Good's Latest Enemies-- Republican Jews
The Republican Jewish Coalition is the latest group to weigh in against Virginia far right incumbent Bob Good, in a primary that pits him against someone who maybe even further right, John McGuire. But Good is the head of the Freedom Caucus and one of the Gaetz-8 that deposed McCarthy— and he’s made a lot of enemies.
Today, the Washington Post early morning crew asked RJC chief exec Matthew Brooks why the endorsed McGuire. Brooks insinuated Good is “anti-Israel” and compared him to “The Squad and the progressives on the left but also folks who voice anti-Israel sentiments on the right. It would be hypocritical if we only attacked Democrats. We have in the past gone after people like Pat Buchanan, David Duke. We were the group that was responsible for defeating Congressman Steve King. We’re spending over a million dollars in Indiana this election cycle to beat former congressman John Hostettler, who was one of the most anti-Israel voices in Congress during his tenure and subsequently wrote a book basically trafficking in antisemitic tropes and blaming the Jews and Jewish influence for all of America’s problems. The tipping point for us was [Good’s] vote the other day on the Israel emergency supplemental aid bill. That was a clear, up-and-down, unambiguous vote. People had a chance to either stand with Israel or stand on the other side, and Bob Good decided to stand on the other side.”
There were 20 other extreme right Republicans— each one an outright Nazi or, at minimum, Nazi-adjacent— who voted against the Israeli stand-alone aid bill:
Andy Biggs (AZ)
Lauren Boebert (CO)
Tim Burchett (TN)
Andrew Clyde (GA)
Eli Crane (AZ)
Warren Davidson (OH)
Scott DesJarlais (TN)
Matt Gaetz (FL)
Paul Gosar (AZ)
Moscow Marge
Andy Harris (MD)
Thomas Massie (KY)
Cory Mills (TN)
Troy Nehls (TX)
Ralph Norman (SC)
Scott Perry (PA)
Matt Rosendale (MT)
Chip Roy (TX)
Tom Tiffany (WI)
Ryan Zinke (MT)
So why just Bob Good? Why not a crackpot Jew-hater like Boebert who is on the verge of losing her primary race? Or even Perry, who voted for some parts of the foreign aid package by not the Israel part and is up against a fake Democrat in November, Janelle Stelson, who was a Republican her whole life? “Do you plan to endorse challengers running against any of them?”
They let Brooks get away with tap-dancing: “If there’s a credible challenge to any of those people, we absolutely will likely be involved. We have an online donor portal so that people through the RJC can donate directly to different candidates. None of the candidates who voted no will have access to our donor portal. They will not be invited to speak or to participate in any RJC events, like our conference in Las Vegas. Even if we’re not actively working against them in a primary, we're not going to give them a platform or a stage or in any way support them or allow them to raise money via our networks.”
The Post noted that “Chip Roy (TX), who voted against the Israel bill, responded to your endorsement by saying that Good “did not ‘abandon’ Israel— he voted Saturday against providing aid to Hamas, racking up debt, and abandoning our duty to secure America’s border.” What's your response?
Brooks response was that ‘the Israelis themselves were comfortable with the aid package and with the money going to humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. If it’s good enough for the Israelis, it should have been good enough for Congressman Roy or Congressman Good.” And then The Post pivoted to Hostettler’s primary and asked how the 2 compare.
Brooks said he considers “them equally important. Part of why we’re doing this in Indiana and in Virginia— but Indiana in particular— is to send a clear and unmistakable message. One of these messages is being directed specifically to Congressman Tom Massie, who is not beatable in a Republican primary in his district but who has aspirations to run for the Senate in Kentucky when McConnell steps down. The message that we're sending loud and clear here is that the Republican Jewish Coalition— and I suspect the Jewish community at large— will spend whatever it takes to ensure that someone like Congressman Massie is never in the United States Senate.
Asked about how Biden is handling of the war in Gaza, Brooks said that he thinks it will bring more Jews over to the GOP camp in November. “The RJC is gearing up to spend upward of $15 million in what will be the largest targeted effort toward the Jewish community in critical battleground states across the country to help elect President Trump and help elect the Republican Senate and expand our majorities in the House. I can't tell you how many people anecdotally reach out to me at events where I'm speaking or email or call us and just say, ‘I’ve been a lifelong Democrat and I am so disappointed about where the Democratic Party and where President Biden is in terms of standing with Israel now’— and that they're going to vote Republican.”
Anecdotal evidence is generally worth zero on a 1 to 10 scale, but this is coming at a time when rapidly expanding peaceful campus pro-peace protests are being exploited by the right— including right-wing Democrats like Eric Adams, Josh Gottheimer and Jared Moskowitz— as “anti-Semitism.” MAGA Mike and a gaggle of Republican panderers knew just what they were doing when they rushed up to the Columbia campus to be filmed being booed by angry students. (Watch Mike Lawler, who represents one of the biggest ultra-Orthodox communities in the U.S., smiling happily over MAGA Mike’s shoulder.)