In case anyone wonders whether the violence on the Left can be considered "fringe" or overblown, as some suggested after Marco Rubio's address yesterday, this offers a moment of clarification. Not only have leftist violence and threats ramped up significantly over the last three years since Hamas' October 7 massacres, but it has also already had an impact on the legislative process. And that admission comes from a leading House Democrat, not Republicans or conservative commentators.
Thomas Massie forced a vote to defund aid and defense sales to Israel this week, in a dumb stunt that ended up damaging Hakeem Jeffries and Democrat leadership far more than it threatened Israel. The caucus split down the middle while Republicans ignored Massie, and the bill failed by a wide margin. However, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee put out a statement after he voted with Massie that insinuated he did so out of fear of violent leftists and their threats against his family. Jewish Insider picked it up, and Power Line flagged it immediately:
Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, indicated he voted to cut off military aid to Israel in part because of sustained personal threats against his family and his staff, part of what he described as a violent and relentless campaign of intimidation by far-left anti-Israel activists.
Smith voted on Wednesday to support an amendment introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) to strip $3.3 billion in U.S. aid to Israel from the 2027 State Department appropriations bill — a major reversal by the hawkish Democrat after he previously told Jewish Insider he planned to oppose the measure.
In a statement explaining his vote in favor, the high-ranking defense lawmaker said it was a “very close vote.” He said that despite voting to cut off U.S. aid, he was “deeply concerned” about the tactics used by far left activists to pressure him to support such a measure.
“To date, my family and I have had our home vandalized, a fire has been set in my driveway, my neighbors’ lives have been disrupted by demonstrations in the middle of the night, town halls meant to be forums for dialogue have been shut down, and a staff member has been physically assaulted,” Smith said in a statement on X.
This would be quite an accusation, and one that should get the attention of anti-terrorist investigators at the FBI and Department of Justice. Smith's full statement offered a weaselly and more ambiguous approach around the direct quotes picked out by JI's Matthew Shea, but it's clear that Shea read between the lines pretty accurately:
My statement on my vote in support of Rep. Massie's Amendment #8. pic.twitter.com/gLoeYWiCNv
— Rep. Adam Smith (@RepAdamSmith) July 16, 2026
This is a very strange concatenation of excuses from Smith. He seems to understand that voting to cut off aid to Israel will be unpopular outside of the fever-swamp radical Hamasniks on the Left, so Smith offers a smorgasbord of excuses for his gutless alignment against an ally thrown into a war by two Iranian-backed terrorist networks. It's Benjamin Netanyahu's fault! No, wait, it's Smotrich's and Ben Gvir's fault! No, wait, it's the fault of "U.S. supporters of Israel"! No, wait, it's violent leftists and their threats against my family!
The words get even weaselier when attempting to explain why he's blaming Israel for fighting a war that Hamas and Hezbollah have waged against them for decades. "I understand that Israel has to confront threats to their existences and cannot let them go unchecked," Smith declares. "But Israel does not have to fight the way they have chosen to do so – a way that has caused enormous suffering and led to endless war." Well, whose fault is the "endless war"? The US and the West keep forcing Israel into ceasefires with Hamas and Hezbollah with which neither group will comply, and which have resulted in continuing attacks, especially from Gaza. The main component of US aid to Israel is for Iron Dome anti-missile defense systems, an enormous expense that exists because Israel has tolerated Iranian proxies' continuous attacks on Israeli civilian populations to forego fighting an actual war.
How did that get repaid? By October 7 and the following explosion of Jew-hatred from the Left, and on the fringes of the Right where Massie belongs. Israel has tried the incremental approach for 20 years with Hamas and over 40 with Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the result was the single greatest single-day loss of Jewish lives since the Holocaust. And in response to that, Smith voted to cut off funding for their defensive systems that has kept Israelis alive and willing to work for peace.
Nevertheless, I tend to credit Smith in his intimidation by radical leftists issuing threats to impose their will on Democrats first, and then the US as a whole later. Smith does not appear to have a plethora of intestinal fortitude, as evidenced by his post-vote statement. The DoJ needs to investigate these threats, and the funding behind them, as part of the new program announced by Secretary of State Rubio this week to demolish the structures that promote and organize the violent Left.
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