Following protests that turned violent during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) called on the Department of Justice to pursue the same maximum sentences for those involved in the defacing of Union Station that prosecutors sought “for the Capitol rioters of Jan. 6.”

Speaking on the Senate floor on Thursday morning, the top Senate Republican condemned the protesters as “a mob of far-left terrorist sympathizers” who were “too busy vandalizing our nation’s capital to tune in” to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s joint address to Congress. 

“It was a powerful address. I wish more of our colleagues had heard it. But those who needed to hear it the most were otherwise occupied. Vice President Harris was on the campaign trail. Most of the Hamas apologists in Congress boycotted it,” McConnell said of Netanyahu’s speech. 

“The lawless behavior of frenzied radicals in our own country over the past 36 hours only underscores the challenge facing the world’s only Jewish state. When the Jewish people try to live in peace in their homeland, they’re murdered in their beds. When Jewish students try to go to class, their classmates and professors lock arms to block their way. And when the leader of Israel comes to Washington, the same useful idiots and terrorist fifth columns clear their schedule to sow chaos,” he continued. 

The White House and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle on Wednesday evening condemned the protest in Washington, D.C., against Netanyahu’s speech, which turned violent and included expressions of support for Hamas.

Based on photos and video from the protest, which included thousands of people, demonstrators assaulted a police officer while he was making an arrest; spray-painted “Hamas is comin” on a statue outside D.C.’s Union Station, along with other pro-Hamas graffiti; carried Hamas flags; called for a “final solution”; burned an effigy of Netanyahu and carried another showing him with horns covered in blood; and took down and burned an American flag outside Union Station before replacing it with a Palestinian flag.

McConnell noted that while Wednesday marked the 26th anniversary of the deaths of Capitol Police Officer Jacob Chestnut and Det. John Gibson, who were killed by a lone gunman in 1998 at the entrance to the Capitol, the Capitol Police officers currently in the line of duty had to spend the day “dispersing violent anti-Israel and antisemitic agitators.”

“I’m grateful for the vigilance of the USCP and partner agencies on the job yesterday. Law enforcement knows better than anyone that when it comes to radical attention-seekers, there’s nothing new under the sun,” the Senate Republican leader said. “Not their tactics, and certainly not the slap on the wrist they receive from soft-on-crime prosecutors.”

He argued the onus was on those prosecutors to exercise “their authority with an even hand,” noting his support for pursuing strict criminal penalties against those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6. 

“The DOJ has been more than willing to pursue maximum sentences for the Capitol rioters of Jan. 6, and rightly so. My view has always been that when extremists conspire to sow chaos and violate our nation’s capital, the government should throw the book at them. No matter their motivation. No matter their politics,” McConnell said. 

“But will they pursue the lawless radicals inspired by Oct. 7 with equal vigor? Will the District’s own government exercise the authority Congress has given it to maintain order and discourage lawless behavior? I’m not holding my breath,” he added. “In the meantime, as our country reflects with new attention on the roots of political violence, I hope we’ll also reflect on our deep friendship with the only pluralistic democracy in the Middle East, and support its fight against terror.”

Jewish Insider’s senior Capitol Hill correspondent Marc Rod contributed to this report