A string of protesters against Israel’s assault on Palestinians in Gaza disrupted U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet’s town hall at the University of Denver on Wednesday, leading to several ejections from the otherwise friendly crowd.
Bennet, a Democrat in his third term in the Senate, was hosting the town hall as part of a spate of Front Range events during a Senate recess. The University of Denver event, held with former U.S. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana and the political action committee End Citizens United, was planned to focus on so-called dark money in politics. But protesters promptly turned to condemning Bennet and the United States for its support of Israel during its ongoing war against Hamas.
Bennet, who is now running for governor, and Tester largely ignored the protesters, who interjected throughout the event, as they were escorted out or asked by security not to disrupt. Near the end of the 45-minute question-and-answer event, Bennet was asked about the conflict directly. He called Israel’s actions in Gaza “utterly unjustifiable,” and called out Israel’s refusal to allow humanitarian aid into the territory.
“The situation there is catastrophic and it’s a humanitarian disaster from the beginning ot the end,” Bennet said. And it’s not helped by the fact that, I don’t think there’s an ounce of (Israeli Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu that has any regard for the human life that’s been lost in Gaza.”
Bennet, whose Jewish mother fled Poland during the Holocaust, called for a separate Palestinian and Israeli state as the “only viable, long-term answer” to the conflict in the region.
More than 50,000 people have been killed in Gaza during the 18-month war, a third of whom are children, according to Palestinian health officials. The conflict began after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., Canada and the European Union.
Bennet and Tester otherwise sought to highlight the problem of unlimited spending in elections and corruption in the government. Spending in Tester’s failed reelection bid last year topped $285 million — most of which came from outside groups. Mere threats of cash pouring into a race can stop Congress from taking action, Bennet, said.
“The billionaires, who have been totally unregulated by Citizens United, can just rattle their pockets and say, ‘are you sure?’ ” Bennet said. “‘… because if you do, we can fund a primary and the kind of money that went into Jon’s race.’ They don’t even have to contribute.”
Bennet also sought to encourage an audience that may be disheartened by the second Trump administration. The country has gone through dark times before, he said, including slavery, the genocide of Native Americans, and civil rights protesters being beaten by police in the streets in the 1960s.
“I have absolutely no doubt — no doubt — that this reactionary moment we are in is going to yield a progressive moment that’s going to be the opportunity for us to rebuild the future of this country,” Bennet said. “… but we have to get from here to there to do it.”
In a brief scrum with reporters after the event, Bennet said he was not trying to claim the title of a progressive Democrat, typically the furthest left members of the party, but to make a separate point about the country’s history.
