Donor Gave $5K To Florida Black GOP Caucus Day After Report He Used N-Word
A super PAC supporting Florida gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis returned multiple donations worth $11,000 from pro-Israel Trump supporter Steven Alembik. Image by facebook
A Florida Republican activist donated to a prominent African-American organization the day after a report was published broadcasting the fact that he called former President Barack Obama a “F—— MUSLIM N——” on Twitter, public records show.
Steven Alembik, who first made national news for holding a pro-Israel fundraiser at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort following the deadly Charlottesville protests, made the racist tweet after donating thousands of dollars to Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis, Politico first reported on Sept. 20.
On Sept. 21, Alembik gave $5,000 to the Black Republican Caucus of Florida, according to the Florida Department of State..
It was not clear if the donation was related to the controversy caused by his tweet. Alembik does not appear to have given a donation to the group before this instance. Neither Alembik or the BRCF returned an immediate request for comment.
Alembik had originally tried to justify his inflammatory remarks by saying there was a double standard.
“So somebody like Chris Rock can get up onstage and use the word and there’s no problem? But some white guy says it and he’s a racist? Really?” Alembik told Politico.
He then added that racial and ethnic epithets were widely used when he was a child.
“I grew up in New York in the ’50s. We were the k——s. They were the n———. They were the goyim. And those were the s—-s.”
When a New York Times reporter called his company, SMA Communications, following the initial Politico story, they were reportedly referred to BRCF chairman Sean Jackson.
Jackson told The Times that the reports about the tweet were “a vile attempt to demean” Alembik, and by association, the DeSantis campaign.
The Forward exclusively reported on Sept. 2 that a super PAC supporting the gubernatorial candidate returned more than $10,000 in donations from Alembik.
Neither Alembik or the PAC ever returned messages from the Forward seeking explanation as to why the donations were returned, though he told Politico he asked for a refund because it was made from the wrong bank account.
Alembik eventually deleted the Obama tweet and made his account private. But the Forward then discovered his Twitter feed was still littered with offensive remarks, including calling Ruth Bader Ginsburg a “senile fool” who “can’t die soon enough.”
Alembik has since faced a backlash within the Jewish community, and was booted from the board of the Zionist Organization of America’s Florida chapter.
“We are disgusted over the reports we read of his tweet,” executive director Sharona Whisler told the Forward on Sept. 20. “We categorically denounce that racism.”
Contact Ben Fractenberg at fractenberg@forward.com or on Twitter, @fractenberg
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.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
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 the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
