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CNN’s Kaitlan Collins confronted the Republican nominee for New York governor about comments he made likening a Jewish Democrat to a “camp guard in the concentration camp.”
On Tuesday, former New York Comptroller Brad Lander defeated Rep. Dan Goldman in the Democratic primary for the 10th congressional district. Lander has been critical of Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon, deeming Israel’s actions in the former a genocide. Goldman has criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but has said the U.S. should keep sending aid to the country.
In response to Lander’s victory on Tuesday, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who, like Lander and Goldman, is Jewish, said Lander would feel more at home as a concentration camp guard.
“And Brad Lander — he’s a disgrace,” Blakeman said on Thursday. “He’s anti-American, he is anti-Semitic, even though he’s Jewish. This guy would be a camp guard in a concentration camp if he could. He’s a disaster. He’s terrible.”
Blakeman joined Friday’s installment of The Source on CNN, where Collins aired a clip of Blakeman’s remarks and asked him if he stands by them. Here is their exchange:
COLLINS: Brad Lander is Jewish. Do you stand by that comment?
BLAKEMAN: I certainly do. I mean, this is a guy who embraces people who will not admit the atrocities that occurred on October 7th. He stands with people who say “river to the sea,” basically to eradicate the Jewish state of Israel. He is someone who denigrates people who feel the same way that I do, that Israel should have a right to exist as a Jewish state. So yes, I think he’s either a collaborator or he’s a coward. And either one of them is unacceptable in my opinion.
COLLINS: But he believes that Israel has a right to exist. I mean, he’s Jewish, but you’re likening him to a Nazi?
BLAKEMAN: No, I don’t believe he believes that Israel has a right to exist, I think, as a Jewish state, he’s never said that. He basically feels that it should be sorted out some way with the Palestinians. Listen, the Palestinians–
COLLINS: His own opponent called him a Zionist. I mean, that’s what Dan Goldman said about Brad Lander.
BLAKEMAN: Well, that’s his opinion. My opinion is he’s not a Zionist. He’s somebody that denigrates the Jewish state, and he stands with people who would seek the harm.
COLLINS: What has he said criticizing Jewish people?
BLAKEMAN: Well, he stood with people who support the Palestinians who attacked on October 7.
[CROSSTALK]
COLLINS: What has he said that’s critical of Jewish people?
BLAKEMAN: He stands with them, and he’s with them. He says that he believes in Palestinian human rights, but he doesn’t talk about Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. And he also, let’s talk about some of the other things that he says.
COLLINS: But he does believe that Israel has a right to–, that there is a right to for a Jewish state. I think the question though–
BLAKEMAN: He talks about genocide in Gaza, when there was no genocide in Gaza. What you had was you had a military action with military objectives on the part of Israel. Take that in contrast to Hamas, which raped women, cut off babies’ heads [sic], and shot people that were unarmed. So when you compare that, there’s–
COLLINS: But in what instance, well, I mean, talk about a moral equivalency. You’re likening him to a Nazi guard.
BLAKEMAN: Well, he’s a collaborator.
COLLINS: That seems like a false moral equivalency, does it not?
BLAKEMAN: No, no, he’s a collaborator. There’s no question in my mind. He’s either a collaborater or a coward.
COLLINS: And what is that distinction? I saw you said that to The New York Times. What is the distinction in likening someone to a Nazi?
BLAKEMAN: You have to know World War II history, you have to know about the Holocaust, and the collaborators were people who were Jewish, who would identify Jewish families, Jewish children that were–
COLLINS: No, I understand the facts. I’m saying what is the difference in the distinction you’re making in terms of Mr. Brad Lander?
BLAKEMAN: The distinction I’m making is that the fact that he is Jewish has nothing to do with his positions. As a matter of fact, being a Jewish person, a Jewish public official, it should be his responsibility to speak out and speak the truth. The state of Israel is a democracy. They have human rights. They have an independent judiciary. They have religious freedom. Those are all things that you don’t have in Palestine.
COLLINS: But criticizing the Israeli government–
BLAKEMAN: In Palestine, they take people who are gay, and they throw them off buildings.
COLLINS: Criticizing the Israeli government is not saying that Israel doesn’t have a right to exist.
BLAKEMAN: If you only criticize Israel, you know, there was 120,000 African Christians who were murdered over the last two years. And nobody said anything about that. But they could criticize Israel. Nobody talked about the thousands of people who were being killed by Iran each and every day. They only single out Israel. If Israel is your only issue, you’re an anti-Semite.
COLLINS: I appreciate the strawman argument there. This idea that we’re not talking about Iran is just not true. He has criticized Hamas.
BLAKEMAN: What’s not true about about it?
COLLINS: You’re saying that people aren’t covering that. We are covering that. That’s not related to you saying that Brad Lander would be a camp guard in the concentration camp if he could.
BLAKEMAN: Yeah, well, listen, I think a collaborator and a prison guard are the same thing.
COLLINS: But he’s Jewish, and you’re saying that if he could, that he would help kill Jewish people?
BLAKEMAN: Kaitlan, can you understand the fact that the fact that he is Jewish, he has a responsibility to speak up and say the Jewish state has a right to exist. And he said–
BLAKEMAN: They have a right to self-determination.
COLLINS: But he has said that, Sir.
BLAKEMAN: No, he hasn’t said that.
COLLINS: Yes, he has.
BLAKEMAN: And he stands with people and he’s endorsed people who say “from the river to the sea.”
The exchange ended with Blakeman telling Collins, “We’re gonna have to agree to disagree.”
Though Blakeman did not use the word, he appeared to be comparing Lander to a kapo, an inmate in a Nazi concentration camp tasked with overseeing other inmates and carrying out administrative functions. Some kapos were prosecuted after World War II as collaborators.
Watch above via CNN.
The post Kaitlan Collins Confronts Republican Who Compared Jewish Democrat to a ‘Camp Guard’: ‘You’re Likening Him To a Nazi?’ first appeared on Mediaite.
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