Republicans are demanding the same sort of zealous prosecutions of anti-Israel demonstrators who rampaged in Washington this week as the Biden administration doled out to the protesters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Demonstrators sprayed pro-Hamas messages on monuments, tore down and burned American flags and attacked police officers trying to maintain order at a park near the Capitol.
“My view has always been that when extremists conspire to sow chaos and violate our nation’s capital, the government should throw the book at them,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican. He drew the comparison to the mob that invaded the Capitol to protest the results of the 2020 election.
The National Park Service was cleaning up Thursday after the mayhem. Workers were trying to scrub clean statues in Columbus Circle, a plaza park near Union Station, of spray-painted messages such as “Free Gaza,” “child killers,” Free Palestine” and “Hamas.”
American flags were hoisted back on flagpoles a day after the protesters replaced them with Palestinian banners.
The images of the protests reverberated.
SEE ALSO: National Park Service begins cleanup of vandalized monuments following anti-Israel protest
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s likely presidential nominee, condemned what she called “despicable acts by unpatriotic protesters.”
“I condemn any individuals associating with the brutal terrorist organization Hamas, which has vowed to annihilate the State of Israel and kill Jews. Pro-Hamas graffiti and rhetoric is abhorrent and we must not tolerate it in our nation,” she said in a statement.
She expressed particular displeasure at the treatment of the American flag.
“It should never be desecrated in that way,” she said. “I support the right to peacefully protest, but let’s be clear: Antisemitism, hate and violence of any kind have no place in our nation.”
She did not call for criminal punishments.
Mr. McConnell did, but he said he was “not holding my breath.”
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said he wanted to work with Congress to make the desecration of the U.S. flag a crime with a one-year jail sentence.
“Now, people will say it’s unconstitutional. … Those are stupid people that say that,” Mr. Trump said in a call-in to Fox News. “When they are allowed to stomp on the flag and put lighter fluid on the flag and set it afire. … You get a one-year jail sentence, and you’ll never see it again. All over the world — [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and President Xi [Jinping] of China — all over the world they are watching this. Kim Jong-un, he looks at us like we are a bunch of babies.”
At least 23 protesters were arrested Wednesday, and D.C. Metropolitan Police said nine were charged with offenses such as assaulting police officers and crossing police lines.
Sen. Tom Cotton, Arkansas Republican, said any foreigner who was part of the protests and broke the law or specifically promoted Hamas “needs to be deported.”
The U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia declined to comment on its approach to prosecutions.
It was unclear Thursday how many cases had been brought.
The office brought federal charges against more than 1,400 people related to the 2021 protests, which Attorney General Merrick Garland labeled an “assault on democracy.”
Many Washingtonians were outraged by the defacements this week, and some asked the Park Service whether they could help with the cleanup. The agency politely declined, saying the monuments needed a particular touch and that simply using bleach and a pressure washer could damage them.
An employee said the work might take some time.
“Marble is a more porous material than granite, so once the paint starts to seep in, it takes a little longer to draw it out, but certainly over the course of the next week,” the Park Service employee said.
Washington has been the site of repeated protest chaos, including from mobs furious at the death of George Floyd in the summer of 2020 that tore down public statues and the 2021 assault on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob angry at the election results.
As president, Mr. Trump issued an executive order in June 2020 instructing federal authorities to prosecute people who damaged federal monuments or statues. President Biden rescinded the order 11 months later.
As the protests grew unruly this week, the Park Service tried to clear the plaza park at Columbus Circle between Union Station and the Capitol.
“A crowd in Columbus Circle is engaged in criminal activity and confronting law enforcement on scene. USPP is attempting to de-escalate and contact the event organizer for help,” the law enforcement agency said on social media.
The U.S. Capitol Police had erected barriers and tried to restrict access. Officers used pepper spray to stop protesters trying to break through the police line.
Capitol Police brought in reinforcements from departments in the District, Maryland and Virginia and more than 200 officers from the New York Police Department.
Rep. Bruce Westerman, an Arkansas Republican and chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, which oversees the Park Service, questioned why the Park Police weren’t better prepared.
“It has come to my attention that, despite specific requests by the USPP for additional resources, the Department of the Interior (DOI) and the National Park Service (NPS) failed to provide adequate additional support for the USPP, such as providing additional law enforcement units from within DOI to enhance USPP’s presence within the National Capital Region,” Mr. Westerman wrote in a letter to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.
He said protesters were allowed to “run wild.”
The Park Service replied by saying, “No resource requests were declined by NPS or Interior leaders.”
• Stephen Dinan contributed to this report.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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