U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell showed his complete lack of self-awareness in his latest attack on Republicans, calling colleagues out for being on “team Hamas” because of their stand on the terrorists who attacked Israel last month.
The California Democrat, infamous for being compromised by a female Chinese spy, conveniently ignored his own praise of groups with ties to Hamas, and recent trips to one Middle East region provide a glaring display of his hypocrisy.
Amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, Swalwell reacted to a post on X that reported how the terror organization thanks Russian President Vladimir Putin for his support of Palestinians.
“If you are a MAGA GOP member who has sided with Russia over Ukraine — from Kevin McCarthy to MTG — let’s be clear: you are also now on Team Hamas,” he tweeted, making reference to Republican Reps. Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.) The GOP lawmakers were among those who opposed giving more aid to Ukraine in its ongoing war with Russia.
If you are a MAGA GOP member who has sided with Russia over Ukraine — from Kevin McCarthy to MTG — let’s be clear: you are also now on Team Hamas. https://t.co/FXH84FlPAO
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) October 14, 2023
“Swalwell has taken at least four all-expenses-paid junkets to Qatar, the oil-rich Gulf nation and Hamas’s largest financial backer,” The Washington Free Beacon reported Thursday.
“During a trip in 2021 with Rep. Ruben Gallego (D., Ariz.), Swalwell met with the head of the government ministry that claimed Israel was ‘solely responsible; for Hamas’s attack last month. Swalwell praised Qatar for ‘showcasing … the region’s religion & culture’ during a trip to the World Cup last year, funded by the Qatari government,” the outlet continued.
Hamas leaders reportedly can always find a safe harbor in the capital city of Doha provided by the Qatar government which also funded the group in 2021 with $360 million, according to the Times of Israel.
While Swalwell has openly expressed his support of Israel while condemning the attack by Hamas, his hypocritical multiple visits to Qatar belie his sincerity and open him up to justified criticism, especially when the nation’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared last month that it “holds Israel solely responsible for the ongoing escalation due to its ongoing violations of the rights of the Palestinian people.”
“Qatar spends millions of dollars a year peddling influence in Washington, D.C., through traditional lobbying, congressional junkets, and donations to foreign policy think tanks and American universities,” the Free Beacon noted, recounting how Swalwell and Gallego met with Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, now Qatari prime minister, in 2021.
House intelligence committee member Rep. Eric Swalwell took a mid-pandemic break from questions about his relationship with Chinese spy Fang Fang…
…and posed shirtless atop a camel during a junket to Qatarhttps://t.co/PWBSAGqS9I pic.twitter.com/qftwufzLi1
— Steven Nelson (@stevennelson10) July 9, 2021
According to the Free Beacon:
The delegation paid a visit to the Qatar Foundation, a government-backed think tank, for a briefing on Qatar’s educational initiatives. The Qatar Foundation has links to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. In 2009, it opened a research center named after Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a leading Muslim Brotherhood figure who lives in exile in Doha. Al-Qaradawi said in a 2009 speech that Adolf Hitler “put [Jews] in their place.”
Swalwell and Gallego also met with Hind Abdul Rahman al-Muftah, a Qatari diplomat with a lengthy history of anti-Semitic commentary. She has claimed “the Jews” have “dominated, tyrannized and ruled the world” through the media, and that “the American Zionist controls the U.S. media.”
According to Swalwell’s financial disclosures, his trips to Doha in October 2020 and January 2022 were funded by the Qatari government.