{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=DE8640AC-4A93-48AC-8C19-A16669758A53", "McConnell Corrects the Record: Hizballah Is A Terrorist Organization", "2024-09-19", "2024", "2024-09", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Mitch McConnell", "M000355", "www.mcconnell.senate.gov", "mcconnell", "https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding the terror group Hizballah:\n\n\u201cSince October 7th, the Israeli military has achieved remarkable success in destroying Hamas\u2019 capacity to wage war and in targeting Hizballah terrorists.\n\n\u201cBut Israel\u2019s operations against the Iran-backed terrorists surrounding it have also succeeded in exposing some of the most malignant and persistent biases of Western media against the Jewish state of Israel.\n\n\u201cWe need look no further than the astonishing willingness of the most prominent outlets in America to parrot the terrorists\u2019 preferred casualty figures, produced by Hamas\u2019 own health ministry\u2026 Or the haste of even the nation\u2019s so-called \u2018paper of record\u2019 to attribute to Israel a devastating rocket strike on a hospital that careful observation showed to be the work of the terrorists, themselves.\n\n\u201cTo deny the role of careless coverage \u2013 and outright bias \u2013 in the groundswell of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic hate across the West is willful ignorance.\n\n\u201cConsider just this morning\u2019s example, courtesy of taxpayer-funded National Public Radio.\n\n\u201cIn its coverage of an apparent Israeli operation to target Hizballah terrorists via their specialized communications networks, NPR described Hizballah as a \u2018Lebanese militant and political group\u2019.\n\n\u201cThe most accurate descriptor of Hizballah \u2013 a terrorist organization \u2013 was conspicuously absent. But NPR editors did manage to include a quote from a man on the street accusing Israel of terrorism.\n\n\u201cWell, as intrepid journalists so often remind us, context matters. And it matters especially in the work of an organization that takes federal government funding and whose CEO has declared that \u2018reverence for the truth might be a distraction\u2026\u2019\n\n\u201cSo let\u2019s establish some context.\n\n\u201cHizballah is arguably the world\u2019s most dangerous terrorist group. The U.S. government, and more than sixty other countries, recognize this essential characteristic.\n\n\u201cHizballah is funded, trained, and equipped by Iran. And with Iran\u2019s help, Hizballah has conducted terror attacks around the world \u2013 from bombings in Argentina and Greece to backing the ghoulish Assad regime in the Syrian Civil War.\n\n\u201cUntil 9/11, Hizballah was responsible for the deadliest terror attacks against the United States, killing 321 Americans in bombings of the U.S. Embassy, Marine barracks, and annex in Beirut in 1983 and 1984.\n\n\u201cThey also coordinated with the IRGC and its master terrorist, Qassem Soleimani, to kill hundreds of U.S. servicemembers in Iraq. And of course, Hizballah continues to threaten U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria today.\n\n\u201cBut of course, one of Hizballah\u2019s primary reasons for existence is the murder of Jews and the destruction of the Jewish state.\n\n\u201cTo the extent that it is a political entity, it has corrupted and strangled Lebanon\u2019s fragile democracy. And it is Hizballah\u2019s efforts to threaten Israel with tens of thousands of rockets and missiles and its terror tunnels to facilitate infiltration of Israel that has put Lebanon in the spotlight.\n\n\u201cSo it may be worth mentioning that perhaps the most carefully targeted series of simultaneous attacks against terrorist operatives in human history comes in response to this all-consuming campaign, which has turned Lebanon into the staging area for war on Israel\u2019s existence.\n\n\u201cHow\u2019s that for context?\n\n\u201cIt is my understanding that the senior Senator from Vermont has said he will introduce joint resolutions of disapproving of U.S. security assistance to Israel. Such a signal would only empower and embolden terrorists like Hamas and Hizballah.\n\n\u201cEach of our colleagues deserves the chance to go on the record right away to reject this extremism.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:46:43Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=DE8640AC-4A93-48AC-8C19-A16669758A53"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 3.789497073739767, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}