Rep. Bowman Really Regrets Pulling That Fire Alarm

Outgoing Rep. Jamaal Bowman gave his goodbye speech to an empty chamber yesterday.

Jamaal Bowman on the House Floor today during his goodbye speech said, “Free Palestine.” Only five House members showed up for his goodbye speech.

Bon voyage 🛫 pic.twitter.com/IMj0BRtDRm

— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) December 12, 2024

As you can see, only the remaining members of the shrinking squad were there to see him off.

The only people who showed up to Jamaal Bowman’s farewell speech were fellow squad members wearing black for mourning 🤣 pic.twitter.com/ZvYf8FBb56

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) December 13, 2024

This morning Spectrum News published an exit interview with Bowman in which they asked him all sorts of things, including if he had any specific regrets. His answer to that one was memorable: “‘I wish I didn’t pull that damn fire alarm.”

The reporter then asked if he’d have won his primary race if not for the fire alarm. He responded “Hell no” and explained that his district was too Jewish for him to survive once he called for a ceasefire in Gaza.

🚨SHOCKING: Jamaal Bowman Seems To Blame Jews For His Election Loss

He said, “My district is a super pro-Israel district. The minute I called for a ceasefire that was the last straw… because I beat Elliot Engel, there was a target on my back from that community since then.” pic.twitter.com/x3HydrPD6Z

— Shelley G (@ShelleyGldschmt) December 13, 2024

This is supposed to be a moment of candor but Bowman still isn’t being truthful. It wasn’t calling for a ceasefire that turned off so many Jewish voters, it was downplaying rapes by Hamas, calling those reports a “lie” and “propaganda.” Here’s the clip that sealed his fate.

SCOOP: In the weeks after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) not only publicly cast doubt on reports that Israeli women were raped, but also called those accusations “propaganda,” according to a previously unreported post on TikTok. https://t.co/Vb2dJdUgcK pic.twitter.com/DpXqRmcBS2

— Daniel Lippman (@dlippman) March 26, 2024

Once he knew he was caught, Bowman tried to walk those comments back but it was too little, too late. But you can’t blame the NY Times. They did their best to help him out by never reporting on the comments at all. Even as the paper covered his primary race and his problems winning over Jewish voters, the propaganda comment was carefully omitted.

To be clear, it’s not just the lack of opprobrium that’s telling.

It’s the lack of any coverage at all.

Now contrast that with the Times coverage of Todd Akin (above).

— Adam Rubenstein (@RubensteinAdam) June 20, 2024

Someone at the NY Times should have been fired for that obviously intentional oversight but of course no one was. 

There were other interesting comments in the interview. For instance, Bowman criticized his own party for allowing him to be in this situation in the first place. [I have not idea what he’s speaking about himself in the third person here.]

“As a party, you should have never let a right-wing Democrat who’s a bit older challenge Jamaal Bowman in his primary, because that became a public execution for the country to see,” Bowman said. “Democrats, you’re going to allow this Black man to be attacked in this way, without any pushback, without any recourse?”

Bowman said he and Latimer have not spoken personally since he lost the race.

“He said some things I don’t think he could take back, and I don’t think he wants to take back,” he said. “He probably feels the same about me.”

House Democratic Leadership, including Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn, publicly endorsed Bowman during his primary. Asked if Jeffries could have done more, Bowman said, “Could he have come to the district and campaigned with me? Sure. Would that have made a difference? I don’t know.”

I don’t think it would have mattered once that video above came out. Remember, Bowman had AOC and Bernie Sanders, two of the left’s biggest draws, show up at a last ditch rally for him. Almost no one turned out for it and he proceeded to humiliate himself with a foul-mouthed tirade about AIPAC. Remember this?

The level of profanity here is so shocking as to be unbecoming of a Member of Congress.

There is nothing in Jamaal Bowman’s unhinged tirade that remotely resembles the decency of the people I know and represent in the South Bronx. pic.twitter.com/IZZtgyffTv

— Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) June 23, 2024

He definitely showed us who he was, an unhinged leftist with a case of roid rage. Jonathan Chait called it a political suicide attempt.

This year, J Street withdrew its endorsement of Bowman. That devastating move followed a series of comments Bowman had made that aligned himself with left-wing protesters rather than with liberal Zionists. The final straw was Bowman’s appearance with Norman Finkelstein, a hyperbolic critic of Israel and author of The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering…

Bowman seems almost to crave political martyrdom. But if he does lose, it would be more accurate to attribute his demise to political suicide.

Rep. Bowman wasn’t much of a politician and probably did more to embarrass his party over the past couple years than anyone, with the possible exceptions of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.