John Kirby Pushes Back After ‘Genocide Joe’ Question During Briefing: ‘Israel Is Not Trying to Wipe Gaza Off the Map’

During Monday’s White House press briefing, National Security Counsel Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby took a question about pro-Palestine protesters referring to President Joe Biden as “Genocide Joe.” After initially brushing it off as “free speech,” Kirby made it very clear who supported genocide in the Israel-Hamas War.

The civilian death toll in Gaza has continued to rise a month and a half after Israel responded to the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7 that killed 1,200 of its own civilians. Biden’s steadfast support of Israel earned him lower poll numbers in his own party as well getting attacked by pro-Palestine protesters with the nickname “Genocide Joe” for what they called his “failure to  prevent genocide” in Gaza.

When Kirby was asked if the administration had a response to the insult, his first instinct was to recognize the constitutional rights of those protesters, saying, “We’re not worried about nicknames and bumper stickers. I mean, it’s First Amendment free speech.”

However, Kirby got fired up the more he explained, speaking first about the president’s priorities as outlined in an op-ed in The Washington Post published on Saturday. And then who the real supporters of genocide really were:

[P]eople can say what they want on on the sidewalk, and we respect that. That’s what the First Amendment about. But this word “genocide” is getting thrown around in a pretty inappropriate way by lots of different folks. What Hamas wants, make no mistake about it, is genocide. They want to wipe Israel off the map. They’ve said so, publicly, more than one occasion, in fact, just recently. And they’ve said that they’re not going to stop. “What happened on the seventh of October is going to happen again and again and again.” And what happened on the seventh of October? Murder, slaughter of innocent people in their homes or at a music festival. That’s genocidal intentions.

Kirby continued, acknowledging that too many people have died as a result of the conflict:

Yes, there are too many civilian casualties in Gaza. Yes, the numbers are too high. Yes, too many families are grieving. And yes, we continue to urge the Israelis to be as careful and cautious as possible. That’s not going to stop, from the president right on down. But Israel is not trying to wipe the Palestinian people off the map. Israel’s not trying to wipe Gaza off the map. Israel’s trying to defend itself against a genocidal terrorist threat. So when we’re going to start, if we’re going to start using that word, fine, let’s use it appropriately.

Watch the video above via Fox News.