MANASSAS, Va. — It was President Joe Biden’s first big campaign rally of the year, a chance to spotlight the issue of protecting abortion rights. Instead, at least a dozen times during Biden’s 22-minute speech, demonstrators scattered throughout the audience rose to shout out demands for a cease-fire in Gaza.
His speech in Virginia this past week became a fits-and-starts affair. Over and over, the protesters interjected and were drowned out by audience members shouting chants of “four more years!” and “Joe! Joe! Joe!”
“They feel deeply,” Biden said of the demonstrators, who were pulled from the room by security personnel.
The Democratic president is increasingly contending with protests inside and outside his events from progressives upset about his administration’s support for Israel in its offensive in Gaza. More than 26,000 Palestinians, mostly women and minors, have been killed in Gaza since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory.
The protests lay bare the tensions Biden is facing within his own party as he struggles with the fallout from his handling of the war while honoring the First Amendment rights of his critics to speak out. Biden’s ability to navigate those crosscurrents will be critical to his reelection effort as he tries to energize Democrats this fall, especially young people who are particularly concerned about the war’s effects.
Demonstrators disrupted Biden’s speech at Mother Emanuel AME Church in South Carolina earlier this month as the president spoke out against racism, and they turned up at a United Auto Workers gathering this past week in Washington where Biden accepted the powerful union’s endorsement, and at a political event in Columbia, South Carolina on Saturday.
“For most people, you get very few chances in this life to confront the president of the United States,” said Niki Thomas, a 29-year-old UAW member who yelled for a cease-fire and was dragged from the room during Biden’s speech to the union. “There was no way that we weren’t going to take that opportunity to speak up for for ourselves, for our members, to get a chance to let the president know how we feel.”
Protesting is an American tradition, and it’s hardly a surprise that a president would see demonstrations on an issue such as the Israel-Hamas conflict. Biden aides and allies say the loud few do not represent the majority who back his policies.
“Is it helpful? No. It’s not helpful to the president’s ability to mobilize and coalesce 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 it.”
As part of that navigation, he said, Biden needs to show voters what he’s doing to end the conflict and contrast that with what Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has said: that the war should be allowed to “play out.” The former president also has called for U.S. borders to be sealed from Palestinian refugees.
Biden and his aides have said they do not want to see any civilians die in Hamas-ruled Gaza, and Biden helped broker a temporary cease-fire that saw critical aid reach the territory and the release of some hostages held by the militants.
During a visit to Tel Aviv, Biden warned the Israelis not to be “consumed by rage.” But Biden has also said he believes Israel has the right to defend itself and he has asked Congress for billions to help Israel in its war effort.