Because the Biden administration has been virtually AWOL in public advocacy for a hunger-striking American unjustly imprisoned in Jordan, Republican House leaders should take his banner.

As noted here numerous times, Bassem Awadallah is a Jordanian American with dual citizenship who was imprisoned in April 2021 on charges of sedition against King Abdullah II. Whether or not the charges are illegitimate, which is how they appear from a distance, the indisputable reality is that Awadallah was not allowed to present evidence or witnesses in his own defense. He also claims to have been viciously tortured in Jordanian custody, a practice the State Department in 2020 said does indeed occur in Jordanian detention centers. He has been held in solitary confinement and has not been able to see his family, members of which, he alleges, were threatened as part of an effort to coerce a confession from him.