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By Jacob Kornbluh February 11, 2021

Rep. Thomas Emmer, a Minnesota Republican, was the subject of social media mockery on Wednesday as he got stuck upside down during a virtual House Financial Services meeting on the COVID-19 relief bill.

“I don’t know how to fix that,” Emmer said when a colleague informed him his face was seen upside down on the Zoom screen. The issue was later resolved, but not before it reminded people of the viral video circulating one day earlier that showed a lawyer with a cat filter during a virtual court hearing in Texas.

It wasn’t the first time Emmer found himself upside down in the headlines. The congressman, who is serving as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, faced accusations of invoking antisemitic tropes in 2019. In a fundraising letter at the time, Emmer claimed that Jewish billionaires Michael Bloomberg, George Soros, as well as Tom Steyer — whose father is Jewish — have “bought” control of Congress to help the Democrats.

The letter sparked a backlash, with critics saying Emmer was peddling antisemitic stereotypes of Jews using money to buy political influence.

Ironically, Emmer himself accused his fellow Minnesotian, Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat who was castigated for tweeting that congressional support for Israel was “all about the Benjamins.”

Emmer also faced criticism over an NRCC attack ad which called Max Rose, a former Jewish congressman from Staten Island who lost his reelection bid last year, “Little Max Rose.”

Last month, Emmer reportedly thanked Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene for transferring $175,000 to the NRCC. Taylor Greene was recently rebuked by Congress for spreading QAnon conspiracy theories and engaging in violent and antisemitic rhetoric, including that there are Jewish space lasers controlled by the Rothschild family.

Emmer was elected in 2014 to replace controversial congresswoman Michele Bachmann.

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