From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

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
when I was a little boy. I know that things have changed around me. I know that antisemitism is on the rise, but it certainly has not changed how I go about being the person that I am every day, how Lori and I raise our four children and our commitment to our faith. "

Shapiro, who recently announced his re-election campaign, has focused on combating political violence in recent months, after the assassination
attempt on Trump in his state in 2024 and, last year, the firebombing of
his official residence hours after his family gathered for a Passover
seder. Cody Balmer, who pleaded guilty to committing the attack, dialed 911 soon after the fire and said he was angered by Shapiro's stance on Israel
and Gaza.

Shapiro wrote extensively about that episode in his memoir, detailing a
call he got from Trump. Shapiro wrote that during the call, Trump
"cautioned that I shouldn't want to be president, given how dangerous it
had become to hold the office now. "

At an event at the 92nd Street Y in New York City on Tuesday and in his interview with NBC News afterward, Shapiro addressed whether the country
was ready for a Jewish president.

"I don't believe, as some have suggested, that a woman can't be president,
a gay person can't be president, a Jewish person can't be president, " he said. "I think what the American people want is just someone who's going to
be on their side and fight for them and deliver for them, regardless of
what their particular characteristic is. I think the American people are
good and they're decent, and they just want elected leaders who are going
to fight for them every day, regardless of what they look like or who they love or who they pray to. "

At the earlier event, Shapiro discussed the need for leaders in politics,
the media, business and beyond to stand firm against antisemitism. As governor, he has expanded Holocaust education in Pennsylvania.

"And let me be very, very clear, " he said. "There is antisemitism and hate
on the political left and on the political right. "

Shapiro also addressed the part of his memoir in which he revealed that
during the vice presidential vetting process in 2024, an attorney working
for Kamala Harris' campaign asked whether he had ever been an agent of
Israel. He wrote that he told the attorney the question was "offensive. "

CNN later reported that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, whom Harris selected as
her running mate, was asked whether he had ever been an agent of China, a question prompted by his visits to the country. Shapiro has made multiple visits to Israel throughout his life.

Asked whether he believed the question was standard based on past travel to foreign countries, Shapiro said: "I don't know why they asked the question.
"

"But I respect their right to ask that question, " he continued. "I agreed
to be a part of that process. They asked the question, and I was expressing
in this book not an opinion on what I think of them, but simply how it made
me feel. "

Shapiro also said he believes Immigration and Customs Enforcement and
Customs and Border Protection "need to be reformed and they need to be reconstituted" after federal officers killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota this month. But he said the problems in Minnesota come from the
very top.

"The issue with Minnesota is this mission is compromised, and the mission needs to be terminated because they've received a direction from the
president of the United States that is outside the bounds of the law, " Shapiro said. "It is unconstitutional. It is violating people's rights.
That's the problem here. It's the direction that's coming from the top. "
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