Democrat Sean Casten raised money earlier this year with a gamer who created a card game that made fun of the Holocaust and included a joke about torturing Jews.
Max Temkin, the co-creator of Cards Against Humanity, hosted the fundraiser in July after a debate between Casten and incumbent Republican Peter Roskam, who has represented the 6th congressional district of Illinois since 2007.
Cards Against Humanity has been described by Splinter News as “a game similar to Apples to Apples, but with purposefully lewd and funny pop culture references.”
Some of the cards are deliberately offensive. In 2014, Temkin apologized for a “transphobic” card that referred to “passable transvestites,” and said he had removed it from the game, Splinter reported.
Last year, Temkin produced card focused on Jews. As TMZ reported:
A customer on Twitter discovered his local store selling the CAH “Chosen People Pack” … which featured cards with inscriptions like, “Torturing Jews until they say they’re not Jews anymore,” and “The part of Anne Frank’s diary where she talks about her vagina.”
Big-box retailer Target apologized for selling the game and removed it from its shelves. (Cards Against Humanity noted that all of its joke writers were Jewish.)
Despite Temkin’s record, Casten was happy to benefit from his fundraising efforts. In July, after a debate with Roskam, Temkin hosted a fundraiser that was live-streamed on Twitch. The Chicago Sun-Times reported:
A fundraiser for Casten was livestreamed on the gamer-populated web streaming site, Twitch, thanks to Cards Against Humanity co-creator Max Temkin, 30, who was playing his favorite board game, in which participants lead a clan of Vikings to conquer Ireland. Casten himself appeared in the video when he called in after the debate.
Last year, Temkin also sent a game called “Secret Hitler” to every U.S. Senator. Cards Against Humanity recently launched an effort to “hack” the election by giving packs of cards to voters in swing districts, including the 6th district of Illinois, urging them to vote Democratic. Critics have suggested the gimmick may be illegal.
Casten has come under fire for other associations with provocative public figures, including anti-Christian sex columnist Dan Savage, whom the Democrat has described as a hero.
In a statement Tuesday, the Roskam campaign demanded that Casten return the money Temkin raised: “Casten should return all money raised in connection with this group and immediately denounce its practices of promoting the most disrespectful and hurtful mockery of some of the worst tragedies in world history.”
Roskam enjoys close relationships with the Chicago Jewish community and co-chairs the House Republican Israel Caucus.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
This article has been updated to include information about Cards Against Humanity’s election “hack.”
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