RNC Gets Ridiculed for Bizarre Attack on Joe Biden’s Joke to Jewish ATF Nominee
The Republican National Committee faced fierce backlash over their attack on President Joe Biden’s throwaway quip about an ATF nominee that the RNC felt compelled to point out “is Jewish.”
On Monday, President Biden held an event to announce new action by his administration to fight gun crime, and to announce his nomination for Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Steve Dettelbach.
The event wrapped up with remarks from Mr. Dettelbach, and a brief exchange in which the president praised the nominee and made a joke:
THE PRESIDENT: All right, good job.
MR. DETTELBACH: Thank you, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all for coming.
And, by the way, he was responsible for the weather as well. (Laughter.) Thank you, thank you, thank you.
MR. DETTELBACH: Thank you. (Applause.)
The official RNC Twitter account sprang into action, and within 37 minutes, they had produced a video clip and tweeted a post that read “Biden says his ATF nominee, Steve Dettelbach, ‘was responsible for the weather’ today.”
They added ‘Dettelbach is Jewish.’
Biden says his ATF nominee, Steve Dettelbach, “was responsible for the weather” today.
Dettelbach is Jewish. pic.twitter.com/onG4h7IqVe
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 11, 2022
That attack sparked a blizzard of backlash from journalists, media figures, and other blue checks from across the ideological spectrum — many of whom saw the attempted attack on Biden as an example of projection, or as just plain bizarre, while others brought up recent baggage along similar lines from Republican elected officials:
If the crack research team at the RNC is going to try to spin decontextualized Biden jokes into antisemitism, wait until they discover Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Twitter feed *in* context. (These people don’t care about Jews, they just care about using us for their own advantage.) https://t.co/U7YGSByin1
— Yair Rosenberg (@Yair_Rosenberg) April 11, 2022
I believe the RNC is saying Biden is spreading an anti-Semitic trope here? https://t.co/mGYROHPZxH
— Sam Stein (@samstein) April 11, 2022
repeating an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory for the sake of a misleading attack tweet: https://t.co/RFhP0KRsk3
— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) April 11, 2022
The bar for a misleading political attack keeps getting lower on this site. https://t.co/MbVoP79tUR
— michaelscherer (@michaelscherer) April 11, 2022
are you guys keeping a list of jews or something https://t.co/CVRRh4tJD6
— Matt Binder (@MattBinder) April 11, 2022
So I guess the RNC is now condemning any and all members of its party that believe that Jewish space lasers are controlling the weather? https://t.co/i0O9k5qtbo
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) April 11, 2022
“VP Harris said good morning when it was 12:30pm” was just pathetic.
This is both pathetic and…weird. What on earth does “he’s Jewish” have to do with *anything*? https://t.co/mkUBAy2MJM
— Charles Gaba 🇺🇦 (@charles_gaba) April 11, 2022
I’m Jewish, and this from @RNCResearch is embarrassing. Also, not for nothing, trying to remember @RNC uttering a peep when Donald Trump ran an add with @HillaryClinton and a Star of David atop money with the word “corrupt.” I’ll wait. https://t.co/dQXu8ms0fY pic.twitter.com/d9ZuqjGBRF
— Jeff Pearlman (@jeffpearlman) April 11, 2022
Wait until the RNC finds out about “the replacement theory” that Republicans promote… https://t.co/DbF1uF2sfV
— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) April 11, 2022
FALSE FLAG
Steve moved off the Weather Committee to Finance last year https://t.co/R86RaqS5bS
— Shoshana Weissmann, Sloth Committee Chair 🦥 (@senatorshoshana) April 11, 2022
This is some real weird projection.
— Nate Igor Smith (@drivenbyboredom) April 11, 2022
This is the RNC admitting that every time a @GOP politician says some bullshit about how they had no idea they were farting out a bunch of antisemitic dogwhistles, they’re lying. They just play stupid so they can weaponize others’ comments. Proceed accordingly.
— Brooke Binkowski (@brooklynmarie) April 11, 2022
If you think that weather joke is bad, wait until you read about your former colleague who liked videos of literal babies being raped:https://t.co/dMn0gUtBCy
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) April 11, 2022
— Charlotte Clymer 🏳️⚧️🇺🇦 (@cmclymer) April 11, 2022
MT Greene: Jewish space lasers
•GOP:¯\_(ツ)_/¯Kevin McCarthy: Accuses Jews of buying elections
•GOP:¯\_(ツ)_/¯Trump: Praises Nazis and accuses Jews of dual loyalty
•GOP:¯\_(ツ)_/¯Joe Biden makes a weather joke
•GOP: This is Absolutely Unacceptable🤬— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@QasimRashid) April 11, 2022
Me, a Jew, trying to figure out why the RNC thinks this clearly benign joke was offensive. https://t.co/62xLd64gRj pic.twitter.com/QoyVfcjXq2
— Emily C. Singer (@CahnEmily) April 11, 2022
This is just absurd. It’s long been policy that we don’t give such responsibilities to anyone who is up for, but has to yet to receive, senate confirmation. Biden knows this. https://t.co/B0gx6HqrfX
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) April 11, 2022
If he was making the joke I am extremely here for it https://t.co/R86RaqS5bS
— Shoshana Weissmann, Sloth Committee Chair 🦥 (@senatorshoshana) April 11, 2022
This only makes sense if you’re already a nazi who associated Jewish people with controlling the weather
— the sixler (@Thesixler) April 11, 2022
It’s true that if Trump had said this, liberals would freak out at him. That’s because Trump employed white supremacists and had a history of making antisemitic comments. Hope that helps!*
*It won’t help https://t.co/aD9JJeKxdT
— Gary Legum (@GaryLegum) April 11, 2022
And here, kids, is an example of what people call a bad tweet https://t.co/rH4IWbeWVZ
— Christian Datoc (@TocRadio) April 11, 2022
guys we control the media and banking, not the weather. https://t.co/pOSvtMpiUZ
— Alex Yablon (@AlexYablon) April 11, 2022
Watch above via NBC News.
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