Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Sunday declined to condemn Elon Musk’s alleged social media post that some users called anti-Semitic and instead condemned hatred of Jews “across the board.”
Appearing on CNN, DeSantis was asked about Musk’s supposed endorsement of a post last Wednesday on X (formerly Twitter) that claimed Jews hate white people.
“Jewish communties (sic) have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them,” the post read. “I’m deeply disinterested in giving the tiniest s–t now about western Jewish populations coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities that support flooding their country don’t exactly like them too much.”
To which Musk replied: “You have said the actual truth.”
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Since then, Musk has faced a backlash, including an advertising boycott, from liberals and companies that have supported left-wing theories about “white supremacy” and “systemic racism,” and which have supported President Joe Biden’s open-borders policies.
On Sunday, CNN anchor Jake Tapper demanded that DeSantis condemn Musk. The Republican governor declined.
As The Washington Times noted in its account of the interview, DeSantis replied, “I have no idea what the context is. I know Elon Musk. I have never seen him do anything. I think he’s a guy that believes in America. I have never seen him indulge in any of that. So it’s surprising, if that’s true, but I have not seen it. So I don’t want to sit there and pass judgment on the fly.”
DeSantis added that he denounces anti-Semitism “across the board.” “It’s wrong no matter what,” he said.
As the Times noted, CNN hosted Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin right after DeSantis’ interview.
The left-wing congressman blasted DeSantis for his response.
“If you’re serious about condemning and confronting antisemitism and racism and these bigotries, which are the gateways to destruction of liberal democracy, you’ve got to be explicit and open and full-throated about it,” he told Tapper, “and you’ve got to denounce the antisemitism and racism across the board” — which is what DeSantis did.
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Raskin also labeled Musk’s post “outrageous and dangerous.”
Yet, of course, just days ago, Raskin defended fellow Democratic Rep. Rashia Tlaib for her support for Hamas and the Palestinian cause generally following the Oct. 7 terrorist attack that killed more than 1,200 innocent Israelis.
Raskin voted against a House measure to censure Tlaib for her pro-Palestinian comments about the war. Tlaib also has engaged in previous anti-Semitic and anti-white rhetoric.
In floor comments about the Tlaib controversy on Nov. 7, Raskin ripped Tlaib’s use of the anti-Semitic phrase “from the river to the sea” as “abhorrent” and added that it “cannot be salvaged politically, at least to my taste.”
But at the same time, Raskin said, “I would never think of disciplining her or punishing her because we disagree about that and have a dramatic difference in our political views.”
The censure resolution against Tlaib, he continued, “is all about censuring her for her unpopular political speech and literally nothing else. No actions, no conduct is being punished.”
“She can’t face criminal punishment or civil liability for her alleged speech offenses because in the United States of America we don’t punish people for their political ideas, no matter how wrong and offensive other people think they are,” Raskin continued.
“Don’t punish her for not thinking the way you do,” he added.
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