Interview With Representative Sean Casten (D-IL) About Pro-Palestinian Protesters Outside DNC
Interview
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"So it's a little surreal. It was a fly-in day for new candidates who are running and a chance for us leadership. I think we probably had about 15 Democrats there, you know, meeting, learning about other candidates, and we heard the protests outside. It's D.C., you know, these things happen. We then heard the building was in a lockdown because the protesters had surrounded all the entries and exits in the building.
And then shortly after there were if I had to guess probably 20 police officers in full tactical gear that were coming in, you know, pretty loud, you know, move against the wall, move against the wall, and, you know, we learned afterwards that they had actually to essentially force their way in because the protesters weren't allowing them to get in.
They separated the members. They eventually got everybody out of there. A lot of respect for Capitol Police but it was just troubling because, you know, the issues are real. I think we're sensitive to the issues on the ground and in the region. But protesting and disobeying orders from a police officer, especially police officers who got some real-time experience on January 6th with unruly crowds is just extremely dangerous, and I hope people can protest in a way that's a little less provocative.
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Well, look, let's be very clear. The protesters per se, I don't think there's been a tremendous amount of violence. There have been some bad apples, of course. In the case, my understanding in the course of talking to the police officers who, you know, helped evacuate us was that the -- they were trying to get in to the building to help us out. The protesters blocked them. At that point my understanding is they had to release some pepper spray and get their way in and I think there was one person who assaulted a police officer.
It's a concern, but I think the police officers did an amazingly professional job with handling that. But, again, I don't think it was the majority of the people who there, but, again, I just can't stress enough, please protest peacefully, and when you get an order from a police officer to disperse, do so, because none of us want to see anybody hurt.
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So, I think you have tremendous unanimity within the Democratic Party of what we're trying to achieve. We want a lasting, durable peace in the region. A unilateral cease-fire is not a cease- fire and I think a lot of us and certainly some of the foreign policy establishment are very concerned when Hamas is saying that they will have another October 7th every day if they're allowed to.
We want peace. We want peace as quickly as possible, and we want a regional peace. We want to elevate the more moderate voices both in the Palestinian Authority and, frankly, in the Knesset who can deliver that peace. There are some, you know, some I think constructive disagreements about the best path to that goal, but there's no real disagreement on the goal.
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You know, I think that's speculation and we'll see what goes on, but, you know, as we get closer to the election, I don't think people have, you know, they say memories are short in Washington, but remember when the Unite the Right rally was happening and Donald Trump was saying there were fine people on both sides of a very antisemitic rally. Remember the president who issued a Muslim ban and his party didn't stand up to him.
So the idea of like which candidate on the ballot is going to be more constructive for the interests for peace, the needs of both the Jewish community, the Muslim community, the Arab community, I think that's going to be a pretty clear conversation come election day.
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So I've been very open about both criticizing the Netanyahu administration for the settlement expansion, making sure we deliver humanitarian assistance, making sure that we do everything we can to minimize civilian casualties. I wish I had some conduit to Hamas but obviously I don't have a way to do that. As I said before, a unilateral cease-fire is not a cease-fire. We all support a cease- fire, we all want to have a world where people on both sides of the border live in peace and have hope about their future.
But a one-sided cease-fire doesn't deliver that peace either in Israel, in Gaza, in the West Bank, and more broadly in the region. You know, I think we're seeing some movement of the Arab countries against Hamas and supporting Israel's right to be a state which is remarkable, and, yes, there's some real concern on the ground about making sure that as Hamas hides behind civilian casualties, we don't cause any more civilian casualties than have to be there.
But we have to get rid of the terrorist elements that are in Gaza and I think the president's course has been the right one so far.
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Well, as a guy who was born in 1971, I have my memories and my interactions with the Carter family are perhaps more limited than some of my more senior colleagues. But I think, you know, what's been so inspiring about the Carter family is how much they have dedicated themself to public service throughout their life. I mean, we've all seen the pictures of, you know, Jimmy Carter building homes for the homeless at a fairly advanced age.
And I think may we all live lives of such dignity and decency where our grandchildren and great grandchildren can look back and say, I'm so proud she was my grandmother.
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Thank you."
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