USAID Director Samantha Power faced a public revolt from current and former staff condemning “U.S.-funded genocide” in Gaza when she attempted to deliver a speech on climate change in Washington on Tuesday.
Staff members, some of whom had quit just days prior to the speech, interrupted her and demanded that she resign.
“You wrote a book on genocide and you’re still working for the administration: You should resign and speak out,” said Agnieszka Sykes, who worked for USAID until quitting last week, according to The Washington Post.
A current USAID employee, Hannah Funk, accused the U.S. of “hypocrisy” and suggested the Biden administration had squandered its “moral authority” by supporting Israel.
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“The U.S.-funded genocide in Gaza has really left us unable to be moral leaders on climate change and all the other pressing development and humanitarian issues those of us who work at USAID care so much about,” Funk told Power later in the event. “How are you leading us to reckon with and overcome this hypocrisy in U.S. foreign policy?”
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Power then reportedly went on to describe the situation in Gaza as “devastating” and stated that over 25,000 Palestinians have been killed. That data comes from the Palestinian health authority, a Hamas-run organization that Biden and the White House have said should not be trusted.
Nevertheless, Power defended Israel’s campaign as necessary to prevent any further attacks like the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel.
“When Hamas leadership is at large, you know, those same kinds of attacks, the same kind of hostage-taking, the same kind of sexual assault, that can happen again,” she said.
Power’s public spat with staff is only the latest sign of the growing division within the Democratic Party over Israel’s war against Hamas.
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Even interns at the White House have urged Biden to push for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war, according to a letter first shared with NBC News and supported by more than 40 interns who work in the White House and other executive agencies. Biden has also faced criticism from within the Democratic Party by leftist “Squad” members and other politicians for not doing enough to push for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Fox News’ Jeffrey Clark contributed to this report
