‘Your AIPAC babysitter write that for you?’ MAGA senator torched for targeting activists
Alexander Willis
November 8, 2025
Trump’s widening war on the left started with PalestineAlexander Willis
November 8, 2025
RAW STORY
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Senator Tom Cotton, Chairman of the Senate (Select) Intelligence Committee, attends a confirmation hearing in Washington, U.S., January 15, 2025. REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) announced Friday that he had officially petitioned the Justice Department to open a criminal probe in the anti-war activist group Code Pink, and on Friday, was met with scorn from the organization’s co-founder and critics.
Cotton sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi Friday officially asking that the DOJ investigate Code Pink for providing “material support to foreign terrorist organizations,” citing the group’s work with the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, which itself is alleged to have ties to the leftist organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which the United States has designated as a terrorist organization.
Medea Benjamin, the co-founder of Code Pink, fired back at Cotton over his request to have the DOJ investigate her organization.
“Omg. You are such a nut case,” Benjamin wrote in a social media post on X Friday. “Did your AIPAC babysitter write the letter for you?”
Benjamin was making reference to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a powerful political action committee that lobbies on behalf of a strong U.S.-Israeli relationship, and continued U.S. funding for Israel. She was also making reference to a past comment from Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) who claimed that every Republican lawmaker had an “AIPAC babysitter” that wields enormous influence over them.
Cotton, who’s received more than $1.3 million from the pro-Israel lobby, has been a staunchly pro-Israel lawmaker, having supported legislation to criminalize boycotting Israel, condemned pro-Palestinian protests as “little Gazas,” and encouraged Israel to escalate its military siege on Gaza, saying “as far as I’m concerned, Israel can bounce the rubble in Gaza.”
In his letter, Cotton also argued that Code Pink may be in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which mandates that individuals or groups publicly disclose that they work on behalf of foreign entities, citing the group’s funding from an American activist that allegedly has ties to China.
AIPAC has has drawn its own scrutiny related to FARA, with Massie having called for the lobbying group to register under the law as a foreign agent, which would force the organization to adhere to far stricter legal and compliance burdens, including required disclosures on communications with lawmakers and officials.
Benjamin’s response to Cotton’s announcement was not the only attack he received over the announcement.
“God you guys are so pathetic,” wrote Jenin Younes, the national legal director at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, in a social media post on X Saturday. “Code pink is an antiwar organization, and its founder, Medea Benjamin, is Jewish. We should investigate you for treason for terrorizing Americans at the behest of a foreign country.”
Another X user, “Terig,” who describes themselves as a “human rights activist,” blasted Cotton for what they argued was an attempt to infringe on Code Pink’s First Amendment right.
“Maybe the Senate should reread the First Amendment,” they wrote. “Speaking for peace isn’t treason, it’s a constitutional right. Not everyone who criticizes war is ‘Chinese’ or antisemitic. Dissent is democracy, not disloyalty.”
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Senator Tom Cotton, Chairman of the Senate (Select) Intelligence Committee, attends a confirmation hearing in Washington, U.S., January 15, 2025. REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) announced Friday that he had officially petitioned the Justice Department to open a criminal probe in the anti-war activist group Code Pink, and on Friday, was met with scorn from the organization’s co-founder and critics.
Cotton sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi Friday officially asking that the DOJ investigate Code Pink for providing “material support to foreign terrorist organizations,” citing the group’s work with the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, which itself is alleged to have ties to the leftist organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which the United States has designated as a terrorist organization.
Medea Benjamin, the co-founder of Code Pink, fired back at Cotton over his request to have the DOJ investigate her organization.
“Omg. You are such a nut case,” Benjamin wrote in a social media post on X Friday. “Did your AIPAC babysitter write the letter for you?”
Benjamin was making reference to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a powerful political action committee that lobbies on behalf of a strong U.S.-Israeli relationship, and continued U.S. funding for Israel. She was also making reference to a past comment from Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) who claimed that every Republican lawmaker had an “AIPAC babysitter” that wields enormous influence over them.
Cotton, who’s received more than $1.3 million from the pro-Israel lobby, has been a staunchly pro-Israel lawmaker, having supported legislation to criminalize boycotting Israel, condemned pro-Palestinian protests as “little Gazas,” and encouraged Israel to escalate its military siege on Gaza, saying “as far as I’m concerned, Israel can bounce the rubble in Gaza.”
In his letter, Cotton also argued that Code Pink may be in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which mandates that individuals or groups publicly disclose that they work on behalf of foreign entities, citing the group’s funding from an American activist that allegedly has ties to China.
AIPAC has has drawn its own scrutiny related to FARA, with Massie having called for the lobbying group to register under the law as a foreign agent, which would force the organization to adhere to far stricter legal and compliance burdens, including required disclosures on communications with lawmakers and officials.
Benjamin’s response to Cotton’s announcement was not the only attack he received over the announcement.
“God you guys are so pathetic,” wrote Jenin Younes, the national legal director at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, in a social media post on X Saturday. “Code pink is an antiwar organization, and its founder, Medea Benjamin, is Jewish. We should investigate you for treason for terrorizing Americans at the behest of a foreign country.”
Another X user, “Terig,” who describes themselves as a “human rights activist,” blasted Cotton for what they argued was an attempt to infringe on Code Pink’s First Amendment right.
“Maybe the Senate should reread the First Amendment,” they wrote. “Speaking for peace isn’t treason, it’s a constitutional right. Not everyone who criticizes war is ‘Chinese’ or antisemitic. Dissent is democracy, not disloyalty.”
The Trump administration's recent efforts to target left-wing groups started with attacks on the Palestine movement, following the strategy established by pro-Israel organizations that worked for decades to pave the way for such repression.
By Michael Arria
November 4, 2025 3
MONDOWEISS
MONDOWEISS
President Donald Trump greets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Monday, July 7, 2025, at the South Portico of the White House.(Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)
In September, Trump issued an executive order claiming to designate “Antifa” as a “domestic terrorist organization” and a presidential memorandum (NSPM-7) that targets charities and advocacy groups over alleged national security concerns.
These efforts were seemingly driven by the assassination of right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk, which the Trump administration has continually blamed on the left despite a complete lack of evidence.
“The last message that Charlie sent me … was that we needed to have an organized strategy to go after the left-wing organizations that are promoting violence in this country,” declared White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller shortly after Kirk’s killing. “With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle, and destroy these networks.”
While Kirk’s death provided the spark for Trump’s recent moves, the administration’s war on the left effectively began with its targeting of Palestine advocates.
Almost immediately upon arriving in the White House, the Trump team revoked visas, snatched people off the streets, detained legal citizens, and launched a McCarthyite campaign against university administrations for allowing anti-Israel sentiment to foment on their campuses.
“We ought to get them all out of the country,” declared Trump, referring to students who protested the genocide. “They’re troublemakers. They’re agitators. They don’t love our country. We ought to get them the hell out.”
The group Palestine Legal, which defends individuals targeted over Palestine advocacy, says it received over 2,000 requests for legal support in 2024, the year following the October 7 attack. That was 55% increase from 2023, and a 600% increase from 2022. Roughly two-thirds of the requests were campus related.
Palestine Legal staff attorney Dylan Saba tells Mondoweiss that the U.S. Constitution and past Supreme Court interpretations of U.S. terrorism prohibit the Trump administration from simply declaring groups as terror organizations, as Palestine Action was in the UK.
“The administration is trying to push a conspiratorial narrative that dovetails with their broader attacks on organizing, but the administration has not created new legal authorities,” said Saba. “Something like NSPM-7 invokes legal categories that don’t really exist. What they’re doing is directing the law enforcement infrastructure that already exists to target certain groups.”
“They are trying to manufacture consent for the targeting of their political opponents, but also perpetuate a climate chill,” he added. “Fundamentally, what they are seeking to do is in violation of the First Amendment. They want to go after people based on their beliefs.”
And the presidential memorandum hasn’t been the only tactic. In recent months, multiple Republican lawmakers have taken aim at the tax status of pro-Palestine groups.
In August, Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent calling on the IRS to investigate Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) over alleged “ties to terrorism.”
At a panel at the second annual People’s Conference for Palestine later that month, PYM’s Aisha Nizar made a reference to Palestine activists potentially disrupting the F-35 supply chain.
These remarks led to another letter from Cotton, this one to FBI Director Kash Patel.
“Nizar’s statements constitute direct incitement of violence against U.S. national security interests by advocating for actions against the men and women who build the F-35 and seeking to imperil the delivery of one of the nation’s most strategic assets,” claimed the Senator. “I urge the Federal Bureau of Investigation to immediately examine Nizar’s actions and take any necessary actions to mitigate the threat. The U.S. defense supply chain is a key to our military’s ability to fight and win wars. We must protect that supply chain from all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
In September, Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) sent a letter to The People’s Forum, demanding financial records and declaring that the pro-Palestine organization should lose its nonprofit status over alleged connections to the Chinese government.
“Since Hamas’ terrorist attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023, The People’s Forum has been responsible for an endless amount of chaos and disruption around the country,” reads Smith’s letter.
In targeting Palestine advocates or investigations, Trump and his allies are building on groundwork previously laid by pro-Israel organizations, who have spent decades pushing such moves.
In targeting Palestine advocates or investigations, Trump and his allies are building on groundwork previously laid by pro-Israel organizations, who have spent decades pushing such moves.
Shortly before the 2024 election, the Heritage Foundation unveiled Project Esther, a proposal ostensibly aimed at combating antisemitism, but actually designed to crush the Palestine solidarity movement.
Project Esther imagines a “Hamas Support Network” (HSN) throughout the United States, which includes groups like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC), American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).
The Trump administration has implemented many of Project Esther’s recommendations, particularly its calls to crack down on the “HSN” on college campuses.
“I don’t think the impact of the Heritage Foundation can be overstated,” Defending Rights & Dissent policy director Chip Gibbons told Mondoweiss. “It’s very difficult to think of any private institute that has so dramatically influenced national security policy over the last 50 years.”
Gibbons also cited Capital Research Center (CRC), a conservative watchdog that tracks the finances of left organizations, as an administration influence. He points out that the FBI has historically used such right-wing, McCarthyite sources to pick targets for investigations.
In September, the Justice Department referred to a report by CRC while calling for federal prosecutors to investigate the liberal billionaire George Soros.
The Trump administration claimed that the CRC report showed how Soros is financing groups connected to terrorism, but in actuality, it simply showed that Soros’s Open Society network has provided multiple pro-Palestine groups with grants.
Last month, White House officials told Reuters that Trump’s goal was to “destabilize Soros’ network” and identified nine progressive organizations that they claim have financed violent protests, including JVP and IfNotNow.
Speaking to the New York Times, CRC president Scott Walter admitted that the group didn’t actually connect Soros to terrorism or violence in any way.
“We were surprised when the Justice Department suggested federal prosecutors use our report,” he explained.
So far, organizations that have been signaled out and targeted are not backing down.
“In the face of such blatant attempts to chill protest and shutter civil society, we will only get bolder and more defiant in our defense of freedom and democracy – from Palestine/Israel to the U.S.,” JVP Executive Director Stefanie Fox said in a statement.
In September, Trump issued an executive order claiming to designate “Antifa” as a “domestic terrorist organization” and a presidential memorandum (NSPM-7) that targets charities and advocacy groups over alleged national security concerns.
These efforts were seemingly driven by the assassination of right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk, which the Trump administration has continually blamed on the left despite a complete lack of evidence.
“The last message that Charlie sent me … was that we needed to have an organized strategy to go after the left-wing organizations that are promoting violence in this country,” declared White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller shortly after Kirk’s killing. “With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle, and destroy these networks.”
While Kirk’s death provided the spark for Trump’s recent moves, the administration’s war on the left effectively began with its targeting of Palestine advocates.
Almost immediately upon arriving in the White House, the Trump team revoked visas, snatched people off the streets, detained legal citizens, and launched a McCarthyite campaign against university administrations for allowing anti-Israel sentiment to foment on their campuses.
“We ought to get them all out of the country,” declared Trump, referring to students who protested the genocide. “They’re troublemakers. They’re agitators. They don’t love our country. We ought to get them the hell out.”
The group Palestine Legal, which defends individuals targeted over Palestine advocacy, says it received over 2,000 requests for legal support in 2024, the year following the October 7 attack. That was 55% increase from 2023, and a 600% increase from 2022. Roughly two-thirds of the requests were campus related.
Palestine Legal staff attorney Dylan Saba tells Mondoweiss that the U.S. Constitution and past Supreme Court interpretations of U.S. terrorism prohibit the Trump administration from simply declaring groups as terror organizations, as Palestine Action was in the UK.
“The administration is trying to push a conspiratorial narrative that dovetails with their broader attacks on organizing, but the administration has not created new legal authorities,” said Saba. “Something like NSPM-7 invokes legal categories that don’t really exist. What they’re doing is directing the law enforcement infrastructure that already exists to target certain groups.”
“They are trying to manufacture consent for the targeting of their political opponents, but also perpetuate a climate chill,” he added. “Fundamentally, what they are seeking to do is in violation of the First Amendment. They want to go after people based on their beliefs.”
And the presidential memorandum hasn’t been the only tactic. In recent months, multiple Republican lawmakers have taken aim at the tax status of pro-Palestine groups.
In August, Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent calling on the IRS to investigate Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) over alleged “ties to terrorism.”
At a panel at the second annual People’s Conference for Palestine later that month, PYM’s Aisha Nizar made a reference to Palestine activists potentially disrupting the F-35 supply chain.
These remarks led to another letter from Cotton, this one to FBI Director Kash Patel.
“Nizar’s statements constitute direct incitement of violence against U.S. national security interests by advocating for actions against the men and women who build the F-35 and seeking to imperil the delivery of one of the nation’s most strategic assets,” claimed the Senator. “I urge the Federal Bureau of Investigation to immediately examine Nizar’s actions and take any necessary actions to mitigate the threat. The U.S. defense supply chain is a key to our military’s ability to fight and win wars. We must protect that supply chain from all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
In September, Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) sent a letter to The People’s Forum, demanding financial records and declaring that the pro-Palestine organization should lose its nonprofit status over alleged connections to the Chinese government.
“Since Hamas’ terrorist attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023, The People’s Forum has been responsible for an endless amount of chaos and disruption around the country,” reads Smith’s letter.
In targeting Palestine advocates or investigations, Trump and his allies are building on groundwork previously laid by pro-Israel organizations, who have spent decades pushing such moves.
In targeting Palestine advocates or investigations, Trump and his allies are building on groundwork previously laid by pro-Israel organizations, who have spent decades pushing such moves.
Shortly before the 2024 election, the Heritage Foundation unveiled Project Esther, a proposal ostensibly aimed at combating antisemitism, but actually designed to crush the Palestine solidarity movement.
Project Esther imagines a “Hamas Support Network” (HSN) throughout the United States, which includes groups like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC), American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).
The Trump administration has implemented many of Project Esther’s recommendations, particularly its calls to crack down on the “HSN” on college campuses.
“I don’t think the impact of the Heritage Foundation can be overstated,” Defending Rights & Dissent policy director Chip Gibbons told Mondoweiss. “It’s very difficult to think of any private institute that has so dramatically influenced national security policy over the last 50 years.”
Gibbons also cited Capital Research Center (CRC), a conservative watchdog that tracks the finances of left organizations, as an administration influence. He points out that the FBI has historically used such right-wing, McCarthyite sources to pick targets for investigations.
In September, the Justice Department referred to a report by CRC while calling for federal prosecutors to investigate the liberal billionaire George Soros.
The Trump administration claimed that the CRC report showed how Soros is financing groups connected to terrorism, but in actuality, it simply showed that Soros’s Open Society network has provided multiple pro-Palestine groups with grants.
Last month, White House officials told Reuters that Trump’s goal was to “destabilize Soros’ network” and identified nine progressive organizations that they claim have financed violent protests, including JVP and IfNotNow.
Speaking to the New York Times, CRC president Scott Walter admitted that the group didn’t actually connect Soros to terrorism or violence in any way.
“We were surprised when the Justice Department suggested federal prosecutors use our report,” he explained.
So far, organizations that have been signaled out and targeted are not backing down.
“In the face of such blatant attempts to chill protest and shutter civil society, we will only get bolder and more defiant in our defense of freedom and democracy – from Palestine/Israel to the U.S.,” JVP Executive Director Stefanie Fox said in a statement.
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