What a freakin' maroon!:
Iowa Republicans hammered Vice President Kamala Harris and her selection on Tuesday of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate for the White House, lambasting them as “radicals” whose policy agenda threatens the nation should voters fail to elect Donald Trump to a second term in November.
After Harris formally secured the Democratic presidential nomination on Monday and later unveiled Walz as her pick for vice president, GOP politicians moved Tuesday to frame the Harris-Walz ticket as dangerously liberal. Republicans are attacking the Democrats’ handling of abortion rights, the economy and a record influx of migrants crossing the southern border.
In selecting the North Star State’s top elected official, the ticket is more progressive than it would have been had Harris selected Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a popular and more moderate leader of a swing state crucial to the 2024 election.
At a Tuesday night event at the Cedar Rapids Country Club, Republican Party of Iowa Chair Jeff Kaufmann said “Democratic activists” pushed back on having a Jewish American vice presidential nominee. The event drew an audience of about 100.
“There's a reason why Kamala Harris didn't make the most obvious choice” for running mate, Kaufmann said. “The brightest choice you could have made was to name the governor of Pennsylvania.”
Republicans, including Trump’s vice presidential pick, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, of Ohio, have united to suggest the progressive wing of the Democratic Party wouldn’t support a Jewish running mate, capitalizing on the party’s divisions over the Israel-Hamas war to appeal to Jewish voters.
President Joe Biden has faced pressure to pull back support for Israel and negotiate a cease-fire as Israel has waged war against Hamas-led Palestinian militant groups after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that killed 1,189 mostly Israeli civilians. Many progressive voters have demanded an end to the fighting in Gaza that has resulted in about 40,000 Palestinians being killed.
Criticism of Shapiro went beyond him being Jewish. A decades-old opinion article had surfaced that he did not believe it was possible to bring peace between Israel and Palestine, though when the piece surfaced he rebutted that he did believe a two-state solution was possible.
He also was critical of college protests urging a cease-fire, telling CNN in April, “we have to query whether or not we would tolerate this if this were people dressed up in KKK outfits or KKK regalia,” comparing pro-Palestinian protesters to the Ku Klux Klan.
“Make no bones about it — that’s why he was not named,” Kaufmann said of Shapiro being Jewish. “And the Republican in me is happy about that, because Tim Walz is easier. But my lord, think about that … The story behind all of that is as blatantly antisemitic as anything you could ever see or think about.”
Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, is Jewish. Still, Kaufmann told The Gazette after the event he “absolutely” stood by those remarks. He pointed to Democrats who’ve called out the antisemitism, including CNN commentator Van Jones, who made remarks Tuesday on CNN that “you can be for the Palestinians without being an anti-Jewish bigot, but there are some anti-Jewish bigots out there.”
“The smart choice, by anybody's standard — anybody's political standard — she would pick the young, energetic governor who actually outperformed the president in your biggest swing state,” Kaufmann told The Gazette. “They've got explaining to do. But of course, they've got to be asked the question. And the answer’s got to be more than, ‘Well, I know this Jewish person or that Jewish person.’ Ask the question of, ‘Then do you refute and do you condemn all the other Democratic leaders that told you not to pick him?’”
Kaufmann and Joni Ernst, Iowa’s junior Republican U.S. senator, painted Walz as being further to the political left than Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. GovTrack. A nonpartisan organization that tracks bills in Congress, in 2019 ranked Harris as the “most liberal compared to all senators.”
www.thegazette.com
Iowa Republicans hammered Vice President Kamala Harris and her selection on Tuesday of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate for the White House, lambasting them as “radicals” whose policy agenda threatens the nation should voters fail to elect Donald Trump to a second term in November.
After Harris formally secured the Democratic presidential nomination on Monday and later unveiled Walz as her pick for vice president, GOP politicians moved Tuesday to frame the Harris-Walz ticket as dangerously liberal. Republicans are attacking the Democrats’ handling of abortion rights, the economy and a record influx of migrants crossing the southern border.
In selecting the North Star State’s top elected official, the ticket is more progressive than it would have been had Harris selected Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a popular and more moderate leader of a swing state crucial to the 2024 election.
At a Tuesday night event at the Cedar Rapids Country Club, Republican Party of Iowa Chair Jeff Kaufmann said “Democratic activists” pushed back on having a Jewish American vice presidential nominee. The event drew an audience of about 100.
“There's a reason why Kamala Harris didn't make the most obvious choice” for running mate, Kaufmann said. “The brightest choice you could have made was to name the governor of Pennsylvania.”
Republicans, including Trump’s vice presidential pick, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, of Ohio, have united to suggest the progressive wing of the Democratic Party wouldn’t support a Jewish running mate, capitalizing on the party’s divisions over the Israel-Hamas war to appeal to Jewish voters.
President Joe Biden has faced pressure to pull back support for Israel and negotiate a cease-fire as Israel has waged war against Hamas-led Palestinian militant groups after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that killed 1,189 mostly Israeli civilians. Many progressive voters have demanded an end to the fighting in Gaza that has resulted in about 40,000 Palestinians being killed.
Criticism of Shapiro went beyond him being Jewish. A decades-old opinion article had surfaced that he did not believe it was possible to bring peace between Israel and Palestine, though when the piece surfaced he rebutted that he did believe a two-state solution was possible.
He also was critical of college protests urging a cease-fire, telling CNN in April, “we have to query whether or not we would tolerate this if this were people dressed up in KKK outfits or KKK regalia,” comparing pro-Palestinian protesters to the Ku Klux Klan.
“Make no bones about it — that’s why he was not named,” Kaufmann said of Shapiro being Jewish. “And the Republican in me is happy about that, because Tim Walz is easier. But my lord, think about that … The story behind all of that is as blatantly antisemitic as anything you could ever see or think about.”
Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, is Jewish. Still, Kaufmann told The Gazette after the event he “absolutely” stood by those remarks. He pointed to Democrats who’ve called out the antisemitism, including CNN commentator Van Jones, who made remarks Tuesday on CNN that “you can be for the Palestinians without being an anti-Jewish bigot, but there are some anti-Jewish bigots out there.”
“The smart choice, by anybody's standard — anybody's political standard — she would pick the young, energetic governor who actually outperformed the president in your biggest swing state,” Kaufmann told The Gazette. “They've got explaining to do. But of course, they've got to be asked the question. And the answer’s got to be more than, ‘Well, I know this Jewish person or that Jewish person.’ Ask the question of, ‘Then do you refute and do you condemn all the other Democratic leaders that told you not to pick him?’”
Kaufmann and Joni Ernst, Iowa’s junior Republican U.S. senator, painted Walz as being further to the political left than Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. GovTrack. A nonpartisan organization that tracks bills in Congress, in 2019 ranked Harris as the “most liberal compared to all senators.”
Iowa GOP chair: It’s ‘blatantly antisemitic’ for Harris to pick Walz as running mate
Iowa Republicans hammered Vice President Kamala Harris and her selection on Tuesday of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate for the White House. Picking Walz over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, was “blatantly antisemitic,” Iowa GOP Chair Jeff Kaufmann said.
www.thegazette.com
