‘Pure Anti-Semitism’: Progressive Podcaster Goes Off On Activists Who Shouted Down Scott Wiener

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Jon Favreau and Jon Lovett, the progressive co-hosts of Pod Save America, pulled no punches on Tuesday in condemning the pro-Palestinian activists who shouted down Democratic congressional candidate Scott Wiener over the week.

The hosts played a clip of Wiener, currently a California state Senator, being aggressively harassed by activists while attending a trans rights march in San Francisco over the weekend:

Scott, I want to support someone who’s so positive on trans rights, but you’re a piece of shit on Gaza! How could you do that? How could you betray queers? How can you oppress people? You stepped in it the moment you started supporting Israel, you piece of sh*t!

Favreau then added, “I just want to read from Wiener’s website what his positions are on Israel and Palestine. He has publicly called the Israeli government’s action in Gaza genocide, joining Bernie Sanders and Representative Balint as one of the only three prominent Jewish elected officials in the country to do so.”

“He has never taken any money from AIPAC. He has voted no on military funding for Israel, and he supports Palestinian statehood. So that was because… He didn’t say the word genocide until January, and Wiener said that he left the march because the hecklers, quote, were so physically and verbally aggressive that it was impossible for him to safely remain in the park,” Favreau concluded.

Lovett then jumped in and added, “Yeah, I think if you’re following around an elected official who is pro-gay, pro-trans, at a trans-supporting event, and you’re yelling at them and saying you’re oppressing queers because of your position on Israel, even though your position is that you believe Israel has committed a genocide in Gaza, then what you’re doing is being an anti-Semite.”

“If you’re following Scott Wiener around, yelling at him in this park… it is because you are being anti-Semitic. You are an anti-Semite. That is why you are yelling at this man. Whatever you tell yourself, whatever story you tell online about what you believe and why it’s justified, that is as pure anti-Semitism as you can see, and it is corrosive,” Lovett continued, adding:

It’s worth calling out. There are a lot of people — like, you know, when someone says that Brad Lander in New York won because of anti-Semitism, or that anti-Semitism played a role, I find that hard to understand because it is a very Jewish district. Brad Lander is Jewish, Dan Goldman was Jewish. So I don’t like it when anti-Semitism is used as a cudgel, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth calling out when you see it — and like, give me a f*cking break.

Watch the clip above.

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