A bipartisan group of dozens of senators on Tuesday attended a closed-door viewing on Capitol Hill of video footage showing the atrocities carried out by Hamas during its October 7 attack on Israel, NBC News reported.
The viewing was arranged by Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), and Marco Rubio (R-FL). It was supposed to take place before the Thanksgiving break, but was postponed.
The roughly 45-minute video includes graphic footage of the murders and atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists. Some of the footage was taken from the terrorists’ body cameras. The video was shown to House lawmakers two weeks ago.
“It’s important to bear witness in real time,” Rosen told a small group of reporters outside the viewing, “Sometime in the future, we’ll go, there’ll be a museum, they’ll be a memorial, there’ll be another Yad Vashem or Holocaust Museum. Just like we do and we honor those who’ve died, whether it’s in war or conflict or from terror, but by then it will be sanitized and memories will be longer gone. It’s important that we see it now in real time because Hamas has vowed to repeat this day over and over, over and over, and there were over 1,000 people massacred."
Rubio echoed Rosen, saying, "I think it’s really important not to sanitize this over time. These horrifying incidents sort of lose their impact because for whatever reason — it was important, you know, other members who wanted to see it got clearer insight into what happened on that day and who we’re dealing with. And you know, what’s stunning about it is the glee and the joy and the pride that the people involved in these horrifying crimes took in what they were doing."
According to NBC News, Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) were seen wiping away tears after they left the room where the video was shown. Many senators declined to comment when they left, asking for a moment to process what they had seen.
One of the few to comment was Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) who said, "We saw terrorists celebrating as they murdered children as they murdered women, as they desecrated the bodies. We saw them beheading bodies with knives, we heard audio of terrorists calling their parents, celebrating the people they murdered. There is a level of evil and hate and depravity that defies words, and it is astonishing that there are still some in America and across the globe who deny these atrocities occurred."
Some of the other senators who attended included Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY); Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL); Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed (D-RI); Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA), as well as several Republicans such as Sens. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee; Thom Tillis of North Carolina; and Pete Ricketts of Nebraska.