Dems disagree on whether party has antisemitism problem

Democrats are not seeing eye to eye on whether the party has a problem with antisemitism ahead of the November general election. 

“It’s easy to call out people with Tiki torches saying ‘Jews will not replace us’ or the former president saying ‘very fine people on both sides,’ Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., said in a statement to Fox News Digital, referencing a rally with White supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. 

“However, when Democrats look inward and see ‘go back to Poland’ or ‘kill the Zionists,’ they pretend the antisemitic rhetoric on the left isn’t happening, or they are silent,” he added. “And as it turns out, the left and the right have something in common.”

As the war between Israel and terrorist group Hamas has gone on, initially spurred by the latter’s surprise attack on innocent civilians on Oct. 7, acts of antisemitism have been observed more often in the U.S. 

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The Anti-Defamation League reported that U.S. antisemitic assaults in the three months following the October attack in Israel shot up, surpassing the totals for entire years in the past. 

The ADL said 3,291 assaults happened between Oct. 7 and Jan. 7. In 2022, 3,697 assaults occurred over the course of the entire year. The totals for each of the last 10 years, except for 2022, were less than that three-month period following the beginning of Israel’s war with Hamas. 

This month, anti-Israel and antisemitic demonstrations rapidly expanded at top-tier universities, with a Gaza solidarity encampment that is persisting at Columbia University inspiring many of its higher education counterparts to take over their respective campuses, disrupt school activity, and intimidate Jewish students. 

A rabbi at the New York school ultimately reccommended Columbia Jewish students return home to ensure their own safety.

While many Republican lawmakers have been quick to call out the demonstrations, Democrats have more often been quiet, and they have also been measured in their responses and calls for action from schools and police. 

Some Democrats have even supported the encampment at Columbia, such as Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who recently visited students involved in the protest. 

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has additionally discouraged the use of police enforcement against such demonstrations. 

Rachel Rosen, the chief communications officer for the group Democratic Majority for Israel, told Fox News Digital, “Antisemitism is emanating from the far left and the far right.”

However, she said, “President Biden has forcefully condemned antisemitism and defended Israel.”

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She added, “We’re still waiting for GOP leaders to condemn Marjorie Taylor Greene’s ‘Jewish space lasers,’ the Republican candidate for governor of North Carolina’s Holocaust denialism and Donald Trump’s disgraceful trafficking in antisemitic tropes and dining with an actual Nazi.” 

“Donald Trump regularly demeans Jewish Americans, dines with White nationalists, and said Adolf Hitler ‘did some good things,'” agreed Eric Schultz, senior advisor to former President Barack Obama. “Most Jewish voters support President Biden and that is because he has shown steadfast support for the Jewish people, especially with antisemitism on the rise.”

The White House didn’t provide comment on whether the Democratic Party has a problem with antisemitism to Fox News Digital in time for publication. 

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Penn., who has emerged as a vocal advocate of Israel, was quick to say the party does have such a problem: “The far left, clearly. And that seems to manifest itself especially on the college campuses,” he said. 

According to Fetterman, the Democrats can grapple with the issue “by calling it out,” which he noted he has been doing. However, he said he wasn’t going to give his colleagues advice on how to do so.

“I’m not aware of it,” Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said when asked by Fox News Digital if the Democrats had an issue with antisemitism within the party. “But if there is, I’d be concerned.”

Tester is campaigning for re-election in Montana, which is poised to be one of the most competitive races in the country, rating as a “Toss Up” by non-partisan political handicapper the Cook Political Report. 

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., shared with Fox News Digital that he doesn’t believe there is an issue among Democrats with antisemitism. “I don’t believe there are antisemites among Democrats in the United States Congress,” he said, noting that he couldn’t possibly know the beliefs of every individual Democratic voter. 

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“People often say things that may be misconstrued,” he explained. “And sometimes they say things that are offensive. But I don’t believe deep in their hearts people in the United States Congress hate Jews.”

Several Democrats, prompted as to whether there is specifically an issue on the left, avoided answering, instead condemning antisemitism in general. 

“As the co-founder of the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, I’ve been working across the aisle to fight the scourge of antisemitism wherever it rears its ugly head, regardless of political party or ideology,” Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., said in a statement to Fox News Digital. Rosen is the only Jewish woman in the Senate. 

Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., similarly emphasized in a statement, “Antisemitism has no place in our country and I condemn this hate in no uncertain terms.” 

The women each face their own competitive re-election battles in Nevada and Wisconsin in November. 

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., didn’t answer whether there was a problem within the party, but noted he felt badly for students across the country who are having school and graduation ceremonies potentially interrupted amid the hysteria of the demonstrations. 

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The question was also sidestepped by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., whose office directed Fox News Digital instead to recent legislation he introduced to address antisemitism on college campuses. 

Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., pointed to his statement denouncing “hateful, antisemitic harassment and intimidation” at Columbia, without commenting on the party’s potential antisemitism concern. 

Robert Shapiro, a political science professor at Columbia University explained that “The problem for the Democrats – Biden in particular, is not antisemitism.”

Instead, the issue they face is “how to deal with Israel and how to deal with the protests, especially in terms of the general disruption to society for which Biden and the Democrats may be held accountable, ultimately, in the 2024 election.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the highest ranking Jewish elected official in the U.S., did not provide comment in time for publication.  

Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio and Bob Casey, D-Penn., who face tough re-election contests in November, also didn’t provide comments.

Sens. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., and Mark Warner, and Reps. Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass., Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., and Jamie Raskin, D-Md., were additionally reached out to by Fox News Digital. 

Witness says Joe Biden talked to Hunter’s business associates; GOP sees smoking gun, Dems downplay

Hunter Biden’s former associate Devon Archer said Hunter would sometimes put then-Vice President Joe Biden on speakerphone while meeting with business partners, two lawmakers said Monday.

Archer spoke to the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Monday in a closed-door meeting. The panel is investigating Hunter Biden and what, if any, role his father played in his foreign business dealings.

But Republicans and Democrats were split on whether Archer’s comments were a sign that now-President Biden has been working closely with his son’s business deals, something the White House has denied.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., told Fox News Digital that Archer’s admission proves Biden “lied” about not being involved in his son’s foreign dealings.

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Greene, who was not in the meeting but said she is getting regular updates from her staff, said that Archer “said specifically, he heard Hunter Biden speak to Joe Biden more than 20 times” and said Archer recalled the conversations were “about their business deals.”

“Not about lunch or the weather or just getting dad on the phone. It’s about their business deals. He also said that the Bidens were in the business of influence peddling. And that is significant. Very significant,” Greene said.

“What that does is that proves Joe Biden lied…think about how significant that is. That means Kevin McCarthy calling for an impeachment inquiry is the right thing to do,” she said.

On the other side of the aisle, freshman Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., told reporters that Archer said Biden was on the phone when he was working with Hunter. But Goldman said they discussed “casual niceties” and “the weather” rather than topics of business.

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“Like many people, Hunter spoke with his father every day, and would often put his father, occasionally would put his father on to say hello to whomever he happened to be caught at dinner with, and Mr. Archer clarified that was sometimes people that they were having, you know, they were trying to do business with, and it was sometimes friends or other social engagements,” he said.

“As he described it, it was all casual niceties, the weather, what’s going on,” Goldman added. “There wasn’t a single conversation about any of the business dealings that Hunter had.”

Greene, however, accused Goldman of covering up for the president and his family. She pointed out that before coming to Congress, Goldman first gained national attention as House Democrats’ lead counsel during the first impeachment of former President Trump.

“Dan Goldman is a former prosecutor on the impeachment team of President Trump, and now has basically just declared himself the de facto attorney for Joe Biden and Hunter Biden. And so he’s standing out there trying to downplay this and spin this, but that’s not what was said,” Greene said.

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Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., told reporters that he believes Archer’s testimony “implicated the president” but said of the phone calls with business associates, “The substance of the conversations were pleasantries.”

Archer said that Biden was put on the phone to sell “the brand,” a source told Fox News. These phone calls included a dinner in Paris with a French energy company and in China with Jonathan Li of BHR.

Archer testified there was value of adding Hunter Biden to Burisma’s board was “the brand,” the source said. The argument was that then-Vice President Joe Biden brought the most value. Archer also stated that Burisma would have gone under if not for “the brand.”

Overtime – Episode #440: Trump Feuds, Leftist Dems, Sleaze

Bill and his guests – Russell Brand, Olivia Nuzzi, Steve Schmidt, and former Rep. Harold Ford, Jr. – answer viewer questions after the show. (Originally aired 10/6/17)

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The post Overtime – Episode #440: Trump Feuds, Leftist Dems, Sleaze appeared first on Buy It At A Bargain – Deals And Reviews.

Dems 'want answers' on Biden documents, Rep. Porter says: 'Classified documents belong in classified settings'

Democrats want answers from the White House regarding stashes of classified documents improperly held by President Biden since the Obama administration, Democratic Rep. Katie Porter of California said.

Porter, speaking with reporters after a town hall event Tuesday, was asked about her role in the House Oversight Committee and the ongoing investigation into Biden’s illicit storage of classified documents at his private residence, inside his garage, and in the office of his think tank.

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“So I definitely think that we want to get answers from the White House,” Porter said. 

Porter, however, wouldn’t say if she will sign on to a request from Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer for records related to the classified documents.

“I don’t know if that document request – I have not reviewed the line by line of the request that Chairman [James] Comer made – but I definitely think we want answers. Classified documents belong in classified settings, and I think you heard me say oversight is not a partisan thing. Good oversight means you’re willing to hold any rule breaker to account.”

Comer, a Kentucky Republican, sent a letter Sunday to White House chief of staff Ron Klain requesting more documents and communications related to the discoveries of multiple Obama-era classified documents in several locations at Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, and the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C. 

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Porter went on to say there has been “much broader abuse of classified information” by former President Donald Trump.

“I don’t have all the facts about President Biden’s classified information,” Porter continued. “We don’t have all the facts, sadly, because of obstruction yet about President Trump’s much broader abuse of classified information. But we should be asking for answers in a respectful way, and we should be expecting to get honest ones.”

BIDEN IGNORES REPORTERS’ QUESTIONS ABOUT CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS FOR 2ND TIME AS STAFF ESCORTS MEDIA OUT

Biden again ignored reporters’ questions on Tuesday as they tried to get him to address the classified documents from his time as vice president that were recently found at his Delaware home and the Penn Biden Center.

Biden had a meeting with Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte, and after the two leaders delivered brief remarks, reporters began hurling questions at the president. They were all met with silence.

The same thing happened three times last week. First, Biden refused to answer questions about the documents on Monday, Jan. 9. 

Then the following day, Jan. 10, the president did not acknowledge questions after his meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Fox News’ Ronn Blitzer contributed to this report.