‘They Need to Do Something’: McCarthy Urges Democrats to Hold Members Accountable for Continued Antisemitic Remarks

House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) called on Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.) and the Democratic leadership to hold their members accountable for continued antisemitic remarks.

“They need to do something about it,” McCarthy said of Democratic leadership during a Monday press conference. “Because they’ve defended these individuals time and again. The only time action has ever been taken is when we had to take the action. This is a role for the leader, Hakeem, to prove that no, they’re not antisemitic.”

McCarthy was reacting to comments about Israel made by Representative Pramila Jayapal (D., Wash.), who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus. “I want you to know that we have been fighting to make it clear that Israel is a racist state,” Jayapal said at a conference over the weekend.

According to the speaker, this isn’t the first Democrat who has made antisemitic remarks in the recent past and it’s especially egregious because Jayapal is a leader within the Democratic conference. McCarthy said it was also offensive to make the comments “on a week when we have the president of Israel, Mr. Herzog, coming to give a joint session on the seventy-fifth anniversary of the creation of Israel, [our] closest ally.”

A group of seven Jewish Democrats condemned Jayapal’s comments over the weekend, saying they will never allow “anti-Zionist voices that embolden antisemitism to hijack the Democratic Party and country.”

The group, which included Representatives Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D., Fla.), Josh Gottheimer (D., N.J.), and Greg Landsman (D., Ohio), said pluralism flourishes in democratic Israel, where Arab parties serve in the Knesset, women serve at the highest levels of the military, and LGBT people are accepted unlike the rest of the region.

“Israel is the legitimate homeland of the Jewish people and efforts to delegitimize and demonize it are not only dangerous and antisemitic, but they also undermine America’s national security. Israel is critical to our fight against terror, and our defense and intelligence collaboration continues to strengthen our leadership in the world,” the group wrote. “Regardless of extremist views from groups aligned with either party, efforts to rewrite history and question the Jewish State’s right to exist, or our historic bipartisan relationship, will never succeed in Congress.”

Jayapal was forced to backtrack Sunday, saying in a statement: “I do not believe the idea of Israel as a nation is racist.” However, she added, the policies of Israel’s “extreme right-wing” government under Benjamin Netanyahu are “racist.”

In a statement Monday that didn’t mention Jayapal by name, Jeffries and three of his top leadership aides said they don’t think Israel is a racist state. Jeffries and company added that they have disagreements with individual members of the caucus just like they have disagreements with Republicans.

McCarthy pointed out that Republicans are the ones who have had to take concrete action against Democrats who’ve made antisemitic remarks. In February, the House voted on party lines to remove Representative Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) from the House Foreign Affairs committee.

“[Omar] equated the U.S. military and Israel security forces with Hamas and the Taliban. She said support for Israel is all about the Benjamins,” said McCarthy, adding that the Minnesota representative has also smeared American Jews by saying they have a dual loyalty.

The speaker also noted controversial comments Representative Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) has made about the Holocaust and Representative Betty McCollum’s (D., Minn.) resolution “to condemn Israel and support Palestinian terrorist organizations.”

“It has got to stop,” said McCarthy. “Do they think Israel is an evil state? If they believe differently, they should take action against their own.”

The controversy comes as several high-profile progressives have pledged to skip Herzog’s speech this week. They include Omar as well as Representatives Jamaal Bowman (D., N.Y.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.).

Jayapal told CNN Friday she doesn’t think she’ll attend, though that was before the backlash to her comments.