White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is condemning the tearing down of posters of hostages held by Hamas.
Jean-Pierre opened the press briefing on Wednesday by delivering the condemnation after she missed an opportunity to do so a day earlier.
“We continue to see an alarming trend of antisemitic threats and attacks targeting Jewish communities across the country, disturbing acts like tearing down posters of Jewish hostages held by Hamas, vandalizing Jewish institutions, threatening to commit acts of violence against Jewish students, Jewish faith leaders, and Jewish communities,” she said.
Jean-Pierre said such acts “stoke fear” and are “completely unacceptable.”
“The president strongly condemns these brazen acts of antisemitism and has repeatedly made clear targeting Jews because of their beliefs or their identity is unacceptable,” she added.
Watch the video below:
After refusing to condemn tearing down posters of hostages just one day prior, Karine Jean-Pierre says Biden has “repeatedly made clear” that such anti-Semitic acts are "unacceptable." pic.twitter.com/MPLbZQasYS
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) November 8, 2023
On Tuesday, Jean-Pierre was asked by NBC News’ Peter Alexander if President Joe Biden believes the act of tearing down hostage posters should be condemned.
“I’ve sort of kind of seen the reporting here and there. I think it was from last week,” the press secretary responded.
When Alexander noted there have been “like 30 million videos” of such actions, Jean-Pierre said, “No, I know. I hear you… I’m just not going to go into specifics on that particular thing. What I can say [is], there are real but violent protests and threats that are happening right now. And senior administration officials are aware of these reports which are deeply concerning. And that is something that we’re focused on.”
Karine Jean-Pierre on antisemitic protesters tearing down Israel hostage posters around the country:
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) November 7, 2023
"I've sorta kinda seen the reporting … I'm just not going to go into specifics on that particular thing" pic.twitter.com/hWwPq77IIW
In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Jean-Pierre also called the act of tearing down the posters “wrong and hurtful.”