family members from trading on certain Washington-focused prediction markets.
The House Administration Committee’s GOP members on Wednesday voted along party lines in favor of the legislation, which proposes to bar lawmakers, their spouses and their dependent children from participating on prediction markets that are based on the outcome of elections or government actions.
It marks the latest in Capitol Hill’s efforts to curb the threat of insider trading on the prediction markets — a risk that has burst into the spotlight in recent months after a series of well-timed trades around the capture of then-Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, Google’s search results and the Iran war. Earlier this year, the Senate banned its members and their staffs from trading on the prediction markets altogether, effective immediately.
And yet, the House Administration Committee vote also revealed a fracture within the House over how far to go in clamping down on lawmakers’ use of the prediction markets. Democrats opposed the bill, saying it didn’t go far enough, while Republicans supported it.
Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, who is the committee’s top Democrat, argued that the legislation is “so filled with loopholes that it looks more like a sieve than a bill.” Instead of passing such a bill, he said the House should follow the Senate’s lead and approve a new and broader resolution aimed at prediction market use among members and their staffs.
“The Senate did it in a matter of minutes — no six-month grace period, no procedurally laborious process,” Morelle said. “They just went to the floor with a two-page resolution and banned it all unanimously. We should do the same.”
House Administration Chair Bryan Steil, who introduced the bill, hit back at his Democratic counterpart’s concerns by questioning why members’ families shouldn’t be allowed to bet on sports through the prediction markets — but can through sportsbooks or casinos.
The Wisconsin Republican pointed to a hypothetical scenario where a member’s child is at college and bets on a sporting event through a prediction market platform. That situation, he said, could be covered by a broader prohibition.
Steil, rather, said his bill is aimed at addressing public policy- and election-focused markets.
“Lawmakers elect to serve the American people, not to enrich themselves by wagering on outcomes from the decisions they make,” he said. “We have a real opportunity to restore trust in Congress by taking necessary steps to eliminate even the appearance of impropriety.”
House Republican leaders canceled plans to advance a procedural measure Wednesday that would set up passage of two fiscal 2027 appropriations bills and other legislation this week, according to three people granted anonymity to describe the decision ahead of a public announcement.
The decision comes amid pressure from GOP hard-liners to prioritize passage of the SAVE America Act, a Republican elections bill that has stalled in the Senate — and after President Donald Trump refused to sign a high-profile bipartisan housing bill passed Tuesday, also in a bid to get the elections bill moving.
Speaker Mike Johnson and other leaders are expected to keep members in Washington for now while they determine next steps, the people said.
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.”
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