The New Republic is fretting over presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg: “Can we criticize him without perpetuating harmful stereotypes?” they ask. He’s rich, he’s Jewish … that’s a lot of landmines to avoid.
Now, what would be an anti-Semitic tweet? Back in October 2018, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy tweeted, “We cannot allow Soros, Steyer, and Bloomberg to BUY this election! Get out and vote Republican November 6th. #MAGA.” The New Republic reports that “Democrats quickly denounced the tweet as anti-Semitic” and Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt “condemned such language in an interview days later.”
“When I first read the tweet, I was horrified but unsurprised that McCarthy would stoop to playing on what I, and many others, easily recognized as an anti-Semitic trope,” writes Emily Tamkin. But it’s problematic, isn’t it, when Bloomberg, a billionaire, outspends his opponents by a factor of 10.