Not Even McConnell's Right-Wing Senate Majority Has The Stomach For Another Nominee From Trump's Overt Anti-Semitic Menagerie-- At Least Not This Close To November

Yesterday the (Jewish Daily) Forward asked, rhetorically if at a time when statues of racists in the U.S. Capitol are being unceremoniously removed, should an anti-Semite like Billy Graham have one of him put up?. "Last week," wrote PJ Grisar, "a North Carolina legislative committee approved a scale model of the 10-foot, 10-inch Graham statue, which would be placed at the Capitol sometime next year pending the approval of a congressional committee. If that approval comes through, Graham’s effigy will replace a statue of Charles Brantley Aycock, a North Carolina governor and white supremacist named in a House Appropriations bill calling for the removal of the likenesses of Confederates and white supremacists from the Statuary Hall... His record with regard to civil rights was mixed, as he accepted segregation at some of his crusades and critiqued the tactics of marches and sit-ins to end Jim Crow laws. Like many Evangelicals, he also believed homosexuality to be a sin, calling it a 'sinister form of perversion.' And while he had a reputation for building interfaith bridges, a major rift with his relationship with the Jewish community emerged in 1994, when Nixon Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman’s White House diaries became public. Haldeman wrote that Nixon and Graham, alone in the Oval Office after a prayer breakfast in February of 1972, discussed Jewish control of the media. Graham denied having this conversation, but in 2002, the tape was released by the National Archives. In the recording, Graham agreed with Nixon that liberal Jews had too much influence, saying, 'This stranglehold has got to be broken or the country’s going down the drain.' Graham further accused Jews of 'putting out the pornographic stuff' in the culture and contended that, while he was friendly with Jews who 'swarm around me and are friendly to me because they know that I’m friendly with Israel,' those Jews 'don’t know how I really feel about what they are doing to this country. And I have no power, no way to handle them, but I would stand up if under proper circumstances.'"

OK, I hope that works out well. Meanwhile though, Trump has nominated another anti-Semite, Col. Douglas Macgregor (ret), this one as ambassador to, of all places, Germany. He has a lot going for him-- in Trump-world. He's anti-Merkel and pro-Putin for one thing, but he's also considered an anti-Semite by Jews. Remember reading about how Trump had a spat with Israeli super-donor Sheldon Adelson over the weekend? That was right around the time when the Times of Israel was publishing a story about Macgregory's problems with Jews. "Jewish groups," wrote Ron Kampeas, the paper's correspondent in DC, "are taking aim at President Donald Trump’s pick for ambassador to Germany for his past statements about Muslim immigrants and for downplaying the importance of Nazi history. The nomination of Douglas Macgregor, a decorated combat veteran who now frequently appears on Fox News, made headlines this week after CNN’s K File unearthed a long history of the retired colonel’s comments. In 2018 he said 'There’s sort of a sick mentality that says that generations after generations must atone sins of what happened in 13 years of German history and ignore the other 1,500 years of Germany.' He also called Muslim immigrants “invaders” who want to turn Europe 'into an Islamic state' and called for martial law at the US-Mexico border, saying US authorities should 'shoot people' if necessary to prevent immigrants from entering the country."

Prior to the CNN report, B’nai B’rith International had already expressed concerns about Macgregor. In a July 28 release, it noted his past propensity to insinuate that “neocons” serving Israel’s interests were controlling US foreign policy.

“It is important that American diplomats not question the patriotism of other Americans who hold political views different from their own, especially given that questioning Jewish loyalty to America is an anti-Semitic trope,” B’nai B’rith said.

The American Jewish Committee on Friday urged Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to withdraw Macgregor’s nomination.

“It is because of our intensive engagement with Germany that we were so troubled by the reports of recent days regarding Col. Macgregor’s many incendiary comments over the years about the German government, Germany’s confrontation with its Nazi past, the NATO alliance, immigration policy, and other topics,” AJC CEO David Harris said in a letter to Pompeo.

The Anti-Defamation League’s CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, said on Twitter that some of Macgregor’s past statements were “bigoted and abhorrent.” He also critiqued Macgregor’s comments on Nazi Germany.

J Street Vice President Dylan Williams on the same platform decried Macgregor’s “shameful record of expressing profoundly bigoted views.”

Republican Senate aides have been telling the press that Trump needs to withdraw the nomination immediately because Macgregor is unconformable and that a number of Republican senators have already indicated they will vote with the Democrats to reject him if it comes to a vote on the floor. "Trump should run from this one, blame it on Tucker Carlson or Lou Dobbs or someone," one GOP aide told me this morning. "This guy's a walking disaster... There are a number of senators eager to show the independent voters back home that they aren't Trump asskissers. Primaries are over; they won't hesitate to vote against him."