This is What Projection Looks Like
The same administration that shelters January 6th rioters is accusing Democrats of siding with terrorists.
Karoline Leavitt went on Fox News this week and declared, without hesitation, that “the Democrat Party's main constituency is made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals.”
It’s a statement so unhinged, so corrosive, and so emblematic of the political rot that has taken hold of the modern Republican Party that it almost feels redundant to point out how absurd it is. But we have to, because words like these don’t just echo through a news cycle—they poison the well of civic discourse.
Leavitt made her comments while criticizing New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani for declining to answer whether Hamas should disarm in Gaza. To be clear: it’s entirely fair to question Mamdani’s silence. There’s nothing complicated about condemning terrorism, and the refusal to do so invites legitimate scrutiny. (Note: Mamdani backtracked during the NYC mayoral debate on Thursday night.)
This isn’t to say there isn’t a serious problem with antisemitism on parts of the left—there is, and it’s something Democrats like myself confront constantly. Many of us who are both Democrats and Zionists have been fighting within the party to ensure it doesn’t turn its back on Israel or allow antisemitism to masquerade as social justice. But acknowledging that problem is not the same as accepting Leavitt’s smear.
What she did was paint an entire political party as sympathetic to terrorists, immigrants, and criminals—a grotesque distortion designed to inflame, not inform. There’s nothing wrong with people wanting to immigrate, but this administration is actually making it harder. Not only are they targeting immigrants already living in the U.S., but they’ve also gone so far as to mysteriously cancel appointments for people trying to come here legally. They’ve even blocked members of Iran’s Jewish community from resettling in America—all while quietly fast-tracking white South Africans for reasons no one can seem to explain.
This is projection masquerading as patriotism.
Because let’s not forget who Leavitt works for. She represents an administration whose base still includes people who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6th—people who beat police officers, smeared blood on the walls of Congress, and tried to overturn a democratic election. Half the country watched that day and decided it was fine. That’s the reality she’s defending.
And while she rails against Democrats as enemies of “law-abiding Americans,” her own party is presiding over one of the longest government shutdowns in American history—a self-inflicted wound now threatening the paychecks of federal workers and, soon, the meals of millions of families.
As Acting SNAP head Ronald Ward warned state officials this week: “If the current lapse in appropriations continues, there will be insufficient funds to pay full November SNAP benefits for approximately 42 million individuals across the Nation.”
Forty-two million people—children, seniors, working parents—all about to lose access to food assistance because the party of “law and order” can’t govern. Myself included.
So when Leavitt lectures the rest of us about morality and order, maybe she should start by looking in the mirror.
Because no amount of deflection, no Fox News soundbite, and no demonizing of political opponents can hide the truth: the cruelty, dysfunction, and hypocrisy of this administration are not bugs in the system—they are the system.
And the rest of us are paying the price.