Several of them baselessly claimed the U.S. funded the attacks as a result of the prisoner exchange deal with Iran.
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 partially responsible.
Several of them insisted, without evidence, that the U.S. funded these attacks by suggesting that $6 billion in oil revenue that the Biden administration recently unfroze as a result of a prisoner exchange with Iran, which has historically funded Hamas, was used to carry them out.
“These Hamas attacks are a disgrace and Israel has every right to defend itself with overwhelming force. Sadly, American taxpayer dollars helped fund these attacks, which many reports are saying came from the Biden Administration,” former President Donald Trump said in a statement.
Trump, who has been leading the GOP primary pack, added that his administration brought “so much peace to the Middle East through the Abraham Accords, only to see Biden whittle it away at a far more rapid pace than anyone thought possible. Here we go again.”
Former Vice President Mike Pence, who’s running for president, said in a statement, “This is what happens when America’s president projects weakness on the world stage, kowtows to the mullahs in Iran with a $6 Billion ransom, and leaders in the Republican Party signal American retreat as Leader of the Free World. Weakness arouses Evil.”
In remarks at the beginning of an event in Glenwood, Iowa on Saturday morning, Pence responded to the situation in Israel and blamed both Biden, but also Republicans, who he said are “signaling retreat on the world stage.”
The Biden administration refuted the GOP criticism, saying that the $6 billion in oil revenue Iran regained access to recently did not come from U.S. taxpayer dollars.
“The ground truth is — not a dollar of the $6 billion has been spent yet so that line of attack is just bad faith and wrong,” a senior administration official said.
