EXCLUSIVE — Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) said Israel “can do more” to help address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza when speaking to voters at a Democratic meet and greet in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, according to audio obtained by the Washington Examiner.
Casey was asked by a voter on Thursday whether he’d hold Israel accountable for the humanitarian situation in Gaza after the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said the Palestinian death toll has reached over 30,000.
“The first thing I want to make sure that we do is just make sure that we can disable Hamas because that’s a terrorist organization,” Casey said, per the recording. “The good news is lately, a lot more humanitarian support is coming in now than there was even two weeks ago. But there’s a lot more that Israel has got to do, the United States has to do, the Gulf countries, the Arab countries. They got to flood the zone now with food, with water and medicine, medical supplies. And that hasn’t happened right now. It’s starting, but it’s got to happen very rapidly.”
When Casey is asked whether Israel is doing enough, the three-term senator said he thinks “Israel can do more” and also said the United States can do more as well.
As the conflict continues in the Middle East, it has become a political flashpoint ahead of the 2024 election. Casey’s Republican Senate opponent, Dave McCormick, continues to claim Casey is weak in his support for Israel after the October massacre by Hamas.
Citing an article about Sen. Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) speech on the Senate floor on Thursday, in which he called for new elections in Israel, McCormick said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that Casey “stands with Schumer” while attempting to contrast himself by saying he stands “with Israel and its right to defeat the evil of Hamas.”
The National Republican Senatorial Committee is also portraying Casey as shying away from addressing the topic.
“Chuck Schumer and DC Democrats are throwing our allies in Israel under the bus but Bob Casey is silent. Pennsylvanians deserve to know if Bob Casey will stand up and do the right thing or fall in line yet again,” said Philip Letsou, a spokesman for NRSC.
Maddy McDaniel, spokeswoman for Casey’s campaign, rejected that assessment.
“Sen. Casey believes we must do everything we can to help Israel root out Hamas and provide needed humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza,” she said.
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In an interview with PennLive on Thursday, Casey pushed back on criticism from McCormick, saying he is a “very strong” supporter of Israel and that the U.S. must “support Israel in its effort to disable, dismantle Hamas, whatever the metrics of that are.” He also reiterated that he hasn’t supported measures placing conditions on aid, as some other Senate Democrats have demanded.
“I’ve supported efforts to make sure that Israel has what it needs,” Casey said in the interview with PennLive.
