Rep. Ro Khanna told The Recount that the Democratic Party in 2024 “allowed Trump to define himself as a candidate of peace,” while it failed to shed the label as the party of war due to its support of Israel’s war in Gaza.
“I think the Democrats need to be a party that says, we’re not gonna be the party of war. And we allowed Trump to define himself as a candidate of peace even though he had dramatically increased drone strikes, even though he had bombed Syria, even though he had talked about taking over Syrian oil reserves, even though at times he was trying to get into a war in Iran,” Khanna, a Democrat from California, told The Recount Senior Politics Producer Steve Morris in an interview Thursday.
“We had to say that we would be more judicious in the use of American might and not get us entangled into conflicts.”
During the 2024 campaign season, Trump positioned himself as the anti-war candidate and the candidate best suited to end the Israel-Hamas war — although he has pushed some aggressive military stances in the past, such as reportedly considering strikes on Iran, and he nominated foreign policy hawks to his second administration.
Khanna also called out the Democratic Party for not ending the Israel-Hamas war in 2024 and for continuing to support Israel’s offensive on Gaza, which has led to a humanitarian crisis and killed more than 40,000 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
“We should have brought that war to an end with the release of the hostages.” Khanna said. “I was urging the vice president and the campaign to say the war was a mistake. It was a foreign policy blunder and we need a new start.”
