Biden is trying to balance Gaza protests and free speech rights as demonstrators disrupt his events

MANASSAS, Va. — It was President Joe Biden’s first major campaign rally of the year, a chance to highlight the issue of protecting abortion rights. Instead, at least a dozen times during Biden’s 22-minute speech, protesters scattered throughout the audience stood up to shout demands for a ceasefire in Gaza.

His speech in Virginia last week became a matter of fits and starts. Time and time again, the protesters intervened and were drowned out by onlookers shouting chants of “four more years!” and “Yo! Joe! Joe!”

“They feel deeply,” Biden said of the protesters, who were pulled from the room by security personnel.

The Democratic president has increasingly faced protests inside and outside his events from progressives angry about his administration’s support for Israel in its Gaza offensive. More than 26,000 Palestinians, mostly women and minors, have been killed in Gaza since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, according to the Ministry of Health in the Hamas-ruled area.

The protests expose the tensions Biden faces within his own party as he grapples with the fallout from his handling of the war while respecting his critics’ First Amendment rights to speak out. Biden’s ability to navigate these crosscurrents will be critical to his reelection efforts as he tries to energize Democrats this fall, especially young people who are particularly concerned about the fallout from the war.

Protesters disrupted Biden’s speech at Mother Emanuel AME Church in South Carolina earlier this month as the president spoke out against racism, and they appeared at a United Auto Workers rally in Washington last week, where Biden accepted the powerful union’s support , and at a political event in Columbia, South Carolina on Saturday.

“For most people, you get very few opportunities in this life to confront the president of the United States,” said Niki Thomas, a 29-year-old UAW member who called for a ceasefire and spoke during the speech of Biden was dragged out of the room. speech to the union. “There was no way we weren’t going to take that opportunity to stand up for ourselves and our members, to have the opportunity to let the president know how we feel.”

Protesting is an American tradition, and it is no surprise that a president would see demonstrations on an issue like the Israel-Hamas conflict. Biden aides and allies say the vocal few do not represent the majority who support his policies.

“Is it useful? No. It is not conducive to the president’s ability to mobilize and unite his base,” Democratic strategist Cornell Belcher said of the protests. “But is it fatal at this point? I don’t think it’s fatal. They have to navigate through it.”

As part of that navigation, he said, Biden must show voters what he is doing to end the conflict and contrast that with what Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said: that the war must be allowed to play out. The president has also called for closing U.S. borders to Palestinian refugees.

Biden and his aides have said they do not want civilians to die in Hamas-ruled Gaza, and Biden helped broker a temporary ceasefire that allowed crucial aid to reach the area and the release of some hostages who were held by the militants.

During a visit to Tel Aviv, Biden warned Israelis not to be “consumed by anger.” But Biden has also said he believes Israel has the right to defend itself and has asked Congress for billions to help Israel in its war efforts.

“The president, as I said at the outset, is concerned about the 100-plus hostages,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said. “He doesn’t look at the clock and the election calendar.”

Democratic voters in New Hampshire’s primaries on Tuesday were broadly divided over Biden’s handling of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to AP VoteCast. Only four in 10 of those who disagreed with how Biden has managed the conflict voted for him. But among those who approve of Biden’s leadership in the Middle East, nearly eight in 10 voted for him.

How the president deals with his vocal opponents is also important. Those who disrupt his events are typically removed by security or event staff. If someone is considered a threat or becomes violent, they can be arrested. No one has been arrested so far.

Michael Tyler, Biden’s campaign communications director, said Biden’s response to protesters shows that he is “a president who understands and respects Americans’ fundamental rights to peaceful protest.”

“Joe Biden approaches the situation in the Middle East not through the lens of politics, but as the commander in chief of this country who prioritized America’s national security and global security,” Tyler said. He said Biden did this “with the empathy and decency that complex situations require.”

It’s a stark contrast, he said, to Trump’s handling of dissent.

During the 2016 campaign, Trump’s rallies occasionally degenerated into violence, with protesters being kicked or punched as they were escorted out and Trump calling the disruptors “disgusting” and troublemakers.

This year, Trump faced isolated protests at recent campaign events in Iowa and New Hampshire by demonstrators over climate change and other policies.

Interrupted at a rally in Indianola, Iowa, shortly before the state’s Republican caucuses on Jan. 15, Trump cursed from the stage as a protester was quickly removed: “Go home to mommy. Your mother is waiting. Go home to mom.”

At a rally in Rochester, New Hampshire, Trump dismissed protesters as “misguided people.”

The next evening, as a protester interrupted his rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, Trump directed from the stage: “You can throw him out.”

Biden has tried to acknowledge and empathize with the concerns of his protesters and move forward with his speeches.

During Biden’s remarks at Mother Emanuel, where nine Black parishioners were shot dead in a racist attack in 2015, he raised his hand to calm the angry crowd as protesters were cleared.

One protester shouted: “If you really care about the lives lost here, then you should honor the lives lost and call for a ceasefire in Palestine!”

Biden responded, “I understand their passion. And I have been working quietly – I have been working quietly with the Israeli government to get them to push back and significantly leave Gaza.”

One spectator shouted from the benches: ‘You are an understanding person. You are an understanding person.”

___

Associated Press writers Zeke Miller and Josh Bo in Washington and Michelle L. Price in New York contributed to this report.