The Morning Briefing: Tragedy In DC as Two Israeli Embassy Staffers Assassinated

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This is going to be a quick one. As I was writing this and getting ready to publish it, disturbing news came out of Washington, D.C. I scrapped everything to focus on that. I'll just update you with what we know as of the time I'm writing this and add some brief commentary.

This is from my friend and Townhall colleague Matt Vespa:

UPDATE: It was an assassination. Two staffers are dead; both worked for the Israeli Embassy. The 'globalize the Intifada' nutcases have answered that heinous call, the chant that's been either indirectly endorsed or coddled by academia nationwide.
Two Israeli Embassy staff were senselessly killed tonight near the Jewish Museum in Washington DC. We are actively investigating and working to get more information to share. Please pray for the families of the victims.

We will bring this depraved perpetrator to justice.
— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) May 22, 2025

It has been reported that the shooter yelled, "Free Palestine," which isn't surprising at all. What I was originally leading off with was a story about Secretary of State Marco Rubio going off on Hamas/terrorism sympathizer Rep. Pramila Jayapal from Washington. Jayapal was grilling Rubio about one of the foreign national Gaza/genocide loons who had her student visa revoked, which my RedState colleague Bonchie wrote about:

The woman Jayapal keeps bringing up is Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish citizen who has already graduated from the University of Massachusetts (yeah, that checks out). She wrote an op-ed claiming Israel was committing "genocide" in Gaza and demanded divestment from the American ally, providing support for Hamas.

Rubio told Jayapal that he's "looking to get crazy people out of our country." It's these crazy people who have been keeping the anti-Semitic rhetoric at a fever pitch and — I'm gonna say it — inspiring even crazier people to do things like kill innocent people. It's OK to point fingers at people who deserve it.

Here are more details from our own Bryan Jung:

The suspect was identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez, of Chicago, Illinois, who had reportedly shouted “Free, free Palestine!” as he was taken into custody, according to Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith.
Smith added, "After the shooting, [the perpetrator] entered the museum and was detained by security. The suspect identified where he discarded the weapon which was since recovered."
A representative of the FBI's Washington Field Office, which is working with local police in a joint investigation, stated that there is "no ongoing threat to public safety."

This is obviously an evolving story. That's what I have at publication time. Godspeed to Sec. Rubio and everyone else in the administration who are trying to get rid of the crazies.

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