Writer dragged out of Blinken's final press conference: 'You're hurting me!'

The men were upset that a cease-fire deal between Hamas and Israel had not been reached sooner, accusing Blinken of "genocide" and being a "criminal." 

Writer and activist Sam Husseini had to be dragged out of the event by security. Another reporter, Grayzone News' Max Blumenthal, left more peacefully but still had to be escorted out after shouting questions at Blinken about why he had kept "the bombs flowing when we had a deal in May?"

"You pontificate about a free press?" Husseini erupted. "I'm asking questions after being told by Matt Miller that he will not answer my questions, and so I ask them. Wasn't - wasn't the point of the May 31st statement to block the ICJ orders? You blocked the ICJ orders!"

Blumenthal questioned Blinken on why he had allowed "the Holocaust of our time," as he was escorted out, but that didn't stop the uproar. Blinken kept trying to get back on course amid the interruption, at one point asking people to "respect the process," but Husseini refused. 

"Oh, respect the process?" Husseini yelled as he was being carried away. "Respect the process while everybody - everybody from the International - from Amnesty International to the ICJ's saying that Israel's doing genocide and extermination, and you're telling me to respect the process. Criminal! Why aren't you in The Hague?"

Three security guards ultimately had to grab Husseini in an attempt to remove him from the room. Husseini shouted as he clasped the table he was sitting at while he continued shouting at Blinken: "You're hurting me! You're hurting me!" 

"Three hundred reporters in Gaza were on the receiving end of your bombs. Why did you keep the bombs flowing when we had a deal?" Blumenthal shouted at Blinken, after the secretary of state thanked members for their "hard questions" during the past four years of his tenure. "You all knew we had a deal. Everyone in this room knows we had a deal, Tony, and you kept the bombs flowing."

Blinken defended the Biden administration's policy approach to the fighting in Gaza during his final press conference as Ssecretary of state on Thursday. He did acknowledge that the war in Gaza posed a "uniquely challenging situation" due to the humanitarian issues that Palestinians faced after Hamas launched their attack on Oct. 7, 2023. He also acknowledged that the U.S. had "real differences with Israel on the way it's gone about the necessary defense of its people and its country."

But, according to President Joe Biden's National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, the Biden administration does "not believe what is happening in Gaza is a genocide," he said earlier this year.