Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) refuses to rescind his endorsement of Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pittsburgh). While many people would shrug, some members of the Jewish community are incensed.
Lee, a member of the far-left “Squad,” posted a statement to X with Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato and Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, a missive implying that Israel was to blame for the Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack rather than Hamas.
Hamas attackers killed some 1,200 innocent Israelis, including some 50 Americans, and took 250 hostages, also including Americans, to Gaza, sparking a war that continues a year later.
“I could not disagree more with this statement,” Casey posted on X. “Hamas is a terrorist organization and its horrific attack, which resulted in the murder of 1,200 innocent Israeli civilians, must be categorically condemned. Hamas remains a threat to the people of Israel.”
Challenger Dave McCormick, a Republican, called on Casey to revoke his endorsement of Lee.
“All talk and no action. If you were strong, you would revoke your endorsement of antisemitic Summer Lee. But you’re not. So you won’t,” McCormick posted to X.
Lee was notably absent at a high-profile Kamala Harris campaign event in Pittsburgh on Thursday, where former President Barack Obama spoke.
Earlier this year, Lee was slated to speak at a CAIR gathering with antisemitic speakers but she canceled after a public outcry.
McCormick wrote before Lee canceled, “I’m calling for the resignation of Summer Lee,” McCormick said in a social media post. “Summer Lee is the headline speaker for CAIR, an organization whose leadership has spewed antisemitic hatred, an organization where the leadership has celebrated the terrible barbarism, the hatred from Oct. 7.”
McCormick criticized Casey for his vote to approve the Iran nuclear deal that allowed the theocratic state to garner billions. At the time Casey said it would enhance Israel’s safety. And Casey did not object to the Biden-Harris administration’s withholding military support from Israel during its war with Hamas.
Jeff Bartos, a Lower Merion resident and Republican consultant who ran for the U.S. Senate in 2022, said, “In 2015, Senator Casey voted for the Iran deal because he feared a primary challenge. He endorsed Summer Lee and now refuses to retract it because he fears losing votes. Why is it so hard for Senator Casey simply to do the right thing – because he is weak and ineffective, and his moral ambiguity is unbefitting a United States Senator from Pennsylvania.”
Casey also refused to state his position on whether he’d vote to confirm a Biden federal judicial appointment with ties to an antisemitic center.
And he failed to strongly condemn antisemitic protests and encampments at universities around the state or call for the resignation of former University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill after her problematic Congressional testimony. And a bill to fight antisemitism that Casey sponsored has gone nowhere, although earlier this year it passed the house with bipartisan support.
McCormick hopes to garner support from Pennsylvania’s Jewish community, which is traditionally a Democratic base. Jewish people comprise about 3.3 percent of the state’s population, according to the Jewish Virtual Library.
In January, McCormick and his wife visited Israel and spoke to survivors of the Hamas attack, families of the hostages, and government officials.
He has repeatedly cried antisemitism in Pennsylvania and called for the safe return of the hostages. McCormick was one of the first people to call for Magill’s resignation when she equivocated on whether it was wrong for students to call for Jewish genocide.
He also visited the Penn encampment and spoke out against efforts to intimidate and harass Jewish students. He also condemned The Philadelphia Inquirer for publishing an antisemitic cartoon.
Recently, McCormick answered questions from with Matthew Brooks, CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition. at a town hall in Philadelphia.
Neither Casey nor Lee’s campaigns responded to requests for comment.
Casey and McCormick will have a second debate at 7 p.m. on Oct. 15 on 6ABC in Philadelphia.
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