Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) slammed Politico Magazine for antisemitic images in its publication and in tweets about presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt), calling him a spendthrift despite his status as a millionaire and doctoring photos of Sanders to show him juggling his three homes and standing next to a tree covered with $100 bills.
“Bernie Sanders may still be cheap, but he’s sure not poor,” the Politico Magazine tweet said.
“Bernie Sanders has three homes and a net worth approaching at least $2 million,” the magazine tweeted. “In a strict, bottom-line sense, he has become one of those rich people whom he has so unrelentingly railed.”
“Can @politico explain to us how photoshopping money trees next to the only Jewish candidate for president and talking about how “cheap” and rich he is *isn’t* antisemitic?” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.
“Or are they just letting this happen because he’s a progressive politician they don’t like?” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.
Can @politico explain to us how photoshopping money trees next to the only Jewish candidate for president and talking about how “cheap” and rich he is *isn’t* antisemitic?
Or are they just letting this happen because he’s a progressive politician they don’t like? pic.twitter.com/O9qvDBw4ib
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 25, 2019
And Sanders’ adviser and speechwriter David Sirota also weighed in on Twitter about Politico’s tweets, while at the same time attacking President Donald Trump for a long-discredited claim that the president called white supremacists and neo-Nazis “very fine people.”
“So, @Politico deleted its wildly anti-semitic tweet, but it’s important for everyone to not forget this episode. At a moment when we have a president who called Nazis “very fine people,” this newspaper promoted the “cheap Jew” trope against that president’s opponent. Disgusting,” Sirota tweeted.
At a moment when we have a president who said Nazis are “very fine people,” DC media headlines from the last few days say the Jewish candidate for president is a cheapskate with a secret money tree that is funded by taxpayers pic.twitter.com/aqdxrNFOOf
— David Sirota (@davidsirota) May 27, 2019
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) also tweeted about Politico Magazine‘s take on Sanders.
“The Anti-Defamation League weighed in, tweeting, ‘In this dangerous climate of rising #anti-Semitism, all media organizations have a responsibility to be careful not to perpetuate #anti-Semitic tropes, such as those about Jews and wealth,” Haaretz reported.
“Sanders over the weekend held his first home state rally of his 2020 campaign, telling a large crowd on the Vermont Statehouse lawn that his ideas that seemed radical to some in the last presidential election — such as health care for all and raising the minimum wage — are not so radical today,” Haaretz reported.
Ocasio-Cortez has, however, defended Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) for her antisemitic remarks and social media posts, including when Omar accused pro-Israel U.S. lawmakers as having an “allegiance to a foreign country.”
One of the things that is hurtful about the extent to which reprimand is sought of Ilhan is that no one seeks this level of reprimand when members make statements about Latinx + other communities (during the shutdown, a GOP member yelled “Go back to Puerto Rico!” on the floor). https://t.co/MwrRN4v4DG
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 5, 2019
Follow Penny Starr on Twitter
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.