Republican Jewish Coalition won't say where all the anti-Semitic invective is coming from
Updated by Matthew Yglesias on May 24, 2016, 2:10 p.m. ET @mattyglesias matt@vox.com
The Republican Jewish Coalition has the mission of attracting votes and fundraising dollars for Republicans from American Jews, a challenge when your party's nominee has a robust following among the online "alt-right," which is full of kooky anti-Semites. (Check out the #kikeservative hashtag for some examples.)
To that end, the RJC put out a statement today saying that it is against "the troubling increase of anti-Semitic invective" on the campaign trail but not identifying where the invective is coming from.
RJC statement on abuse of journalists from presidential candidates’ supporters
May 24, 2016 (Washington, D.C) -- The Republican Jewish Coalition released the following statement regarding the troubling increase of anti-Semitic invective directed toward journalists covering both the Democratic and Republican candidates for President:
"We abhor any abuse of journalists, commentators and writers whether it be from Sanders, Clinton or Trump supporters. There is no room for any of this in any campaign. Journalists, regardless of their race, religion or ethnicity should be free to do their jobs without suffering abuses, anti-Semitic or otherwise.
"At the RJC, we will be making the case that Jewish values are American values and American values are the Republican values of free markets, peace through strength and unwavering support of Israel. Now more than ever our political process should be geared toward a civil discourse focused on solving our most vexing and intractable problems as a country."
So let's be clear about this: The anti-Semitic invective directing toward journalists covering the campaign is coming from Donald Trump's supporters. There's plenty of invective to go around from supporters of all the candidates, but the specifically anti-Semitic invective is coming from Team Trump.
Don't take my word for it. Here's Seth Mandel from the conservative journal Commentary:
Seth Mandel ?@SethAMandel
Cowardly statement from RJC. I'll let you know when Stormfront attacks my family because they like Hillary or Bernie t.co
10:34 AM - 24 May 2016
And here's Jonathan Weisman from the New York Times:
? ?@jonathanweisman
After much prodding @RJC responds: "We abhor any abuse of journalists, whether it be from Sanders, Clinton or Trump supporters." Interesting
? ?@jonathanweisman
@RJC I for one have heard only from the last camp -- and boy, have I heard.
10:29 AM - 24 May 2016
The strange thing about this strategy is that while there are a lot of things you can fool the media about, you really can't lie to journalists about the contents of their own inboxes. We see what's going on out there.
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