When the Democratic Party has already been consumed by antisemitism, a lot of people are genuinely worried about whether Republicans will go the same way.
Rich has accused critics of “ridiculous hyper-parsing” of Vice President JD Vance’s comments to the Republican Jewish Coalition. I disagree.
To start with, Vance is the sitting vice president and the front-runner to be the next nominee of the Republican Party. Tucker Carlson, the person who helped launch Vance’s political career and whom Vance has repeatedly described as a friend, has emerged as the most influential antisemite in America. Yet Vance has refused to criticize Carlson, even as Carlson regularly attacks not only Jews but also Vance’s boss, President Trump (Carlson went so far as to question whether Trump might be the anti-Christ). So given that Vance has refused to distance himself from Carlson in the face of his increasingly outrageous provocations, there are obviously a lot of questions about whether the likely future leader of the GOP shares Carlson’s worldview.
I was not in the room when Vance spoke, so I defer to Rich on how he was received, but I believe that the criticism his remarks have garnered is justified.
In addition to his direct refusal to condemn Carlson, these are the Vance comments that drew the most scrutiny:
What I say to the people, like the root of antisemitism, the core of antisemitism to me, is the idea of blood libel. The idea that because of your genetics, because of your blood, because of your ancestry, you are guilty of a crime that you never committed. And I think that blood libel, which is at the root of antisemitism, is the exact opposite of the Christian gospel. And because of that, I believe the gospel is actually the solution to this.
Vance completely distorted what “blood libel” actually means. In reality, what it refers to is the idea that Jews regularly kill Christians as part of secret rituals, the most notorious example being the idea that the blood of Christian babies is used for the making of Passover matzot. The modern equivalents of blood libels are the litany of claims of supposed Jewish misdeeds, particularly the hoaxes about Israel committing genocide and inducing mass starvation in Gaza.
“Blood guilt” is the idea that all Jews are genetically responsible for the crimes of a single Jew, or for crimes that other Jews committed in the past. The idea of blood guilt was most relevant to historical forms of antisemitism — such as hating all Jews because “Jews killed Jesus.” The “blood guilt” line is one that Carlson himself has used to brush aside accusations that he has engaged in antisemitism.
So, whether intentionally or out of ignorance, Vance defined antisemitism in a way that conveniently absolves his friend Carlson. No, Carlson isn’t saying that every Jew today is guilty of killing Jesus. But what he is doing is going on air every day and spreading lies and conspiracies accusing Jews, and Israel, of bloody misdeeds and weaving it into a sinister conspiracy of global control.
At a time of historic levels of antisemitism in America, when the Democratic Party has already been consumed by antisemitism, a lot of people are genuinely worried about whether Republicans will move in the same direction. It is completely legitimate to parse what Vance is saying on this subject.
UPDATE: After I posted this, I saw that Vance addressed Carlson again from the White House briefing room, saying, “Tucker is a friend despite the fact that we disagree on a number of things, and I’m not going to play the game where I throw friends under the bus because I have political disagreements with them.” If you listen to the full answer, the instances of disagreements he cites are with Carlson’s criticisms of Trump, and his effective endorsement of Abdul El-Sayed over Mike Rogers in the Michigan Senate race. At no point does Vance mention that he disagrees with Carlson’s antisemitism. Instead, he downplays everything as a matter of “political disagreements” — as if they merely have different views on tax policy.