President Joe Biden’s nominee to be the U.S. ambassador to Brazil gave a lengthy interview two decades ago in which she used antisemitic tropes, referring to the financial power of the “Jewish lobby” and “major money” and claiming that the Jewish community has undue influence over the Democratic Party due to “the Jewish factor, it’s money.”
“‘The Jewish factor, it's money,’ ‘influence of the Jewish lobby ... major money involved,’ ‘the Democrats go with the Jewish constituency on Israel and say stupid things.’ Meet Joe Biden's nominee to serve as US ambassador to Brazil – Elizabeth Frawley Bagley,” tweeted the StopAntisemitism watchdog organization.
“Bagley [was] scheduled to have her nomination advanced to the full Senate by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee [on Thursday],” StopAntisemitism added. “We are horrified such a blatant antisemite would ever qualify to hold such a prestigious role and hope her nomination is halted.”
The nomination of Bagley, described as a veteran diplomat and Democratic Party insider, has provoked outrage from Jewish advocacy organizations and from Democratic and Republican lawmakers on the committee for her past statements, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
The 1998 interview was conducted by the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training for an oral history project. During the interview, according to the Free Beacon, Bagley spoke about "the influence of the Jewish lobby because there is major money involved” and also alleged that "the Democrats always tend to go with the Jewish constituency on Israel and say stupid things, like moving the capital to Jerusalem always comes up."
"Jewish Democrats were going to give their money to Clinton anyway and Jews are mostly Democrats on social issues,” she said.
She later claimed to the interviewer that pro-Israel support is because of "the Jewish factor, it’s money.”
Senate sources involved in the confirmation of Bagley told the news outlet that her statements should disqualify her from being an ambassador, and that members of both parties on the committee are privately troubled by her remarks.
Bagley was asked about the statements during a May 18 confirmation hearing with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
"The language you used in regard to the Jewish community, Israel’s influence on our election, and Jewish money have me concerned," Senator Ben Cardin (D–MD) said. "The choice of words was fit into the traditional tropes of antisemitism."
"I regret that you would think that it was a problem," Bagley replied. "I certainly didn’t mean anything by it. It was a poor choice of words, but it was something that the interviewer had asked me, prompted by something about politics."
Bagley added she was "very sorry about that choice of words."
Committee chair Senator Robert Menendez (D–NJ) also blasted Bagley over her words.
"Is it a suggestion that one group of Americans don’t have the right to engage in the political process as others do?" Menendez said. "Words, especially for those who are going to be ambassadors of the United States to other countries are incredibly important, probably more significant than maybe in our individual daily lives."
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)