(NewsNation) — The war in Israel has taken center stage on the campaign trail with presidential candidates blasting their response messages and declaring America stands with Israel.
On Sunday, President Joe Biden spoke to the American public, saying, “Let there be no mistake. The United States stands with the state of Israel.”
But many Republican candidates took aim at the Biden administration, blaming the White House for allegedly “funding the attacks.” They say Iran may have been emboldened by a recent hostage swap with the U.S. that saw America approve the release of $6 billion in frozen assets to aid humanitarian causes in Iran.
“They didn’t have that level of aggression with me. They didn’t have it. This wouldn’t have happened with me either,” former President Donald Trump said over the weekend in Iowa.
Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley criticized the deal.
“They are moving money around to threaten those they hate. They hate Israel, they hate America. They are going to continue to use this. It was wrong to release the $6 billion,” Haley said.
Officials with the Biden administration said the $6 billion is not taxpayer money, but rather Iranian assets that were frozen in South Korea, and it has not been released from the bank.
Still, critics argue Iran may be more inclined to spend its money to further its interests in the world if it knows it can lean on that $6 billion for humanitarian causes within its borders.
Leadership in Hamas and Hezbollah, which are both considered terrorist organizations by the United States, said Iran security officials helped plan the attack in Israel.
“At this moment, we don’t have anything that shows us Iran is directly involved in this attack but that’s something we’re looking at very carefully,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said America will restore the deterrence Biden has “foolishly given away.”
“Weakness arouses evil,” former Vice President Mike Pence said.
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott called the attacks an assault on Western civilization, and presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said shooting civilians and kidnapping children are war crimes.
“Israel has every right to defend itself and it should really do what it takes to root out Hamas once and for all,” DeSantis said.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is expected to switch from running as a Democrat to an Independent, said the U.S. must provide Israel with whatever it needs to defend itself immediately.