John Kiriakou singled out New Jersey Democratic senator Cory Booker as an example of Democratic silence toward Israel during the Gaza and Iran wars.
Asked where the Democrats were amid criticism of the wars that had come mostly from the isolationist right — sometimes called the restraint camp — Kiriakou said Democrats “are utterly silent,” and that he was “especially furious” with Booker. He said that the time before Netanyahu’s most recent visit to Washington, Booker “literally ran through the halls of Congress to get to a photo op” so he could stand behind Netanyahu “with this big stupid grin on his face.”[1]
Kiriakou tied this behavior to fear of AIPAC, saying members of Congress who are not “100% pro-Israel” in their voting record risk being primaried, with AIPAC willing to “spend millions of dollars to defeat you.” He said that fear “scares most members of Congress” into refusing to challenge Israel policy.[2][3]
The photo op
Asked during the 2026 Iran war why Democrats were not criticising it, John Kiriakou said he had been “especially furious” with Booker. On an earlier Netanyahu visit to Washington, Booker “literally ran through the halls of Congress to get to a photo op so he could stand behind Benjamin Netanyahu with his big stupid grin on his face.”[4]
Kiriakou’s comparison was to O.J. Simpson running through an airport in the old Hertz advertisement — a reference he acknowledged dated him.[5] The element he could not explain was the timing: it happened after Gaza and after the start of the war with Iran.[4] The wider pattern is at Democratic silence on the Iran war.