Jamaal Bowman’s Challenger Defends Comment That Critics Attacked as ‘Racist’

George Latimer, who is challenging Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) in the Democratic primary in New York’s 16th congressional district, defended a controversial remark he made in a debate this month.

The race has become the most expensive House primary in history thanks to outside spending from pro-Israel groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and affiliated organizations. More than $23 million has been spent on the race so far. The majority of the money has been spent against Bowman, who has been critical of Israel’s siege of Gaza in response to the Oct. 7 terror attacks.

During a debate earlier this month, Latimer accused Bowman of raising money from outside the district.

“When you get as much money as you get from outside the district, your constituency is Dearborn, Michigan. Your constituency is San Francisco, California,” Latimer said. Dearborn has a large Arab American population, and critics seized on the remark with Bowman accusing Latimer of using an anti-Arab “dog whistle.”

Latimer appeared on Monday’s edition of The Source on CNN where he defended his comment.

“You were criticized for saying that he had a constituency in Dearborn, Michigan, which has a largely– a large Arab population,” host Kaitlan Collins said. “People were saying that those were racist comments. Do you stand by what you initially said?”

“Well, let me get the quote right,” Latimer replied. “What I said at the time was, he has raised money from places like San Francisco and Dearborn, Michigan. That’s accurate fact because what he did is create a joint fundraising organization with Representative [Rashida] Tlaib who’s based in Dearborn, Michigan. So it’s not the city of Dearborn. It’s that Representative Tlaib is from there. She’s been raising money. I think she transferred a half a million in part to him.”

“But do you see how people saw it that way given – obviously Dearborn is so prominent and known for its large Arab population?” Collins replied.

“No,” Latimer shot back. “I think what you had is my opponent wanted to misrepresent what I said. And once you’ve misrepresented to make it sound like I’m picking on a municipality with an ethnicity as opposed to his commitment to join fundraise with Representative Tlaib. That’s what I actually said.”

Latimer, who has said he opposes tax hikes on the wealthy, picked up the endorsement of Hillary Clinton earlier this month.

Watch above via CNN.