‘Terrorist sympathizer?’ Attack on Adam Gray more Republican nonsense | Opinion
In November 2023 the House of Representatives took the rare step of censuring one of their own, Democrat Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, over her strident criticism of Israel following the terror attack in that nation by Palestinian militants.
Five months later another Democrat, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, came under fire for calling some Jewish students “pro-genocide” for their backing Israel in its conflict with Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
It would be fair to characterize both of them as being sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinian people. Tlaib is the only Palestinian member of Congress.
But calling Rep. Adam Gray, D-Merced, a “Hamas terrorist sympathizer?” That is absurd.
Yet absurdity is what one gets from the National Republican Congressional Committee.
The organization, which exists to get more Republicans elected to Congress, specializes in overheated rhetoric that often ventures into outright lying.
So it is with a recent posting about Gray.
As reported by David Lightman of The Sacramento Bee, the NRCC created a website posting with the headline “Hamas Terrorist Sympathizer: Democrat Adam Gray.”
His crime? Unlike Tlaib and Omar, who spoke in support of the Palestinian cause, Gray got skewered by the NRCC for things he did not say.
The NRCC drew its commentary from a Sacramento Bee story from May 2024 in which Gray’s campaign organization “did not respond to requests for comment about campus protests and a potential ceasefire deal.”
Many protests were held at American universities to publicize the plight of Palestinians in Gaza who came under Israeli attacks as retaliation for the Hamas assault that killed 1,200 Jews on Oct. 7, 2023.
Gray also did not respond to requests for comment on the Israel-Hamas conflict. Nor did he make any social media posts after an Iranian missile strike at Israel in April 2024.
Lightman asked the NRCC for additional evidence that Gray was sympathetic to Hamas. No response was forthcoming.
Gray voted in support of Israel and its war against Hamas when he backed the Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act. He was one of 44 Democrats to back the act, which called the International Criminal Court an illegitimate organization over its arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former defense minister Yoav Gallant and a Hamas commander, claiming they had committed “crimes against humanity” because of Israel’s response to the Hamas attack on Israel.
Gray and Republican attacks
That the NRCC would target Gray is no surprise. His race last fall against GOP incumbent John Duarte did not get resolved until Dec. 2, the last House race in the nation to be decided. Gray won by just 187 votes.
The 13th Congressional District spans Fresno, Madera, Merced, Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties. Democrats hold a nine-point edge in voter registration, but the district is famously neither red or blue, but purple, as the vote tally shows.
Gray is one of the Democrats the NRCC would dearly love to defeat next year. So, more than a year from the election, Gray already faces the GOP hype machine. In this case, the hype is an untrue smear that the GOP clearly hopes will remain in the minds of voters who are too busy to fact-check a falsehood. Gray has demonstrated his support for Israel with his votes.
‘Sympathizer’ label just GOP nonsense
The former Assembly member from Merced, Gray, is no stranger to finding opposition. Notably, though, it came from his own party when he was in the statehouse.
Gray got removed from several committee chairmanships during his tenure in the Assembly because he would not vote with the Democratic majority on water issues.
Instead, he explained his votes as wanting water deliveries to farmers in his district and the greater San Joaquin Valley.
“I have spent my entire time in public office fighting Sacramento’s insatiable thirst for the Valley’s water,” he said in 2020 after he was dumped from the Governmental Organization Committee. “Every time I am punished by my own party’s leadership for standing up for my district, it is a reminder that I was elected to represent the people who live and work in Merced and Stanislaus counties.”
Having withstood silly political games from his party, Gray will certainly handle whatever nonsense the National Republican Congressional Committee throws at him.
