I never followed Ro Khanna's career closely, but from afar I had the vague impression that he had more integrity and substance than the average politician.
Lesson: a nice suit and an impressive affect do not make a serious person. The guy is a shyster.
Ro is running for president—something he has been doing for quite a while now without actually admitting it—but he got himself into a bit of a pickle by fully backing Graham Platner despite all the various scandals, up to and including the first accusations of assaulting a Lindsey Fifield..
Politico, today: Woman accuses Platner of sexual assault.
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) July 6, 2026
Ro Khanna, a month ago: "If there was evidence of sexual assault, I’d have zero support for him."
Over to you, Ro. pic.twitter.com/J2y70zYqcK
He didn't just back Platner. He didn't just campaign with Platner. He actually subsidized Platner's rally following those accusations of assault.
The key word here is AFTER.
— Joseph Toomey (@JosephEToomey) July 11, 2026
Ro Khanna bankrolled Platner's sham campaign even AFTER knowing about sexual assault claims.https://t.co/LSyKaKkuKY pic.twitter.com/g64EisxYId
Khanna didn't withdraw his support until a bandwagon, including Platner's DSA backers, who Khanna is counting on to vault him into the presidency, signaled that now was the time. It was a profile in pusillanimity. Now he is blaming others for his own bad judgment.
Khanna's argument? Nobody else saw the signs, so why does anybody expect him to have seen the signs that a man with a Nazi tattoo who said women were to blame for their own rapes and who said he would rape a home intruder and who had physically assaulted his girlfriend might also turn out to be a rapist.
Ro Khanna on Graham Platner: "We all need to see the signs earlier, of people who may engage in domestic violence."
— DSA Watch (@DSA_Watch) July 12, 2026
He did not withdraw his endorsement of Graham Platner after the NYT published allegations of domestic violence against Platner pic.twitter.com/XgEu9hFbgS
Who could have guessed? There were no red flags!
Now, in an attempt to distract from his incredibly bad judgment and his willingness to work with Platner, Khanna has flown off to Israel to instigate a confrontation with Israeli settlers, getting a news photographer to tag along on his trip.
His plan? To hire a Palestinian guide who was willing to break the law by entering a military exclusion zone from which all civilians, Israeli or foreign, are banned. He was, unsurprisingly, stopped at the border and held until the Israeli authorities arrived and sent him on his way unharmed and unarrested.
Israeli settlers, brandishing American made M4s, detained me & other Americans on my trip to Palestine.
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) July 11, 2026
When the IDF arrived, they sided with the settlers & continued our detention.
They made a huge mistake.
You will be hearing more soon. https://t.co/rZw8bRAn64 pic.twitter.com/4z50Ye4I7K
The "detention" Khanna is talking about here is the period of time it took for the authorities to figure out what the heck was happening. Since Khanna had not informed anybody that he was going to enter an exclusion zone—he has refused every request the Israelis have made to coordinate with him to ensure his safety—one can assume that the people who showed up to figure out what was happening had no idea what was going on.
According to a source for the New York Post, Ro Khanna was invited to meet freed hostages and survivors of October 7th.
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) July 11, 2026
Khanna's team didn't even bother to respond.
His team was also offered an opportunity to meet with Druze civilians in the Golan Heights and a briefing on how… pic.twitter.com/4Afj0FsVrg
According to a source for the New York Post, Ro Khanna was invited to meet freed hostages and survivors of October 7th.
Khanna's team didn't even bother to respond.
His team was also offered an opportunity to meet with Druze civilians in the Golan Heights and a briefing on how aid is currently getting into Gaza. They didn't take it.
Now, if Ro Khanna genuinely believes that aid is not properly getting into Gaza, why not go to the briefing? If he thinks Israel is lying, wouldn't that be the perfect time to get proof?
But he didn't go, because those aren't his intentions. He didn't want to meet with victims of Hamas or those trying to get as much aid into Gaza as they can because they contradict his narrative.
And the narrative is all that matters.
That is exactly what Khanna was hoping for. He created an incident and is now claiming victimhood, much like how ICE protesters create video-friendly confrontations with CBP or ICE agents.
Imagine a high-ranking European Union bureaucrat attempted to cross the U.S./Mexican border from Mexico illegally, with a camera crew, and was temporarily detained in the process. His purpose was solely to make the U.S. look bad on the world stage by inventing a conflict that he…
— Cynical Publius (@CynicalPublius) July 12, 2026
Imagine a high-ranking European Union bureaucrat attempted to cross the U.S./Mexican border from Mexico illegally, with a camera crew, and was temporarily detained in the process. His purpose was solely to make the U.S. look bad on the world stage by inventing a conflict that he was narcissistically at the center of, highlighting a make-believe injustice of the U.S. exercising sovereignty over it borders.You don't have to imagine it.@RoKhanna just did it.
Khanna is playing it for all it's worth. He's trotting out every available victim point he can. Not only are the Jooos being mean to him, but they are doing so because they are all nasty racists.
Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna describes being acutely aware of being "Brown" for the first time in his life after being detained by armed Jewish settlers and IDF soldiers during his congressional visit to Israel and the southern West Bank in the Occupied Palestinian… pic.twitter.com/GIfCH0QRE7
— The War Journal (@TheWarJournal) July 11, 2026
Khanna chose this very moment to give a soft announcement that he was running for president, because...why not? Since victimhood is the most valuable currency in Democratic politics, and hatred of Jews is your best credential these days, Khanna contrived to combine the two by throwing his hat into the ring to get maximum benefit out of it.
You’re a con artist.
— MichaelRapaport (@MichaelRapaport) July 12, 2026
You didn’t meet with hostages, families of the victims who didn’t survive, the Druze community nothing.
You didn’t meet with American Hostages who survived.
You went to Israel to make a short film for personal gain.
You make me sick you rotten dog https://t.co/BavD9WJqDz
If Khanna wanted to change the subject from his elevation of Platner, he likely succeeded for a time. In the long term, though, it's unlikely to help him convince Democrats that he is the right guy to take on Vance or Rubio. He is smart and polished, but dull and obviously contrived. His shtick, at least before he started running for president, was sucking up to the tech bros while spouting meaningless left-wing bromides for the masses.
I thought Ro Khanna’s career was over after he campaigned for a rapist with a Nazi tattoo — until he flew to Israel and claimed the IDF “detained” him.
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) July 12, 2026
I’d never heard of Kneecap— until they shouted “Up Hamas!” and praised Hezbollah.
Forgot about Greta after the 2019 UN speech—…
I thought Ro Khanna’s career was over after he campaigned for a rapist with a Nazi tattoo — until he flew to Israel and claimed the IDF “detained” him.
I’d never heard of Kneecap— until they shouted “Up Hamas!” and praised Hezbollah.
Forgot about Greta after the 2019 UN speech— until she set sail for Gaza.
Didn’t know Bob Vylan existed— until he led a crowd chanting death to the IDF.
Thought Susan Sarandon had retired from relevance— until she resurfaced to say Jews deserve to have a taste of hate.
And I was pretty sure Lizzo was cancelled over harassment lawsuits— until she dropped a Free Palestine video.
Do you get it now?
Mark Halperin floats the most interesting idea for who the next Democratic presidential candidate will be: Bernie Sanders. It seems absurd, but compared to Ro Khanna it's far more plausible.
🚨 Today’s required viewing: @michaelmalice and @MarkHalperin on the possibility of a socialist Democratic nominee in 2028.
— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) July 9, 2026
Halperin argues, and I think correctly, that if Democrats have a real open primary in 2028, the nominee may either be a socialist, or someone who had to… pic.twitter.com/2L9ntC0QM2
🚨 Today’s required viewing: @michaelmalice and @MarkHalperin on the possibility of a socialist Democratic nominee in 2028.
Halperin argues, and I think correctly, that if Democrats have a real open primary in 2028, the nominee may either be a socialist, or someone who had to beat and alienate the socialist wing of the Democratic Party.
And the socialist candidate Halperin keeps coming back to isn’t AOC or Ro Khanna. It is the man who brought DSA back to life.
Bernie Sanders.
Something to think about. Perhaps something to worry about. Donald Trump was given no shot at being president, yet here we are. Perhaps Bernie, under the right circumstances, could pull it off.
Yikes.
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