Crooked Media - What A Day: Crisis factors

The aftermath of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israeli citizens continues to be felt by both the Israeli families of hostages and the deceased, as well as Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and those trapped in Gaza, where Israel has deployed over 6,000 airstrikes in the past week.
 

• In an interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday night, President Joe Biden maintained his administration’s staunch support for Israel, but also stated his cautious opposition to the country’s full-scale occupation of Gaza, which he said would be “a big mistake.” Biden will visit Israel on Wednesday to further demonstrate solidarity with Israelis still reeling from the October 7 Hamas attack that claimed over 1,400 lives. “The most important thing is ending this brutality,” he said, also adding that getting hostages home safely is a top priority. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unscheduled return to Israel on Monday, meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv to pledge his support for the ground offensive into Gaza. 
   

• When asked whether he thinks United States troops will be deployed in this new Middle East war, President Biden said, “I don’t think that’s necessary. Israel has one of the finest fighting forces [in the world],” but asserted that the United States would give Israel “everything they need.”  More than 2,000 U.S. troops are preparing for a potential deployment to support Israel, but according to the Department of Defense, are not intended to serve in combat roles. President Biden said he is “confident” that the Israeli government will do “everything in their power to avoid the killing of innocent civilians.” But Israel’s attacks on Gaza have already killed at least 2,800 people—approximately 700 of whom are children—and wounded over 10,850 more according to the Palestinian Health Ministry’s Monday reports. Health officials in Gaza have resorted to storing the bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli airstrikes in ice cream freezer trucks, an ad hoc solution to the risks involved in transporting corpses to hospitals and insufficient space in Gaza’s cemeteries.
   

• The humanitarian crisis among the living in Gaza has reached unthinkable levels. Israel’s “complete siege” has deprived the already-impoverished area of energy, food, and water, drawing strong rebukes from human rights organizations. Gaza’s Interior Ministry said that no water had reached the area in 10 days, despite remarks from White House national security official Jake Sullivan on Sunday, who said that Israel had restarted the flow of water to southern Gaza. Israel has yet to confirm Sullivan’s statement. On Sunday, diplomats scrambled to address the mounting crisis as 2 million Gazans remained trapped in an area the size of Las Vegas with no exit. On Monday, 13 Democrats in the House of Representatives led by Reps. Cori Bush (D-MO), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and André Carson (D-IN) introduced a resolution urging the Biden administration to call for an “immediate deescalation and cease-fire in Israel and occupied Palestine” and to send humanitarian aid to Gaza.

In the past week, United States federal law enforcement and national security officials have been on high alert for incidents of antisemitic and Islamophobic violence. FBI officials, as well as Jewish and Muslim community leaders have all reported increases of hateful and threatening rhetoric. According to an updated FBI report, antisemitic hate crimes increased by 25 percent between 2021-2022. In the past week, a deluge of Islamophobic rhetoric from both members of the right-wing Israeli government and, in the U.S., conservative media outlets and politicians, has led to horrifying incidents echoing some of the darkest days of post-9/11 America. 
 

• On Saturday, a 71-year-old White landlord in suburban Chicago, Joseph Czuba, violently attacked one of his Palestinian American tenants and brutally murdered her son, a 6-year-old  boy named Wadea Al-Fayoume. Shortly before the attack, the landlord confronted the boy’s mother, Hanaan Shanin, and “told her he was angry at her for what was going on,” in Israel. According to the Illinois Assistant State Attorney’s petition, Shanin “stated she responded to him ‘let’s pray for peace,’” but Czuba attacked her with a knife immediately thereafter. Czuba’s wife told investigators that he “listens to conservative talk radio on a regular basis,” and became transfixed by the coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. Czuba was screaming “You Muslims have to die” when he barged into the Plainfield, IL apartment, as well as “You are killing our kids in Israel. You Palestinians don’t deserve to live.” Czuba was reportedly worried about a “national day of jihad,” an invention of conservative media.
   

• Shanin was stabbed 12 times while trying to protect her son and call for help, and she remains in critical condition. Previously, Czuba had always been friendly to the child, and even built him a treehouse. When the boy saw Czuba, he ran to him for a hug, but was instead stabbed 26 times. On Monday, Czuba was formally charged with three counts of murder, one count of attempted murder, and two counts of committing a hate crime. The attack was condemned by President Biden, who released a statement on Sunday saying that he was “shocked” and “sickened” to learn of the brutal murder. He continued: “This horrific act of hate has no place in America, and stands against our fundamental values: freedom from fear for how we pray, what we believe, and who we are. As Americans, we must come together and reject Islamophobia and all forms of bigotry and hatred.” 
   

President Biden’s words are powerful, and we can’t know what communications are taking place behind closed doors between his administration and Netanyahu’s. But without commensurate actions and policy decisions intended to stop the loss of civilian life, those words will ring hollow. 

If you can't make it to our show in DC this Thursday October 19th, don’t despair! We’ll be livestreaming the whole event, exclusively on Moment.co. Lovett, Tommy, Dan and Favreau will be joined by Senator John Fetterman, Chef Jose Andres, Jennifer Carroll Foy and guest host Symone Sanders. You'll definitely want to tune in live so you don't miss a big announcement! Join the Pod Save America hosts and your fellow pod listeners live from anywhere—you’ll feel like you’re at the show, but at the same time, you’ll be on your couch. Some might call it the best of all possible worlds.

The internet: not all bad! Get your virtual tickets now at MOMENT.CO/PSA. 

The United States government sits still without a Speaker of the House. Everyone’s doing great! Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) whom you may remember from voting to overturn the 2020 election results, supporting a national abortion ban, and covering up the sexual assault of over 150 victims in the Ohio State wrestling program, is somehow making his way toward the Speaker’s gavel. House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark said it best last week: “At every single turn, Jim Jordan has prioritized politics, power, fear, division and hate over the American people.” But he’s not frantically making deals in between calling for votes fully fifteen times during an excruciating late-night session, so, you know, could be worse! Procedurally speaking, anyway.

Jordan won the support of several key skeptics in his GOP caucus on Monday, including the conservative bloc most suspicious of Jordan: defense hawks. A few members of the conference who had previously said they would not support Jordan—even going so far as to call him a “non-starter,” in the case of Rep. Ann Wagner (R-MO)—have changed their tune. Despite this additional support, Jordan still faces an uphill battle to become speaker, and can only afford to lose four GOP votes if every other House Republican falls in line. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) said he estimates that fewer than 10 GOP holdouts remain as of Monday. Jordan told CNN he will go to the floor for a vote at noon Eastern Time on Tuesday whether he has the votes secured or not. Worst of luck, my guy! Here’s to fifteen more roll-call votes! To the rest of the Republican caucus: There’s still time to vote for Hakeem Jeffries!

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan announced on Monday that she has imposed a limited gag order on disgraced former president Donald Trump ahead of his election interference trial. The order prohibits all parties from statements “publicly targeting” special counsel Jack Smith, his staff, Judge Chutkan’s staff, or “any other court personnel.” For some reason, we have a strange feeling that Trump is not gonna do well with that!

Trump continues to hold a significant lead in both polls and fundraising in the GOP presidential primary. Trump, despite currently standing trial—as in, today—for massive fraud, is raising double the money of many of his opponents in the last quarter.  

In an interview with the U.K.’s Sky News, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that the U.S. “can certainly afford” to provide military support to both Israel and Ukraine simultaneously, adding that the U.S. economy is doing “extremely well.” Thanks, Janet! I’ll keep that in mind as I continue paying off my student loans and the medical debt I incurred from cancer surgery. 

The Biden administration has agreed to a deal with Venezuelan President Nicholás Maduro that would ease sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry in exchange for freer, internationally-monitored presidential elections next year. 

Last month, people began to notice that publisher Scholastic had carved out a separate category of books for its famous school book fairs—a section called “Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice,” which isolated titles that touch on race, LBGTQ issues, and other subjects that conservatives have deemed inappropriate for students. Schools hosting a Scholastic book fair can opt out of the collection, which includes books about civil rights pioneer John Lewis and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Scholastic issued a statement on Friday defending the creation of the collection, saying it was done in response to “existing or pending legislation in 30 states” prohibiting “certain kinds of books” from schools. This grouping of books, the company argues, protects teachers, librarians, and volunteers from legal retribution, even termination, for providing access to materials that violate local laws. Predictably, the concession did nothing to dim the malice of conservative activists, who have continued urging parents and schools to “cancel Scholastic.”

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The campaign of Rep. George Santos (R-NY) reported refunding more money to donors than it raised in the last quarter. Incredible. No word on how much he owed that baby, though.

Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” raked in almost $100 million in U.S. profits its opening weekend, a box office record for a concert film. Thank you Taylor and Beyoncé for saving the American economy!!

The Biden campaign rolled out a new rapid response account on Donald Trump’s Truth Social to fight misinformation and enrage the trolls. In his profile pic he is, of course, Dark Brandon.