XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   From: dsi@GodSquad.org   
      
   Josh Shapiro accuses JD Vance of giving 'comfort' to right-wing   
   antisemitism   
      
   Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said that in his view, Vice President JD   
   Vance has "offered comfort" to people on the right who espouse anti-Jewish   
   views, as the Republican Party navigates an ongoing intra-coalition feud   
   over antisemitism.   
      
   Vance faced criticism this week for not mentioning Jews in a post on X   
   commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Day.   
      
   "Today we remember the millions of lives lost during the Holocaust, the   
   millions of stories of individual bravery and heroism, and one of the   
   enduring lessons of one of the darkest chapters in human history: that   
   while humans create beautiful things and are full of compassion, we're also   
   capable of unspeakable brutality, " Vance wrote. The post included photos   
   of him standing beneath Hebrew words translating to "Never Forget" during a   
   visit last year to the Dachau concentration camp in Germany, where he was   
   given a tour by a 97-year-old Holocaust survivor. "And we promise never   
   again to go down the darkest path. "   
      
   Shapiro, a 2028 Democratic presidential contender, said in an interview   
   Tuesday that he had not yet seen Vance's post. But he also said he did not   
   think it was surprising that Vance's post did not explicitly include Jews   
   given his handling of the issue of right-wing antisemitism.   
      
   "Remember that the reason why we memorialize the Holocaust on this day,   
   really, essentially, is to never forget, " said Shapiro, a practicing Jew   
   who has centered his faith in his public life. "And the reason you want to   
   never forget is so that we never live through that atrocity again. Part of   
   never forgetting is making sure that the facts of what happened are   
   recited, are remembered. The fact that JD Vance couldn't bring himself to   
   acknowledging that 6 million Jews were killed by Hitler and by the Nazis   
   speaks volumes.   
      
   "It is not a surprise to me, however, given the way in which he has openly   
   supported the AfD party, given the way he openly embraces neo-Nazis and   
   neo-Nazi political parties, given the way in which he has offered comfort,   
   really, to the antisemites on the right who are infecting the Republican   
   Party, " Shapiro continued. "So it's not a shock to me that he would omit   
   that, but it's a sad day that the vice president of the United States on   
   Holocaust Awareness Day couldn't address that. "   
      
   A Vance spokesperson called the comments a "next level hypocritical   
   deflection from Shapiro, a misguided plea for attention from a political   
   lightweight. " They noted Shapiro's own tweet on Holocaust Remembrance Day   
   did not explicitly mention violence against Jews — although the governor's   
   post did discuss antisemitism — saying Shapiro had "desperately tried to   
   shift blame to the Vice President. "   
      
   Shapiro is on a book tour for his newly released memoir, "Where We Keep the   
   Light: Stories from a Life of Service, " published this week. It is the   
   latest example of his taking sharp aim at Vance, like a number of other   
   potential Democratic presidential contenders who could face Vance in the   
   2028 election. Shapiro has described Vance as a "sycophant" who "does   
   whatever he thinks his boss wants him to do. "   
      
   Critics on the left and the right took aim at Vance's comments for not   
   specifically mentioning the Jewish lives lost. Nazi Germany and its   
   collaborators systematically murdered about 6 million Jews across Europe   
   during the Holocaust, roughly two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population, in   
   addition to hundreds of thousands of Roma, disabled people and political   
   dissidents.   
      
   Tablet Magazine, a conservative-leaning publication focused on Jewish   
   issues, said on X that Vance offered a "unique commemoration of the   
   Holocaust that manages to avoid mentioning Jews or condemning Nazis. "   
   Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, wrote that   
   it "takes effort" on Vance's part "to issue a Holocaust Remembrance Day   
   statement like this without any mention of six million Jews lost, the   
   Jewish people, Nazis, or the issue of antisemitism. " And Laura Loomer, a   
   close ally of President Donald Trump whom Vance criticized last week, when   
   he accused her of stoking division on the right, said on X: "6 million   
   Jewish lives. "   
      
   Vance allies, including Sam Markstein, national political director for the   
   Republican Jewish Coalition, came to his defense, saying critics were   
   reading too much into his post. Other conservatives pointed to Shapiro's   
   own X post on Tuesday, which made note of rising antisemitism but did not   
   explicitly mention Jewish lives lost, a leading criticism of Vance's post.   
      
   "This is an insane standard and a BS attack, " wrote Alex Brusewitz, a   
   former Trump campaign official. "The Vice President literally posted a   
   photo of himself [and] the Second Lady at Dachau. He has been an incredible   
   friend to both the Jewish community and Israel. "   
      
   In the early days of his first term in the White House, Trump was also   
   criticized for having issued a Holocaust Remembrance Day statement that did   
   not explicitly mention Jews. Trump's White House statements every year he   
   has been in office since then have done so, including Tuesday's.   
      
   The issue of antisemitism has roiled the right in recent months, with Vance   
   facing pressure to take a strong stand. Some leaders, including Sen. Ted   
   Cruz, R-Texas, have warned of a rise in antisemitism within the Republican   
   Party's coalition, singling out younger conservatives and right-wing   
   commentator Tucker Carlson, a close Vance ally, for having hosted a   
   Holocaust denier on his podcast. Vance says there is not such a buildup.   
      
   "Do I think that the Republican Party is substantially more antisemitic   
   than it was 10 or 15 years ago? Absolutely not, " he told NBC News last   
   year. "In any bunch of apples, you have bad people. But my attitude on this   
   is we should be firm in saying antisemitism and racism is wrong. ... I   
   think it's kind of slanderous to say that the Republican Party, the   
   conservative movement, is extremely antisemitic. "   
      
   In an interview with UnHerd, Vance said Nick Fuentes, a right-wing activist   
   known for espousing antisemitic views, "can eat s---, " adding,   
   "Antisemitism, and all forms of ethnic hatred, have no place in the   
   conservative movement. " In the same interview, he said Fuentes' influence   
   is "overstated by people who want to avoid having a foreign-policy   
   conversation about America's relationship with Israel. "   
      
   For Shapiro, observance of his Jewish faith is a through line in his   
   memoir, and he writes about its playing a significant role in his   
   upbringing and throughout his political career.   
      
   "Throughout my life, it has always been central to who I am, " Shapiro said   
   in the interview, adding: "I'm as proud of my faith and who I am as I was   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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