Ilhan Omar attacks challenger by referencing Jewish donors in mailer
Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar’s campaign sent out a mailer last week criticizing her primary opponent Antone Melton-Meaux for being “in the pocket of Wall Street” due to his wealthy donors.
The only donor names identified in the mailer were Jewish.
The mailer reads in part “Can We Trust Antone Melton-Meaux’s Money?” and references articles where his donors criticize Omar.
This is the mailer pic.twitter.com/31mJ8pwf6J
— Dennis Prager Only Fans (@robertontv) July 23, 2020
Stanley Weinstein, a retiree formerly in real estate from Miami Beach; billionaire Jonathan Gray, who leads Blackstone Group and Seth Klarman, a hedge fund owner, are all named.
The only other Melton-Meaux donor mentioned is a Michael from Scarsdale, a heavily Jewish and wealthy town in Westchester County, New York.
Melton-Meaux has been in the news recently for his effective fundraising in the primary against Omar, much of which has come from pro-Israel organizations and Jewish donors.
Omar has been criticized over the years for using anti-Semitic tropes; such as a tweeted reference in February, 2019 to pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC and its purported power to buy political support: “It’s all about the Benajmins baby.”
Both Democrats and Republicans asked her to apologize for that comment, and she did.
A petition filled out by Jewish residents of Omar’s district criticizing what they’ve called “a dangerous and dishonest line of attack” has been circulating on Twitter.
“We know Ilhan, and she’s no antisemite,” says the petition.
John Gray runs a private equity behemoth that’s deforesting the Amazon & bilking pension funds.
Seth Klarman runs a hedge fund pillaging basically everything.
I’m Jewish. Criticizing them for trying to buy elections is not anti-semitism.
Full stop. https://t.co/ef0ZUWCbMQ
— David Sirota (@davidsirota) July 23, 2020
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO