Rep. Ro Khanna’s (D-CA) detainment stunt only proves that Democrats desperate to become the party’s presidential nominee in 2028 are going to embrace increasingly ridiculous stunts, likely leaning into the villainization of Israel.
Khanna made a visit to a military zone in the West Bank without the clearance of the Israeli government, knowing he could get a headline out of being “detained” and use it to smear the Israeli military as the true evil in the Middle East. Khanna was unsurprisingly detained after creating the perfect conditions to get himself detained, which he used to preen that his 2028 presidential campaign (“if,” he runs, as if his decision isn’t obvious already) will be focused on the plight of the Palestinians.
Khanna got exactly what he wanted, which is why he and his entourage rolled into a restricted zone without giving Israel a heads-up, instead orchestrating their trip through Palestinian propagandists. Conveniently, there was a New York Times photographer in Khanna’s party as well. And, in case there was any doubt about what Khanna’s true intentions were, he was quoted by the New York Times as saying this: “Free advice to the Israelis: It’s not a good idea to detain long-shot presidential candidates.”
You can practically hear the man beg antisemitic Democratic voters to notice him.
Cringeworthy stunts by inauthentic Democrats who want to become presidents are the new normal in our politics. Who can forget the Democratic posturing leading up to 2020, which featured then-Sen. Kamala Harris’s (D-CA) wooden delivery of a preplanned debate attack against Joe Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) livestreaming herself drinking a beer to make herself seem more relatable, and everything about Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ)?
ISRAEL BECOMES DEMOCRATS’ ABORTION-STYLE LITMUS TEST
But what Khanna is showing is that the 2028 posturing for Democrats will lean heavily into the antisemitism of the party’s activist base. We are seeing aspects of this in other races, such as Michigan’s Senate race, where Democratic hopeful Abdul el Sayed is deflecting all questions about his tax returns by ranting about the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The Democratic Party has reached the point that CNN anchors are openly measuring how Jewish a Jewish Democrat seems to be to explain why Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) is a 2028 contender, and Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) is not.
The Democratic Party is only going to become more obsessed with Israel and more antisemitic as the 2028 election approaches, hoping to incite passion in the antisemites who helped Zohran Mamdani rise to power in New York City. The result is going to be more stunts like Khanna’s, designed by each candidate to throw red meat to antisemites and paint themselves as the candidate Israel fears, which is all the antisemitic activist base of the Democratic Party wants to see.