A Number of Republicans Don't Want to Condemn Donald Trump's Dinner With a Couple of Antisemites

[babylonsister]

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/11/surprise-a-number-of-republicans-dont-want-to-condemn-donald-trumps-dinner-with-a-couple-of-antisemites

Levin Report
Surprise: A Number of Republicans Don’t Want to Condemn Donald Trump’s Dinner With a Couple of Antisemites
They too know where their bread is buttered.
By Bess Levin
November 28, 2022


In the year 2022, the number one thing that unites the Republican Party is bigotry and hate. Hate for Black people. Hate for (non-white) immigrants. Hate for anyone who isn’t Christian. Hate for the LGBTQ+ community. Which is why it should surprise no one who has been paying literally any attention whatsoever that a number of GOP lawmakers apparently don’t want to publicly condemn Donald Trump’s recent dinner with two men who have made names for themselves as virulent antisemites.

Axios reports that though a handful of Republicans have spoken out against Trump’s dinner with Kanye “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE” West (a.k.a. “Ye”) and Holocaust-denying white supremacist Nick Fuentes, many members of the party “have largely remained silent,” with spokespeople for almost two dozen House and Senate GOP lawmakers—including “party leaders” and people who are literally “cochairs of caucuses and task forces focused on Judaism or antisemitism”—declining to respond to requests for comment. While the outlet suggests that the lawmakers’ refusal to criticize the dinner speaks to “the stranglehold Trump still has on the Republican Party” despite his poor showing in the midterms, it seems more likely that these people, like Trump, don’t want to upset voters who were actually extremely pleased to see the ex-president and current candidate for office dining with individuals who have expressed such views.

Among the small group of Republicans who have spoken out against last week’s dinner, the trend appears to be that the only ones who have truly castigated Trump are people who are departing Congress in January (representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger) or don’t actually hold positions within the party at this time (former NJ governor Chris Christie). While current GOP lawmaker James Comer, who is likely to be the next chair of the House Oversight Committee, responded to the matter on Meet the Press, his mild criticism left a great deal to be desired; he told the morning show that Trump “needs better judgment in who he dines with.” Among the elected officials who actually offered full-throated condemnation were Rep. Don Bacon, the GOP cochair of the Caucus for the Advancement of Torah Values, who told Axios of the sit-down, “I am appalled,” and Senator Bill Cassidy, who tweeted: “President Trump hosting racist antisemites for dinner encourages other racist antisemites. These attitudes are immoral and should not be entertained.” (He added, obviously falsely, “This is not the Republican Party.”) Late Monday, Senator John Thune said Trump having dinner with Fuentes was a “bad idea on every level” and that the person who planned it should be fired

For his part, Trump has not felt the need to disavow the viewpoints of either of his dining companions. He also, as of Monday afternoon, has not invoked his having a Jewish daughter and son-in-law as a way to justify having dined with people who openly talk about their hatred for Jews, but it is presumably in the works.

Link to tweet

[emulatorloo]

1. Some enterprising reporter should ask Ron DeSantis about it.

Thanks for the article!

[Diamond_Dog]

2. We need to tie this around the neck of every Republican in Congress

Especially those who rode in on Trump’s coattails and endorsement like JD Vance.

[bmichaelh]

3. Republican Anti-Semitism is not just a Trump problem

Also, we should not forget an antisemitic tweet that Kevin McCarthy sent out in 2018.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/13/kevin-mccarthy-anti-semitism-1168809

[republianmushroom]

4. Of course they don't that is their base.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

5. GOP agrees with Ye and Fuentes. Being scared of their base is just an excuse.

[gratuitous]

6. Don't miss who else has remained quiet about all this

The former guy himself. "D-uh, gee whiz, I didn't know who I was meeting with, d-uh, d-uh, d-uh. D-uh I never heard of any of them ever before! I don't know how they even got into my place."