I’m kind of at a loss for words. Trump campaign advisor Jeff Ballabon went on Fox Business yesterday and said the following (video at this link from The Hill):
Host Stuart Varney — “Is there room in the Democrat party [sic] for Ilhan Omar and Jewish voters?”
Jeff Ballabon — “I don’t think there’s room in any reasonable setting for Ilhan Omar and normal people...the problem isn’t that she is expressing herself poorly in her manner of debate, the problem is that her beliefs are deeply rooted in hatred and anti-Semitism. She is a hater. I'm going to say it, she is FILTH. She has no place in the Congress, she has no place on the Foreign Affairs Committee….”
Varney — “Jeff that is a very strong word that you just used.”
Ballabon — “Yes. She is a filthy, disgusting hater.”
He went on to also say “the problem is they (the Democrats) have now taken anti-Semitism in its worst, most base, disgusting forms and they’ve mainstreamed it.”
Look, here’s the thing — I’m not Jewish. I’m also not a Muslim immigrant. I’m just a white dude from the Midwest. So I’m not going to sit here and pretend to truly understand all the history and different emotions at play in this discussion of Rep. Omar’s comments the past few days. What I do know is that if we as a party just kind of throw Ilhan Omar to the wolves on this one, then this is the kind of garbage we are emboldening.
I have seen a lot of comments online from people who say they are Jewish that seem to echo some version of “I don’t even necessarily disagree with the points she was making, I just wish she would use different words.” I guess my hope is that we can talk about that while also letting Rep. Omar and those who support her know we will still have her back against this crap too.