Rep. Ruben Gallego sides with White House in calling for ceasefire in Gaza
U.S. Senate candidate Ruben Gallego joined the Biden administration’s call for an immediate ceasefire in the war in Israel’s Gaza region and called on Israel to facilitate swifter humanitarian aid to the Palestinians there.
Gallego, the only prominent Democrat running in the race for Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s seat, urged Hamas to accept the ceasefire that Vice President Kamala Harris outlined Sunday to help bring about the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
“When it comes to Gaza, I of course want a ceasefire,” Gallego said Monday at a news conference at the state Capitol in Phoenix. “I’m heartened by what’s happening right now in terms of some of the conditions. I hope that Hamas will actually come to the table now and do that ceasefire.
“In the meantime, Israel needs to be doing everything possible to be rushing in aid. The holdups … they’re inhumane and unnecessary,” he said before alluding to his service as a Marine in the Iraq War. “You can have both security and provide for humanitarian assistance. I’ve done it. I’ve done it in combat, and Israel should be abiding by that.
“It’s incumbent on the United States to always work with our allies — all allies — to make sure that they are doing what’s in the best interest of civilians, limiting civilian casualties as well as making sure that as friends of Israel that we are looking out for their long-term survival as well as standing within this world.”
Biden is relating that to Israel in private, said Gallego, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. The private talks are frustrating but essential, he said.
“But it is something that needs to continue and I think to the best interests of all parties involved to get to a ceasefire.”
In a social media post later Monday, Gallego wrote that any ceasefire in Gaza must come with the release of hostages, a deal that hinges on Hamas accepting it. The influential and politically active American Israel Public Affairs Committee responded to it thanking Gallego "for your moral clarity."
Harris was scheduled to meet Monday with an Israeli war cabinet official at the White House.
Gallego spoke to reporters on the day his campaign turned in more than double the signatures needed to qualify for the Democratic primary this summer and the November general election. It was the first day his campaign could qualify for the ballot and came as Sinema, I-Ariz., hasn’t even begun to gather signatures, which must be submitted by April 1.
Sinema hasn’t publicly said whether she will run for reelection. Kari Lake is the front-runner for the Republican nomination. Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb is challenging Lake for the GOP nod.
As he has since entering the race more than a year ago, Gallego took swipes at Sinema and Lake.
“I’ve never really counted her out or in,” he said of Sinema. “When I jumped in this race in January 2023, we didn’t know what the landscape was going to look like. We didn’t know which Republican was going to be running against us. We didn’t know if Kyrsten Sinema was in or out.”
Instead, he said, his campaign focused from the outset on fighting for everyone.
“We need somebody who is going to fight for everyday Arizonans, not just the well-connected,” Gallego said. “As much as we like to say people go to the Senate to work hard, people in the Senate have forgotten Arizonans.”
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He cast Lake as untrustworthy.
“I think Arizonans want somebody they can trust,” Gallego said of Lake. He said she has changed her rhetoric around restricting abortion rights multiple times. Lake has recently said she supports Arizona's ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
As a gubernatorial candidate in 2022, Lake said she was “incredibly thrilled” about Arizona following its territorial-era law that “will prohibit abortion in Arizona except to save the life of a mother.”
She has said since November she would oppose a federal ban on abortions.
“She can’t be trusted. Her positions are all over the place. … We are going to remind the voters in Arizona that she’s not in this for Arizonans," Gallego said. "She’s in this for herself. She denied the 2020 election. She denied the 2022 election to help herself and she continued to grift through all her various nonprofits and programs. It would not surprise me that she’s also going to deny the results of the 2024 election.”
As evidence of a Lake swindle, his campaign pointed to the Save Arizona Fund nonprofit organization Lake started after her 2022 election loss. It raised millions, and at least initially, mostly paid for attorney's fees and communications expenses, according to the Arizona Mirror.
In a statement, Alex Nicoll, a spokesman for the Lake campaign, pushed back against Gallego’s comments.
“Ruben Gallego is a career politician who has never accomplished anything for Arizona,” Nicoll said. “Kari Lake is an outsider, mom and the only woman in the race who has given birth. Ruben supports abortion up to nine months with no restrictions. Kari is not going to be lectured by a man who left his wife when she was nine months’ pregnant. She supports saving babies and more resources for women, not a federal abortion ban.”
Gallego and his now-ex-wife, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, separated when she was expecting their child within weeks. Kate Gallego has endorsed Ruben Gallego's Senate campaign.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Ruben Gallego sides with White House in calling for ceasefire in Gaza
