WATCH: Ron DeSantis Dodges Repeatedly as Jake Tapper Corners Him on Elon Musk’s Anti-Semitic Posts in Wild Exchange
Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis repeatedly dodged questions from Jake Tapper when the CNN anchor tried to press him on what he thinks about the anti-Semitic posts by Elon Musk.
Tapper interviewed the Florida governor on Sunday for State of the Union, where the conversation arrived at how Musk embraced an anti-Semitic trope on X, which was known as Twitter before he bought it.
Musk received fierce condemnation since proclaiming a poster spoke “the actual truth” by saying “Jewish communties [sic] have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them. I’m deeply disinterested in giving the tiniest shit now about Western Jewish populations coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities that support flooding their country don’t exactly like them too much.”
Tapper summarized this as a conspiracy theory that “Jews are conspiring to replace white Americans with minority immigrants.” When asked if he condemns the remark from Musk, DeSantis claimed “I did not see the comment,” then deflected by saying “Elon has had a target on his back ever since he purchased Twitter, because I think he’s taking it in a direction that a lot of people who are used to controlling the narrative don’t like.”
From there, Tapper brought up the tweet on screen, plus Musk’s botched attempt to backtrack from the uproar he caused.
“That’s a lot of condemnation for singling out a specific religious group during this time of rapidly rising anti-Semitism,” Tapper said. “I know you’ve been very out front when you see anti-Semitism on the Left. Is anti-Semitism on the Right something that concerns you as well?”
“Across the board,” DeSantis answered. He went on to argue that right-wing anti-Semitism only exists among “more fringe voices,” while left-wing anti-semitism is connected to “major institutional power” like American universities.
“It’s wrong, no matter what, and I don’t think that we’ve seen anti-Semitism this bad in the world probably since the Second World War,” DeSantis said.
“I don’t know how fringe the voices are, to be completely frank,” Tapper countered. “Elon Musk is the wealthiest man in the world, and we’ve seen some major conservative media figures — Charlie Kirk, Candace Owens and others — pushing really, really hateful stuff, backing these nonsensical theories of white genocide, white replacement theory, and I would ask that major Republican figures like you use your voices as well to stand against it.”
Tapper tried to move the conversation along, but DeSantis decided to stay on the topic, arguing. “To have somebody that’s, like, blogging and doing stuff like that, okay. That’s an issue.”
But to compare that with how some of these most powerful universities in the country have responded to this, we have Jewish students fleeing for their lives, because you have angry mobs and yet they have not done what they need to do to protect the safety and well-being of those students… I do think on the institutional side, you’ve seen this become part of a Left-wing movement. A very significant pro-Hamas movement, and it is backed by institutional power.
Tapper acknowledged the governor’s point, but added, “I’m just saying, Elon Musk is a pretty powerful guy and he’s out there endorsing some pretty hideous anti-semitic conspiracy theories andI still haven’t heard you condemn it.”
“Well, because I haven’t seen it,” DeSantis said — ignoring the fact Tapper just displayed the tweet for him to review right on the spot. “I know you tried to read — I have no idea what the context is. I know Elon Musk. I’ve never seen him do anything. I think he’s a guy that believes in America. I’ve never seen him indulge in any of that, so its surprising if that’s true, but I have not seen it, so I don’t want to pass judgment on the fly.”
Watch above via CNN.
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