(Headline USA) “Squad” Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., was forced to walk back comments he made last year dismissing reports of Hamas committing sexual violence against women as “propaganda.”
After the terrorist organization’s attack on Israel, Bowman attended a Nov. 17 rally with dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters in New York and questioned the allegations against Hamas soldiers.
“There was propaganda used in the beginning of the siege,” Bowman said in a TikTok post discovered and reported by Politico. “There’s still no evidence of beheaded babies or raped women. But they still keep using that lie [for] propaganda.”
However, multiple media outlets have since produced witnesses and specific evidence to back up those accounts, Politico noted.
This week, the New York Times corroborated yet another story from an Israeli victim who had been taken hostage by Hamas terrorists into Gaza. The victim said she was assaulted by one of her guards.
Asked whether he still stood by the comments he made about Hamas in November, Bowman tried to avoid the question.
“I’m focused on my votes and other things. I’m not talking,” he told reporters. “I’m not talking about that now. My team will get back to you.”
In a statement afterward, however, Bowman appeared to walk back his earlier dismissal of sexual violence against Israeli women.
“As I said at this rally, what Hamas did on Oct. 7 is a war crime, and they must release all the hostages,” he said. “The UN confirmed that Hamas committed rape and sexual violence, a reprehensible fact that I condemn entirely.”
Bowman in recent weeks has had to walk back several other inflammatory comments he has made, including past remarks he made about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. In January, he apologized for blog posts he made years ago questioning whether the attacks by al-Qaeda had been an inside job.
“It’s obvious to everyone, especially the far-right MAGA Republicans I take on every day in Congress, that I will always stand up and fight against misinformation and harmful conspiracy theories,” the notorious fire-alarm puller claimed.
