The 2024 election permeated Monday events held by both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump marking the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks.
The Israel-Gaza conflict, and the potential for fighting spreading into a wider regional war, has hung over Harris’s campaign since she entered the race. Muslim and Arab Americans and other progressives have threatened to withhold votes for Harris in protest of the Biden administration’s handling of the conflict, which could be a determining factor in Michigan and other electoral battlegrounds.
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Trump spent his Monday marking the anniversary with both media appearances and multiple in-person events. Harris, on the other hand, held just one event, delivering remarks at the Naval Observatory before planting a pomegranate tree, a Jewish symbol for hope and righteousness, in the residence’s garden.
“I am devastated by the pain and loss that occurred on Oct. 7, and Doug and I pray for the family and loved ones of all of those who were lost, and may their memories be a blessing,” Harris stated. “Today, I know many Jews will be reciting and reflecting on the Jewish prayer for mourning, the Kaddish. The words of the prayer are not about death; it is a prayer about our enduring belief in God, even in our darkest moments. So, as we reflect on the horrors of Oct. 7, let us please be reminded that we cannot lose faith.”
The vice president’s remarks made no mention of the election, but a group of pro-Gaza protesters made their mark known throughout. Those protesters gathered along the Naval Observatory perimeter fencing and, at times, overshadowed Harris’s own words by chanting through bullhorns, banging drums, and blaring sirens.
The vice president did briefly respond to a question from reporters about getting the ceasefire negotiations back on track.
“We’re not giving up. We’re doing everything we can possibly do to get the ceasefire hostage deal done,” she declared. “It’s one of the most important ways we will be able to end this war and bring any type of stability to the region. It’s one of the highest priorities of this administration.”
Unlike Harris, Trump’s commemoration of Oct. 7 quickly turned political.
During Monday morning interviews with radio hosts Sid Rosenberg and Hugh Hewitt, the former president claimed to have done more for the Jewish people than any other American president and attacked President Joe Biden and Harris’s foreign policy.
Trump’s interview covered a number of political issues beyond the Oct. 7 attacks, and the former president claimed that “nobody’s done more for the Jewish people than [he has].”
“I should get 100% of the Jewish vote, and I don’t,” he told Rosenberg. “It’s amazing.”
“Oct. 7 never would have happened if I was there,” Trump continued. “This is the stupidest regime. There’s never been anything like it, and now we have Kamala, who’s dumber than him. Biden is sharper than Kamala.”
The former president also made two public appearances on Monday. First, he joined conservative commentator Ben Shapiro at the New York grave of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Later in the day, Trump hosted an Oct. 7 remembrance event alongside Miriam Adelson and a host of Jewish leaders and Republican lawmakers at Mar-a-Lago, his South Florida club.
Adelson introduced Trump by claiming that, if he had still been president, “Oct. 7 wouldn’t have happened.”
“One year ago today, every civilized person was filled with shock and horror and grief at the news of an evil so absolute that nobody’s seen anything like it,” the former president opened before calling for a moment of silence for the more than 1,200 people killed on Oct. 7.
“The bond between the United States and Israel is strong and enduring,” Trump continued. “If and when I’m president of the United States, it will once again be stronger and closer than it ever was before. We have to win this election. If we don’t win this election, there’s tremendous consequence for everything.”
The former president claimed that Nov. 5, Election Day, “will be the most important day in the history of our country” and “the most important day in the history of Israel,” and if elected, Trump promised to “remove the Jew-haters who do nothing to help our country.”
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Trump added that the current “leadership of this country” is allowing a new wave of anti-semitism to spread through America, “here in our streets, our media, and our college campuses, and within the ranks of the Democratic Party in particular.
“The Oct. 7 attack would never have happened if I was president,” Trump continued, echoing Adelson. “The past few years have proven that weakness only begets violence and war, and you see that it’s weakness, but it’s also, there’s a lot of hatred going around. What is needed more than ever is a return of unwavering American leadership and unquestioned American strength.”
