Vice President Joe Biden offered praise for the Jewish community that raised some eyebrows and seems to have delighted anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists. At a DNC event for Jewish American Heritage Month on Tuesday evening, after noting Jewish Americans’ disproportionate representation in Congress, impressive share of Nobel Prizes, and role in the civil-rights and womens’-rights movements, Biden then praised their work in behalf of gay marriage via their control of the media.
“I believe what affects the movements in America, what affects our attitudes in America are as much the culture and the arts as anything else,” he explained, “. . . Think behind of all that, I bet you 85 percent of those changes, whether it’s in Hollywood or social media are a consequence of Jewish leaders in the industry.”
Biden also cited one of his favorite explanations for the success of gay marriage — “it wasn’t anything we legislatively did. It was Will and Grace, it was the social media. Literally. That’s what changed peoples’ attitudes. That’s why I was so certain that the vast majority of people would embrace and rapidly embrace” the measure.
In those developments, Biden explained, “the influence [of Jewish people] is immense. The influence is immense.”
The vice president’s comments have been seized upon and praised by a range of anti-Semitic and white-supremacist groups and websites, even though he said, “I might add” the Jewish community’s influence in the media “is all to the good.”
