Cornel West: Both parties ‘beyond redemption’

Independent presidential candidate Cornel West said both major American political parties are beyond saving in an interview with The Washington Post released Tuesday.

“Both parties are beyond redemption,” West said.

Explaining the need for him to stay in the race, West pointed to the “crisis in the Republican Party, the undercutting and the neofascism of [former President Trump] on the one hand, and now the Democratic establishment especially around Gaza.”

“We just have to be true to ourselves,” he told the Post.

West, an activist, has been a fierce critic of Israel’s war in Gaza, joining pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University in recent days. He has defended his third-party candidacy as a moral imperative, despite Democratic concerns that it could undermine President Biden’s reelection bid.

Biden has faced mounting criticism from the left on his handling of Israel’s war in Gaza, even from some in his party. A recent CBS News/YouGov poll found an increasing number of Americans wanting the president to push Israel to halt military action in Gaza, from 31 percent in February to 37 percent in the newer poll.

Biden has recently ramped up public criticism of Israel’s handling of the war, and he has increased efforts to move more aid into Gaza amid fears of a famine. But the president has not supported placing conditions on aid to Israel, despite a strike that killed seven workers with the U.S.-based World Central Kitchen.

He also criticized Robert F. Kennedy Jr., another independent presidential candidate, who has said Palestinians are “pampered” with international aid and described Israel as a “moral nation.”

“He just strikes me as just so far removed from the realities of suffering,” West said of Kennedy.

In a recent interview, West called Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel last year a “counter-terrorist” response. 

“There’s no doubt that there’s a variety of different Palestinian voices in the resistance movement,” West said to CNN anchor Abby Phillip earlier this month. “Hamas doesn’t speak for every Palestinian.”

“I don’t believe in killing an innocent anybody,” West later added.

“But you don’t start with those voices without coming to terms with the vicious killings and occupations that’s been going on for 75 years, and then you get a counter-terrorist response to that.”

On April 10, West announced his vice presidential pick, Melina Abdullah, a professor at California State University, Los Angeles. He said he “wanted someone whose heart, mind and soul is committed to the empowerment of poor and working people.”

“She has a record of deep commitment and investment in ensuring poor and working people are at the center of her vision,” West said of Abdullah.