The Florida Republican Party doesn’t have enough on its mind with an assassination scandal between its candidates; now it’s also trying to explain a tweet it sent out in which it called a Jewish Democratic candidate for governor anti-Semitic.
As Politico explains, the Florida GOP tweeted Thursday morning, “While @GovRonDeSantis [Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis] works on policies and signs legislation in support of Florida’s Jewish communities, Pelosi calls an anti semitic, @CharlieCrist, a valued leader. Crist, @valdemings & @NikkiFried won’t stand up to Pelosi doing nothing to defend Florida’s Jewish community.”
Charlie Crist is a Democratic Florida Congressman running for governor who has supported pro-Israel policies. A Democratic Florida Congresswoman challenging Republican Marco Rubio for a Senate seat, Val Demings is a former Orlando police chief who has been embraced by the local Jewish community. And Nikki Fried, the Florida Commissioner of Agriculture who’s also running for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination? Well, she’s Jewish.
The state GOP said it was a typo, saying they meant to mention Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, not Charlie Crist, as the anti-Semite–as if that makes it better. Omar has criticized Israeli political policy, not members of the Jewish faith.
“It was a total mistake, human error,” said Alia Faraj-Johnson, a Florida GOP spokesperson, in a text message to Politico after taking down the tweet, apparently not understanding that one can be against the policies of the government of Israel and still not be anti-Semitic.