Gov. Andrew Cuomo charged Monday that the Democratic Party’s response to Rep. Ilhan Omar’s anti-Semitic remarks was “muted” because too many of the party’s officials are fearful of retribution.
“You’ve had on the Democratic side voices of anti-Semitism. And I think some people were reluctant to vociferously stand up and condemn it because the whole political environment is so charged now,” Cuomo said on WAMC radio.
Cuomo was asked about the watered-down resolution passed by the House that condemned all forms of bigotry, not just anti-Semitism.
“Whatever you say, you’re going to get criticized by the other side … It was muted. It was muted because too many people feared the retaliation of this reptilian political moment, right? Lash out or run away,” Cuomo said.
But he defended House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a close ally who pushed the resolution.
“You can’t ask the speaker to stand up and articulate a position that her conference is not going to support. And she did make a statement. People can say it wasn’t strong enough, but look, it shouldn’t have been just Speaker Pelosi and the Congress. It should have been every Democrat, you know. Everyone should have stood up,” the governor said.
Omar, a freshman congresswoman from Minnesota, sparked a firestorm in February for using anti-Jewish tropes, saying that support for Israel was “all about the Benjamins” and accusing Jewish-American legislators of “dual loyalty.”
Rebecca Katz, chief campaign strategist for Cynthia Nixon in last year’s Democratic primary for governor, said Cuomo should get off his high horse.
Katz took to Twitter to remind everyone about a New York state Democratic Party flyer falsely linking Nixon to anti-Semitism.
“Says the guy who sent out mailers falsely accusing his Dem opponent of anti-semitism and then never, ever taking responsibility or apologizing for the shameful tactics,” Katz tweeted.