A group of protesters approached the White House with an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and many gallons of red paint on Thursday.

The protest coincides with Netanyahu’s visit to the White House to meet with President Biden. Police closed the park just outside the White House’s north lawn, relegating the protesters to a side street.

The protesters are carrying many of the same signs seen at Wednesday’s anti-Israel protest at Union Station. That protest saw pro-Hamas slogans and the burning of American flags.

At least 20 of the protesters stood behind a banner displaying the words “Prime Minister of Genocide.”

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Images show the protesters began dumping the dozens of gallons of red liquid onto the street near the White House.

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Republican lawmakers accompanied police to replace the American flags after the protests on Wednesday night. Democrats later joined Republicans in condemning the acts on Thursday morning.

“What happened at Union Station was vile, offensive, wrong,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote on X. “Hamas is a terrorist organization. Exalting them and burning Union Station’s American flag is disgraceful. Defacing public property is illegal. Hateful, antisemitic messages and threats against Jews have no place here.”

Several top Democrats released statements condemning the incident, including Vice President Harris, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

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Netanyahu addressed Congress in a speech on Wednesday, drawing the crowds of protesters to the U.S. Capitol.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators with an effigy Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu protest in front of the White House to denounce US President Joe Biden meeting with Netanyahu in Washington, DC, on July 25, 2024.  (Andrew Thomas/AFP via Getty Images)

One man who walked by the protest and remarked that he was Jewish and was offended by the language was then chased down the street, yelled at and called “Hitler” by agitators. He and a woman were later let inside a building to get away from the protesters. When a Fox News reporter asked why they followed the man, one said it was because he was White and Jewish.

President Biden’s tenure in the White House expires in January, and political insiders from both sides of the aisle believe the remaining six months of his lame-duck presidency will consist largely of the same routine and “absolutely nothing.”

Biden suspended his 2024 re-election campaign on Sunday, noting in a statement that he believed it “is in the best interests of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term.”

Biden’s announcement, which included his “full support and endorsement” for Vice President Harris to take over as the party’s presidential nominee, led many Americans and political pundits to question what that fulfillment of duties will look like and whether the president will see through any meaningful policies or changes during his remaining months in office.

Former Democrat presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, who represented Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District in the House from 2013 to 2021, said she sees little change coming Americans’ way in the next six months, insisting Biden “hasn’t been the one making decisions” on key issues all along.

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“Clearly, President Biden hasn’t been the one making decisions on our country’s domestic and foreign policy for the last three and a half years,” she said. “The same unelected people running the country with Biden as their figurehead will continue to do so for as long as he is in office and with Kamala Harris, if she’s elected.”

“The people who’ve been actually running the country are the unelected power elite from the administrative state, national security state and military industrial complex working hand-in-glove with the propaganda media acting as their agents,” she added. “Their goal is to remain in power at any and all costs, and [they] have already shown they are willing to do whatever it takes to defeat and destroy [former President] Donald Trump, as he is the greatest threat to their power.”

Biden’s unprecedented announcement came as an increasing number of Democrat lawmakers publicly called for him to step aside, with the party’s leadership reportedly engaged in efforts to convince the 81-year-old president he could not win the November general election against Trump, the 2024 GOP nominee who he defeated four years ago to win the White House.

“Clearly, President Biden hasn’t been the one making decisions on our country’s domestic and foreign policy for the last three and a half years,” former Democrat presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard told Fox News Digital. (Getty Images)

Julian Epstein, an attorney and former chief counsel to Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, told Fox News Digital he believes there is “almost nothing” Biden will be able to accomplish in the months and days before the inauguration.

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“There is almost nothing that Biden can achieve in the next six months, other than treading water and maintaining the status quo,” he said. “If the White House were smart, it would double down on its support for Israel and make clear that the Democrats understand moral clarity on fighting what is in effect the Ku Klux Klan on the banks of the Mediterranean.”

American Majority CEO and founder Ned Ryun echoed Epstein’s assessment, saying he believes there’s “absolutely nothing” Biden will be able to accomplish in the shadows of Harris’ presidential campaign.

“First, there’s no way anyone on either side of the aisle would want to push the envelope as they have their own re-elections to worry about,” Ryan said. “[Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer would never let anything overtly problematic come to the floor in the Senate because it’s a terrible map already; he doesn’t need to make it even harder for them to try and hold majority.”

“So Biden will achieve precisely nothing, except via executive orders, as he’s beyond a lame-duck president and shouldn’t even still be in office,” he added.

President Biden and Vice President Harris (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

During his tenure in the White House, Biden has signed 140 executive orders, 196 presidential memoranda, 634 proclamations and 133 notices.

After his announcement, Biden’s schedule was largely cleared of campaign events and speeches.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday that Biden intends to complete his term in office and “run through the finish line” in January.

“We don’t see ourselves as a lame-duck president at all in this period of time,” she told reporters from the briefing room. “This is a president that has been incredibly successful, and he’s going to do everything that he can to continue to fight for the American people.”

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

At Monday’s congressional hearing on the Secret Service and the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi asked: “What can Congress actually do to stop this from happening again?”

The congressman, a Democrat from Illinois, then showed the chamber a graphic on political violence that was published a month ago by the Chicago Project on Security and Threats, which I lead. The graphic shows that 74% of Americans want members of Congress to come together to denounce all political violence. This stance crosses party lines, with 86% of Democrats, 51% of independents and 70% of Republicans saying so.

While individual members of Congress have made statements denouncing the Trump assassination attempt, Krishnamoorthi challenged the entire House of Representatives to go much further, proposing a resolution in the near future “condemning any political violence in America” and calling for support from every member of the chamber. Such resolutions go to the House for a vote and are not signed into law, but they convey a message — especially when they pass unanimously.

After Monday’s grueling hearing, the head of the Secret Service resigned on Tuesday, writing to her staff: “I take full responsibility for the security lapse.” That departure will not prevent future bloodshed. However, Congress has a chance to do so.

At this critical time, members of Congress — both Republicans and Democrats — must stand together to oppose political violence. The Trump shooting is only the latest of a growing string of incidents. Indeed, we are seeing the most violent era in American politics in decades, and now is certainly the time for all political leaders at all levels of government — national, state and local — to adopt similar resolutions and make similar unified statements.

Political violence in the United States is entering a new stage as America faces mounting domestic terrorism: violent anti-government and other political actions by militias, small groups and volatile individuals within the United States.

To be sure, famous acts of domestic terrorism occurred from the 1990s through 2010, including the violent standoff at Ruby Ridge in 1992, the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, the violent protests against the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle in 1999, and the multiple arsons and bombings conducted by individuals affiliated with the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front from 1995 to 2010.

What’s happening now is different. Political violence in America is escalating, both in number and in kinds of violent incidents. Since even before the pandemic, America has witnessed an era of political violence unparalleled at least since the 1960s. Incidents of domestic terrorism increased by 357% between 2013 and 2021, according to statistics collected by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.

Collective political violence is rising too. Since summer 2020, the United States has seen major political riots against police and downtown businesses during some of the George Floyd protests; a brazen assault on the U.S. Capitol to stop the peaceful transfer of power on Jan. 6, 2021; spikes of campus unrest to protest the conflict in Gaza in fall 2023 and spring 2024; and numerous lone wolf attacks and plots — including against the husband of then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, against Justice Brett Kavanaugh and against Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

To better understand this new era, the Project on Security and Threats has set up more than a dozen national surveys in the three years since Jan. 6, 2021. These rely on high-quality nationally representative samples that match the American adult population on a vast number of demographic, political, economic, social and other factors, meaning it is reasonable to extrapolate the findings to the U.S. population as a whole.

The striking finding from our June 24 survey is that 10% of American adults — the equivalent of 26 million people — agreed that “the use of force is justified to prevent Donald Trump from being president.” The poll also found that 7% of American adults — the equivalent of 18 million people — support the use of force to restore Trump to the presidency.

The assassination attempt against Trump less than three weeks later did not come out of nowhere. The shooter’s motive is not yet clear — he seems to have researched President Biden as a target as well — but in any case, we need to be concerned about copycat and retaliatory violence by volatile individuals steeped in incendiary political rhetoric, beset by mental illness or simply looking to gain notoriety. Such spirals of violence could occur against many political leaders and at numerous flashpoints in the months ahead during and after the presidential election.

No one can entirely prevent that, but for lawmakers, the next step is clear: Accept Krishnamoorthi’s challenge and pass a resolution, unanimously, condemning political violence. This could make a major difference.

Just as studies show that incendiary political rhetoric encourages support for political violence, so too would public condemnation reduce it. Those taking violent political action are often volatile individuals, with their own reasons to act out, but also encouraged by the perceptions that they are serving some greater good. Some hope to be glorified as warriors for a cause. Leaders of those causes should make clear that no one who engages in political violence will be glorified.

The most effective message to reduce support for violence is a simple one: Political violence, wherever it comes from, is illegal, immoral and anti-American. Leaders should also contribute to a culture of prevention by encouraging political anger to be redirected away from negative expression as violence and toward positive expression as voting.

Since the assassination attempt, Biden has already given multiple speeches along just these lines. I hope that his courage will be contagious and that Congress will do its part. It is possible to reverse the rising violence and return to the peaceful traditions that made American democracy the envy of the world.

Robert A. Pape, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, is the director of the Chicago Project on Security and Threats.