In a perplexing interview with The Nation published on Monday, Vice President Kamala Harris expressed empathy with anti-Israel protesters.

In the interview, Harris described her understanding of the war between Israel and Gaza based on anti-Israel propaganda and suburban recipes for baking.

“Listen, I strongly believe that our ability to evaluate a situation is connected to understanding the details of that situation,” Harris said in the interview..” Not speaking of myself versus the president, not at all. From the beginning, I asked questions. OK, the trucks are taking flour into Gaza. But here’s the thing, Joan: I like to cook. So I said to my team: You can’t make shit with flour if you don’t have clean water. So what’s going on with that? I ask questions like, What are people actually eating right now? I’m hearing stories about their eating animal feed, grass… so that’s how I think about it.”

Despite facilitating the delivery of over  300,000 tons of food since the war began, Israel has been accused of weaponizing starvation by the International Criminal Court and the European Union. Indeed, in March, the Famine Review Committee published a report rejecting these claims. The report concluded that flows of aid and food availability had increased significantly in March and April and “that nearly 100 percent of daily kilocalorie requirements were available for the estimated population of 300,000 people in April, even using conservative calculations.”

These claims were based on the assumption that Israel, and not the Hamas government or UNRWA, is responsible for feeding the people of Gaza. It also assumes that Israel is preventing the distribution of humanitarian aid despite ample evidence that Hamas hijacks much of this aid. 

Harris described feminine hygiene as one of the more concerning aspects of the war. 

“Similarly, I was asking early on, what are women in Gaza doing about sanitary hygiene,” the vice president said. “Do they have pads? And these are the issues that made people feel uncomfortable, especially sanitary pads.”

She then expressed empathy for the anti-semitic pro-Hamas protests that are taking over campuses across the US. 

“They are showing exactly what the human emotion should be, as a response to Gaza,” Harris said. “ There are things some of the protesters are saying that I absolutely reject, so I don’t mean to wholesale endorse their points. But we have to navigate it. I understand the emotion behind it.”

Harris has a long history of empathizing with pro-Hamas elements. Last month, she praised the IDF operation that freed four hostages being held by Palestinian Hamas in Gaza, adding, “we mourn all of the innocent lives that have been lost in Gaza, including those tragically killed today.”

In this regard, Harris was relying on Hamas talking points, which claimed over 270 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli operation. Israeli forces claim the number was fewer than 100. It should be emphasized that Hamas statistics do not differentiate between terrorists and civilians killed, nor does Hamas take the blame for Gazans it kills either intentionally or unintentionally. It should also be noted that hostages are held in the homes of Gazan civilians.

In 2021, Harris visited a political science class at George Mason University, where she responded to a student who questioned US funding of Israel. The student accused  Israel of “ethnic genocide and a displacement of people.”

“This is about the fact that your voice, your perspective, your experience, your truth cannot be suppressed, and it must be heard,” Harris responded. “ “And the point that you’re making about policies that relates to Middle East policy, foreign policy. We still have healthy debates in our country, about what is the right path. And nobody’s voice should be suppressed on that.”

Since Biden’s disastrous performance in his debate against President Trump, the media has focused on Harris as a potential replacement for Biden as the Democratic party’s candidate.

Harris’ statements in support of anti-Israel protests come as the U.S. Director of National Intelligence revealed that Iran was behind the anti-Israel protests, providing funding and online support to foment unrest. 

White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre responded to this revelation by defending the protests as free speech.