What Ron DeSantis’ Silence on Antisemitic Messages Says About the GOP

It’s been almost two full days since the words “Kanye is right about the Jews” were displayed on a screen at TIAA Bank Field stadium in Jacksonville, Florida (and on another building in that city)—a reference to Kanye “Ye” West’s recent antisemitic comments that were straight out of the notorious forgery and roadmap for antisemitic conspiracy theories, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

The state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, who was in attendance at the game, hasn’t said a thing in public about the messages, even as other leaders condemned them. This includes his Democratic opponent for governor, Charlie Crist (a former congressman and governor himself), who blasted DeSantis’ silence as a “disgusting and absolute failure of leadership.”

As of Monday morning, DeSantis’ office has declined to comment on the incident. This craven silence is becoming a trend for the GOP star governor, the leading contender to be Trump’s successor as leader of the GOP.

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According to The Forward, DeSantis has failed to call out antisemitism when neo-Nazi crowds displayed swastikas, hailed “our glorious leader Ron DeSantis” or hung “Heil Hitler banners.” And while DeSantis has cultivated relations with Jewish groups, he has sought to have it both ways—much as Trump has—by sending clear messages that he will tolerate hate speech. Also like Trump, he’s not above dealing in antisemitic tropes.

DeSantis has run campaign ads that included Christian nationalist Pastor Larry Jinks, who has been quoted as saying, “We are called to be at odds with any religion that does not acknowledge Jesus as the Prince of Peace and the only way to the Father.” Jinks, earlier this year, wrote on his Facebook page, “It’s a shame that the Jews, who should know better,” rejected Jesus as their Messiah.

DeSantis has also trafficked in antisemitic tropes, vilifying Democrats as puppets of financier George Soros and condemning one official he fired as being “Soros-backed.”

The Florida governor actively campaigned for candidates who embrace antisemitic ideas and signals—perhaps most notably, another prominent GOP gubernatorial candidate, Doug Mastriano, currently running to be Pennsylvania’s chief executive. Mastriano has drawn well-deserved criticism for not-so-thinly veiled attacks on the religion of his opponent, Josh Shapiro, and for his support for a far-right media platform called Gab. Mastriano has accepted donations from right-wing extremists and accused Soros, a Holocaust survivor, of being a Nazi collaborator.

In the past few weeks, other incidents of GOP antisemitism included a social media outburst by Trump himself, warning Jews to “get their act together” before “it is too late”—employing the old discredited tactic of suggesting American Jews have dual loyalties, sometimes prioritizing Israel over this country.

The GOP’s House Judiciary Committee Twitter account has yet to delete a tweet from earlier this month that simply read, “Kanye. Elon. Trump”—implying support for the disgraced rapper, whose career has cratered in recent weeks over his overt antisemitism. The Republican candidate for governor of Arizona, Kari Lake, has expressed support for another Republican with a “well-documented history of antisemitic and homophobic remarks” and argued that he was being attacked by “the Soros media,” according to reporting in Jewish Insider.

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One wonders if DeSantis, a shrewd political operator, senses that loudly condemning the despicable antisemitic messages in Jacksonville would alienate some crucial voters in the GOP’s base—just a week before the midterm elections.

This is all happening at a time when antisemitic incidents in the U.S. have reached record levels—with a total of 2,717 incidents reported in 2021, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the ADL, was quoted by The Washington Post as saying, “Empirically, something is different. The level of public animosity toward Jews is higher than it has been in recent memory.”

While antisemitism in high places in the GOP is not new—Richard Nixon, to cite just one example, complained that Washington is “full of Jews”—the embrace of antisemitic tropes, anti-Jewish bigots, and silence in the face of antisemitism is stunning in its brazenness.

Recently, Insider reached out to nearly 40 Republicans—including Gov. DeSantis—about the surge of antisemitism within the GOP, and “their responses included silence, deflection, and rehashing old statements.”

Tapping into hatred against the Jews is not, of course, the only way Republicans have sought to energize the ugliest part of their base. DeSantis has been prominent among those within the GOP who have sought to tap into anti-LGBTQ+ prejudices. Anti-immigrant hate has been stoked by the embrace of the “great replacement theory” by GOP candidates and media outlets. And of course, anti-Black racism has been a core part of the message of the GOP during this campaign as it has been for years.

While the rise in public displays of hatred by Republicans can be traced to their one-time racist-in-chief, whose history of despicable attitudes is well-documented, what the current campaign has made clear is that it will not stop with Trump. The modern GOP, which in this campaign has resolutely resisted any efforts to identify what it stands for, has made very clear who they stand with.

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The “very fine people” Trump hailed in Charlottesville—and the white supremacists who participated in the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6—are being ever more openly and actively courted by a party that has made it clear it places the cynical calculus of division ahead of national unity, the pursuit of power by any means ahead of decency, and the political potency of stoking hatred ahead of the nation’s current and growing need for healing and tolerance.

For those who thought that the Republican Party’s embrace of antisemites and white supremacists would end when Donald Trump left the national stage, the current election campaign has sent a deeply disturbing message. Trump’s successors and supporters through the party, have time and again shown they intend to carry on his legacy of hate and to continue to make the GOP a safe space for intolerance, racism, and Christian nationalism.

And if Ron DeSantis’ silence on this weekend’s shocking antisemitic incident in Jacksonville tells us anything, it’s that he’s ready to lead that increasingly hate-driven Republican Party.

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