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Starving Palestinians queue for hours to receive food distributed by charitable organizations in Deir Balah, Gaza on March 1, 2024.
"Israel MUST open the borders and allow the United Nations to deliver supplies in sufficient quantities."
Independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday gave a qualified endorsement of American military airdrops of desperately needed humanitarian supplies into Gaza, echoing assertions from other human rights defenders that Israel must allow massive, immediate ground shipments of aid to reach the bombed and besieged Palestinians who are beginning to starve to death.
President Joe Biden announced Friday that the U.S. would soon begin humanitarian airdrops into Gaza, vowing to "pull out every stop we can."
"In the coming days we’re going to join with our friends in Jordan and others who are providing airdrops of additional food and supplies," Biden said at the White House alongside his guest, far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The president added that he would also "seek to open up other avenues, including possibly a marine corridor," to deliver aid to Gaza.
Joe Biden says the U.S. aims to airdrop humanitarian aid to Gaza and insists on Israel's help.https://t.co/CRU38GsJsB pic.twitter.com/inWnkSPSsM
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) March 1, 2024
A senior Biden administration official who asked to remain anonymous told Politico that while there have been internal discussions regarding airdrops for weeks, Thursday's attack by Israeli forces on starving Palestinians gathered to receive food aid on al-Rashid Street in Gaza City prompted the president's decision. More than 1,000 civilians were killed and wounded in the massacre.
"The United States, which has helped fund the Israeli military for years, cannot sit back and allow hundreds of thousands of innocent children to starve to death," Sanders (Vt.) said in a statement. "As a result of Israeli bombing and restrictions on humanitarian aid, the people of Gaza are facing an unprecedented humanitarian disaster."
"But while an airdrop will buy time and save lives, there is no substitute for sustained ground deliveries of what is needed to sustain life in Gaza," he added. "Israel MUST open the borders and allow the United Nations to deliver supplies in sufficient quantities. The United States should make clear that failure to do so immediately will lead to a fundamental break in the U.S.-Israeli relationship and the immediate halt of all military aid."
Sanders has advocated strong measures including limiting U.S. military aid in an effort to compel Israel to stop the slaughter. However, the 82-year-old democratic socialist has come under fire for his unwillingness to call for Gaza cease-fire. Instead, Sanders has repeatedly urged a "humanitarian pause."
Israeli forces have killed more than 30,200 Palestinians in Gaza—most of them women and children—while wounding over 71,300 others and displacing around 90% of the besieged enclave's 2.3 million people. Children are now starving to death, and experts say adults, especially elders and other vulnerable people, will soon follow absent urgent intervention.
Israeli forces have bombed food production and distribution centers, destroyed crops, and killed livestock. They have also attacked fishers and fired on aid convoys. Israeli extremists have blocked convoys at border crossings, setting up encampments and even a giant bouncy castle where organizers served popcorn, cotton candy, and slushies to children.
Meanwhile, Palestinians desperately trying to survive are eating whatever they can find, including grass, livestock feed, and horses.
United Nations food experts said this week that Israel's forced starvation of Gazans is genocidal.
Other human rights defenders also stressed the need for a massive ground-based relief effort for Gaza.
"Airdrops will not be effective in blunting the humanitarian crises in Gaza," said Dave Harden, a former assistant administrator at the United States Agency for International Development. "Airdrops are inefficient, expensive, dangerous, and only helpful when there are no other delivery options. Airdrops are primarily for the Biden administration's benefit—to paper over a massive policy failure."
Oxfam America president and CEO Abby Maxman
asserted on social media that "people in Gaza are starving, and any aid can feel like a lifeline to hold on to—but airdrops are not the answer."
"They are a chaotic and potentially dangerous fig leaf in the face of starvation and desperation," she added. "Full unfettered humanitarian access is needed now to save lives."
Echoing Maxman, Scott Paul, who runs humanitarian policy at Oxfam America, said that airdrops "would mostly serve to relieve the guilty consciences of senior U.S. officials whose policies are contributing to the ongoing atrocities and risk of famine in Gaza."
Joyce Ajlouny, the general secretary of the American Friends Service Committee—a Quaker organization—met with Biden administration officials Friday and pleaded for "an immediate and permanent cease-fire and full access for humanitarian aid."
"While we are happy to see any aid reaching people in Gaza, airdrops are not enough," Ajlouny said. "It is a cruel irony to drop food when at the same time you are directly responsible for dropping bombs. We need a cease-fire and full humanitarian access."
"But we also know that a cease-fire and humanitarian relief are not enough," she continued. "As a Palestinian, I know the history that got us here very intimately. And as a Palestinian and a Quaker I know that a just and lasting peace will only come when we address the apartheid state imposed on Palestinians for decades."
"Fourteen successive presidential administrations have supported the Israeli occupation. Now the Biden administration is funding a genocide," Ajlouny added. "Calls for restraint mean little when Israel is ignoring us and our tax dollars are used to pay for Israel's aggression."
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Independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday gave a qualified endorsement of American military airdrops of desperately needed humanitarian supplies into Gaza, echoing assertions from other human rights defenders that Israel must allow massive, immediate ground shipments of aid to reach the bombed and besieged Palestinians who are beginning to starve to death.
President Joe Biden announced Friday that the U.S. would soon begin humanitarian airdrops into Gaza, vowing to "pull out every stop we can."
"In the coming days we’re going to join with our friends in Jordan and others who are providing airdrops of additional food and supplies," Biden said at the White House alongside his guest, far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The president added that he would also "seek to open up other avenues, including possibly a marine corridor," to deliver aid to Gaza.
Joe Biden says the U.S. aims to airdrop humanitarian aid to Gaza and insists on Israel's help.https://t.co/CRU38GsJsB pic.twitter.com/inWnkSPSsM
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) March 1, 2024
A senior Biden administration official who asked to remain anonymous told Politico that while there have been internal discussions regarding airdrops for weeks, Thursday's attack by Israeli forces on starving Palestinians gathered to receive food aid on al-Rashid Street in Gaza City prompted the president's decision. More than 1,000 civilians were killed and wounded in the massacre.
"The United States, which has helped fund the Israeli military for years, cannot sit back and allow hundreds of thousands of innocent children to starve to death," Sanders (Vt.) said in a statement. "As a result of Israeli bombing and restrictions on humanitarian aid, the people of Gaza are facing an unprecedented humanitarian disaster."
"But while an airdrop will buy time and save lives, there is no substitute for sustained ground deliveries of what is needed to sustain life in Gaza," he added. "Israel MUST open the borders and allow the United Nations to deliver supplies in sufficient quantities. The United States should make clear that failure to do so immediately will lead to a fundamental break in the U.S.-Israeli relationship and the immediate halt of all military aid."
Sanders has advocated strong measures including limiting U.S. military aid in an effort to compel Israel to stop the slaughter. However, the 82-year-old democratic socialist has come under fire for his unwillingness to call for Gaza cease-fire. Instead, Sanders has repeatedly urged a "humanitarian pause."
Israeli forces have killed more than 30,200 Palestinians in Gaza—most of them women and children—while wounding over 71,300 others and displacing around 90% of the besieged enclave's 2.3 million people. Children are now starving to death, and experts say adults, especially elders and other vulnerable people, will soon follow absent urgent intervention.
Israeli forces have bombed food production and distribution centers, destroyed crops, and killed livestock. They have also attacked fishers and fired on aid convoys. Israeli extremists have blocked convoys at border crossings, setting up encampments and even a giant bouncy castle where organizers served popcorn, cotton candy, and slushies to children.
Meanwhile, Palestinians desperately trying to survive are eating whatever they can find, including grass, livestock feed, and horses.
United Nations food experts said this week that Israel's forced starvation of Gazans is genocidal.
Other human rights defenders also stressed the need for a massive ground-based relief effort for Gaza.
"Airdrops will not be effective in blunting the humanitarian crises in Gaza," said Dave Harden, a former assistant administrator at the United States Agency for International Development. "Airdrops are inefficient, expensive, dangerous, and only helpful when there are no other delivery options. Airdrops are primarily for the Biden administration's benefit—to paper over a massive policy failure."
Oxfam America president and CEO Abby Maxman
asserted on social media that "people in Gaza are starving, and any aid can feel like a lifeline to hold on to—but airdrops are not the answer."
"They are a chaotic and potentially dangerous fig leaf in the face of starvation and desperation," she added. "Full unfettered humanitarian access is needed now to save lives."
Echoing Maxman, Scott Paul, who runs humanitarian policy at Oxfam America, said that airdrops "would mostly serve to relieve the guilty consciences of senior U.S. officials whose policies are contributing to the ongoing atrocities and risk of famine in Gaza."
Joyce Ajlouny, the general secretary of the American Friends Service Committee—a Quaker organization—met with Biden administration officials Friday and pleaded for "an immediate and permanent cease-fire and full access for humanitarian aid."
"While we are happy to see any aid reaching people in Gaza, airdrops are not enough," Ajlouny said. "It is a cruel irony to drop food when at the same time you are directly responsible for dropping bombs. We need a cease-fire and full humanitarian access."
"But we also know that a cease-fire and humanitarian relief are not enough," she continued. "As a Palestinian, I know the history that got us here very intimately. And as a Palestinian and a Quaker I know that a just and lasting peace will only come when we address the apartheid state imposed on Palestinians for decades."
"Fourteen successive presidential administrations have supported the Israeli occupation. Now the Biden administration is funding a genocide," Ajlouny added. "Calls for restraint mean little when Israel is ignoring us and our tax dollars are used to pay for Israel's aggression."
Independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday gave a qualified endorsement of American military airdrops of desperately needed humanitarian supplies into Gaza, echoing assertions from other human rights defenders that Israel must allow massive, immediate ground shipments of aid to reach the bombed and besieged Palestinians who are beginning to starve to death.
President Joe Biden announced Friday that the U.S. would soon begin humanitarian airdrops into Gaza, vowing to "pull out every stop we can."
"In the coming days we’re going to join with our friends in Jordan and others who are providing airdrops of additional food and supplies," Biden said at the White House alongside his guest, far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The president added that he would also "seek to open up other avenues, including possibly a marine corridor," to deliver aid to Gaza.
Joe Biden says the U.S. aims to airdrop humanitarian aid to Gaza and insists on Israel's help.https://t.co/CRU38GsJsB pic.twitter.com/inWnkSPSsM
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) March 1, 2024
A senior Biden administration official who asked to remain anonymous told Politico that while there have been internal discussions regarding airdrops for weeks, Thursday's attack by Israeli forces on starving Palestinians gathered to receive food aid on al-Rashid Street in Gaza City prompted the president's decision. More than 1,000 civilians were killed and wounded in the massacre.
"The United States, which has helped fund the Israeli military for years, cannot sit back and allow hundreds of thousands of innocent children to starve to death," Sanders (Vt.) said in a statement. "As a result of Israeli bombing and restrictions on humanitarian aid, the people of Gaza are facing an unprecedented humanitarian disaster."
"But while an airdrop will buy time and save lives, there is no substitute for sustained ground deliveries of what is needed to sustain life in Gaza," he added. "Israel MUST open the borders and allow the United Nations to deliver supplies in sufficient quantities. The United States should make clear that failure to do so immediately will lead to a fundamental break in the U.S.-Israeli relationship and the immediate halt of all military aid."
Sanders has advocated strong measures including limiting U.S. military aid in an effort to compel Israel to stop the slaughter. However, the 82-year-old democratic socialist has come under fire for his unwillingness to call for Gaza cease-fire. Instead, Sanders has repeatedly urged a "humanitarian pause."
Israeli forces have killed more than 30,200 Palestinians in Gaza—most of them women and children—while wounding over 71,300 others and displacing around 90% of the besieged enclave's 2.3 million people. Children are now starving to death, and experts say adults, especially elders and other vulnerable people, will soon follow absent urgent intervention.
Israeli forces have bombed food production and distribution centers, destroyed crops, and killed livestock. They have also attacked fishers and fired on aid convoys. Israeli extremists have blocked convoys at border crossings, setting up encampments and even a giant bouncy castle where organizers served popcorn, cotton candy, and slushies to children.
Meanwhile, Palestinians desperately trying to survive are eating whatever they can find, including grass, livestock feed, and horses.
United Nations food experts said this week that Israel's forced starvation of Gazans is genocidal.
Other human rights defenders also stressed the need for a massive ground-based relief effort for Gaza.
"Airdrops will not be effective in blunting the humanitarian crises in Gaza," said Dave Harden, a former assistant administrator at the United States Agency for International Development. "Airdrops are inefficient, expensive, dangerous, and only helpful when there are no other delivery options. Airdrops are primarily for the Biden administration's benefit—to paper over a massive policy failure."
Oxfam America president and CEO Abby Maxman
asserted on social media that "people in Gaza are starving, and any aid can feel like a lifeline to hold on to—but airdrops are not the answer."
"They are a chaotic and potentially dangerous fig leaf in the face of starvation and desperation," she added. "Full unfettered humanitarian access is needed now to save lives."
Echoing Maxman, Scott Paul, who runs humanitarian policy at Oxfam America, said that airdrops "would mostly serve to relieve the guilty consciences of senior U.S. officials whose policies are contributing to the ongoing atrocities and risk of famine in Gaza."
Joyce Ajlouny, the general secretary of the American Friends Service Committee—a Quaker organization—met with Biden administration officials Friday and pleaded for "an immediate and permanent cease-fire and full access for humanitarian aid."
"While we are happy to see any aid reaching people in Gaza, airdrops are not enough," Ajlouny said. "It is a cruel irony to drop food when at the same time you are directly responsible for dropping bombs. We need a cease-fire and full humanitarian access."
"But we also know that a cease-fire and humanitarian relief are not enough," she continued. "As a Palestinian, I know the history that got us here very intimately. And as a Palestinian and a Quaker I know that a just and lasting peace will only come when we address the apartheid state imposed on Palestinians for decades."
"Fourteen successive presidential administrations have supported the Israeli occupation. Now the Biden administration is funding a genocide," Ajlouny added. "Calls for restraint mean little when Israel is ignoring us and our tax dollars are used to pay for Israel's aggression."
Any such effort, said one democracy watchdog, "would violate the Constitution and is a major step to prevent free and fair elections."
In his latest full-frontal assault on democratic access and voting rights, President Donald Trump early Monday said he will lead an effort to ban both mail-in ballots and voting machines for next year's mid-term elections—a vow met with immediate rebuke from progressive critics.
"I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS, and also, while we’re at it, Highly 'Inaccurate,' Very Expensive, and Seriously Controversial VOTING MACHINES, which cost Ten Times more than accurate and sophisticated Watermark Paper, which is faster, and leaves NO DOUBT, at the end of the evening, as to who WON, and who LOST, the Election," Trump wrote in a social media post infested with lies and falsehoods.
Trump falsely claimed that no other country in the world uses mail-in voting—a blatant lie, according to International IDEA, which monitors democratic trends worldwide, at least 34 nations allow for in-country postal voting of some kind. The group notes that over 100 countries allow out-of-country postal voting for citizens living or stationed overseas during an election.
Trump has repeated his false claim—over and over again—that he won the 2020 election, which he actually lost, in part due to fraud related to mail-in ballots, though the lie has been debunked ad nauseam. He also fails to note that mail-in ballots were very much in use nationwide in 2024, with an estimated 30% of voters casting a mail-in ballot as opposed to in-person during the election in which Trump returned to the White House and Republicans took back the US Senate and retained the US House of Representatives.
Monday's rant by Trump came just days after his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who Trump claimed commented personally on the 2020 election and mail-in ballots. In a Friday night interview with Fox News, Trump claimed "one of the most interesting" things Putin said during their talks about ending the war in Ukraine was about mail-in voting in the United States and how Trump would have won the election were it not for voter fraud, echoing Trump's own disproven claims.
Trump: Vladimir Putin said your election was rigged because you have mail-in voting… he talked about 2020 and he said you won that election by so much.. it was a rigged election. pic.twitter.com/m8v0tXuiDQ
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 16, 2025
Trump said Monday he would sign an executive order on election processes, suggesting that it would forbid mail-in ballots as well as the automatic tabulation machines used in states nationwide. He also said that states, which are in charge of administering their elections at the local level, "must do what the Federal Government, as represented by the President of the United States, tells them, FOR THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRY, to do."
Marc Elias, founder of Democracy Docket, which tracks voting rights and issues related to ballot access, said any executive order by Trump to end mail-in voting or forbid provenly safe and accurate voting machines ahead of the midterms would be "unconstitutional and illegal."
Such an effort, said Elias, "would violate the Constitution and is a major step to prevent free and fair elections."
"We've got the FBI patrolling the streets." said one protester. "We've got National Guard set up as a show of force. What's scarier is if we allow this."
Residents of Washington, DC over the weekend demonstrated against US President Donald Trump's deployment of the National Guard in their city.
As reported by NBC Washington, demonstrators gathered on Saturday at DuPont Circle and then marched to the White House to direct their anger at Trump for sending the National Guard to Washington DC, and for his efforts to take over the Metropolitan Police Department.
In an interview with NBC Washington, one protester said that it was important for the administration to see that residents weren't intimidated by the presence of military personnel roaming their streets.
"I know a lot of people are scared," the protester said. "We've got the FBI patrolling the streets. We've got National Guard set up as a show of force. What's scarier is if we allow this."
Saturday protests against the presence of the National Guard are expected to be a weekly occurrence, organizers told NBC Washington.
Hours after the march to the White House, other demonstrators began to gather at Union Station to protest the presence of the National Guard units there. Audio obtained by freelance journalist Andrew Leyden reveals that the National Guard decided to move their forces out of the area in reaction to what dispatchers called "growing demonstrations."
Even residents who didn't take part in formal demonstrations over the weekend managed to express their displeasure with the National Guard patrolling the city. According to The Washington Post, locals who spent a night on the town in the U Street neighborhood on Friday night made their unhappiness with law enforcement in the city very well known.
"At the sight of local and federal law enforcement throughout the night, people pooled on the sidewalk—watching, filming, booing," wrote the Post. "Such interactions played out again and again as the night drew on. Onlookers heckled the police as they did their job and applauded as officers left."
Trump last week ordered the National Guard into Washington, DC and tried to take control the Metropolitan Police, purportedly in order to reduce crime in the city. Statistics released earlier this year, however, showed a significant drop in crime in the nation's capital.
"Why not impose more sanctions on [Russia] and force them to agree to a cease-fire, instead of accepting that Putin won't agree to one?" asked NBC's Kristen Welker.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday was repeatedly put on the spot over the failure of US President Donald Trump to secure a cease-fire deal between Russia and Ukraine.
Rubio appeared on news programs across all major networks on Sunday morning and he was asked on all of them about Trump's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin ending without any kind of agreement to end the conflict with Ukraine, which has now lasted for more than three years.
During an interview on ABC's "This Week," Rubio was grilled by Martha Raddatz about the purported "progress" being made toward bringing the war to a close. She also zeroed in on Trump's own statements saying that he wanted to see Russia agree to a cease-fire by the end of last week's summit.
"The president went in to that meeting saying he wanted a ceasefire, and there would be consequences if they didn't agree on a ceasefire in that meeting, and they didn't agree to a ceasefire," she said. "So where are the consequences?"
"That's not the aim of this," Rubio replied. "First of all..."
"The president said that was the aim!" Raddatz interjected.
"Yeah, but you're not going to reach a cease-fire or a peace agreement in a meeting in which only one side is represented," Rubio replied. "That's why it's important to bring both leaders together, that's the goal here."
RADDATZ: The president went in to that meeting saying he wanted a ceasefire and there would be consequences if they didn't agree on a ceasefire in that meeting, and they didn't agree to a ceasefire. So where are the consequences?
RUBIO: That's not the aim
RADDATZ: The president… pic.twitter.com/fuO9q1Y5ze
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 17, 2025
Rubio also made an appearance on CBS' "Face the Nation," where host Margaret Brennan similarly pressed him about the expectations Trump had set going into the summit.
"The president told those European leaders last week he wanted a ceasefire," she pointed out. "He went on television and said he would walk out of the meeting if Putin didn't agree to one, he said there would be severe consequences if he didn't agree to one. He said he'd walk out in two minutes—he spent three hours talking to Vladimir Putin and he did not get one. So there's mixed messages here."
"Our goal is not to stage some production for the world to say, 'Oh, how dramatic, he walked out,'" Rubio shot back. "Our goal is to have a peace agreement to end this war, OK? And obviously we felt, and I agreed, that there was enough progress, not a lot of progress, but enough progress made in those talks to allow us to move to the next phase."
Rubio then insisted that now was not the time to hit Russia with new sanctions, despite Trump's recent threats to do so, because it would end talks all together.
Brennan: The president told those European leaders last week he wanted a ceasefire. He went on television and said he would walk out of the meeting if Putin didn't agree to one, he said there would be severe consequences if he didn’t agree to one. He spent three hours talking to… pic.twitter.com/2WtuDH5Oii
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 17, 2025
During an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," host Kristen Welker asked Rubio about the "severe consequences" Trump had promised for Russia if it did not agree to a cease-fire.
"Why not impose more sanctions on [Russia] and force them to agree to a cease-fire, instead of accepting that Putin won't agree to one?" Welker asked.
"Well, first, that's something that I think a lot of people go around saying that I don't necessarily think is true," he replied. "I don't think new sanctions on Russia are going to force them to accept a cease-fire. They are already under severe sanctions... you can argue that could be a consequence of refusing to agree to a cease-fire or the end of hostilities."
He went on to say that he hoped the US would not be forced to put more sanctions on Russia "because that means peace talks failed."
WELKER: Why not impose more sanctions on Russia and force them to agree to a ceasefire, instead of accepting that Putin won't agree to one?
RUBIO: Well, I think that's something people go around saying that I don't necessarily think is true. I don't think new sanctions on Russia… pic.twitter.com/GoIucsrDmA
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 17, 2025
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump said that he could end the war between Russian and Ukraine within the span of a single day. In the seven months since his inauguration, the war has only gotten more intense as Russia has stepped up its daily attacks on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.