February Washington Memo
Russia, China, Hamas! When it comes to pro-Palestine protesters, there seems there is almost no imaginary foreign connection politicians are too ashamed to concoct.
As a Substack subscriber, we are offering you a special monthly Washington Memo. Straight from the desk of our esteemed policy director Chip Gibbons, it will offer you insights into what’s happening in Washington when it comes to defending your right to know and freedom to act. As always, we deeply appreciate your support. It makes our work possible.
I hope your new year is off to a good start. Or as good as it can be in these turbulent times. As you may have noticed, we skipped the Washington Memo for January, but I want to assure you that we were busy continuing to work for your freedom to act and right to know throughout the month.
The war on Gaza remains not just a source of human horror, but of deprivations of civil liberties. The First Amendment protects both supporters of Israel’s war and Palestinian human rights, but war supporters have increasingly tried to shut down any and all voices for Palestine. We’ve seen local officials, national legislators, and private blacklisters all demonize ceasefire protesters calling them everything from anti-Semites to Hamas supporters.
Recently on CNN, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi repurposed an old smear and applied it to a new movement. She stated that support for a ceasefire was the message of Russian President Vladimir Putin and called for the FBI to investigate Russian funding of pro-ceasefire protesters. Shortly after her demagogic remarks, footage emerged of Pelosi telling pro-ceasefire protesters to “go back to China where your headquarters is.”