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In Pennsylvania’s fiercely contested Senate race, Sen. Bob Casey and Jewish elected officials are charging his GOP challenger with profiting off his investment in Rumble, a video platform that has amplified far-right antisemitism and Holocaust denial.
The issue, amid rising antisemitism across the U.S., has become a particularly potent one in the contest between Casey and former hedge fund CEO David McCormick, both of whom won their primaries in April.
In a television ad that began airing recently, Casey, a three-term Democrat, called out McCormick’s financial investments in Rumble, which was founded in 2013 as an alternative to YouTube and has grown popular among far-right after figures.
Nick Fuentes, a prominent white supremacist and Holocaust denier, maintains an active page featuring his live shows, which are replete with antisemitic and anti-Israel content. Rumble is publicly traded, but has also attracted investments from prominent right-wing venture capitalist Peter Thiel and Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio.
“My opponent, using his personal wealth to invest in a website that platforms hate, including Holocaust denial and antisemitism, is reprehensible,” Casey, 64, told me on Monday.
McCormick campaign responds
The McCormick campaign countered that the accusation is unfair, that his support for the Jewish community is “indisputable,” and that Casey has “repeatedly failed to speak out” against “antisemitic encampments on college campuses.”
“These accusations are akin to saying anyone who invests in Twitter or Facebook is responsible for the content of every post on the platform,” said campaign spokesperson Elizabeth Gregory. “Dave has and will continue to forcefully condemn antisemitism.”
She shared a quote from Lou Weiss, the father of columnist Bari Weiss and a member of the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, the site of the the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history. Weiss said he’s proud to call McCormick a “dear friend.”
READ: Antisemitism Is a Threat to Us All — And to Democracy
“No one’s been a stronger voice against antisemitism than Dave McCormick. Dave has stood shoulder to shoulder with myself and other members of the Pittsburgh Jewish community at the Sunday Squirrel Hill vigils to demand for the return of the Israeli hostages and attended the five-year anniversary of the Tree of Life attack. I’m proud to call him a dear friend.”
Recent polls show Casey with a seven-point lead over McCormick. Some polls show an even close race. Both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are campaigning vigorously in this critical battleground state. McCormick for the first time attended a Trump rally in Philadelphia this weekend, two months after receiving his endorsement. Jews comprise an estimated 3% of the Pennsylvania electorate.
Shapiro weighs in
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish, has decried McCormick’s stake in Rumble, accusing him of making a “conscious choice” to invest more than a million dollars in a site “that gives a megaphone to extremists who spew hate speech and antisemitism.”
A similar charge dogged Shapiro’s Republican opponent in the 2022 race for governor. Democrats criticized State Rep. Doug Mastriano for his association with Gab, an online echo chamber for antisemitic tropes that caters to far-right extremists. Mastriano himself repeated antisemitic tropes on the campaign trail.
“When other social media platforms ban antisemites, Rumble welcomes them — fanning the flames of hate at an incredibly dangerous time for our communities,” Shapiro said.
McCormick’s investment in Rumble was first brought to public attention by local Jewish Democrats in March. State Rep. Dan Frankel, whose district includes the Tree of Life synagogue, noted the all-time high number of antisemitic incidents – 394 reported in the state in 2023, according to the Anti-Defamation League’s annual report. (In recent years the ADL has counted all anti-Zionist incidents as antisemitic.)
READ: White Supremacy Fueled American Religious Leaders’ Support for Nazi Germany
“We cannot have political candidates bolstering platforms that foster anti-Jewish conspiracy theories and rhetoric,” Frankel said on Tuesday. He dismissed McCormick’s condemnation of antisemitism on college campuses. “David McCormick is basically calling out antisemitism on Monday and investing his dollars into a business that makes a home for hate speech on Tuesday,” he said.
Casey attended a Sunday morning event at the Tree of Life synagogue for the groundbreaking of a new facility that will house a sanctuary and a museum about antisemitism.
Shapiro and Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker, who serves as a top surrogate for the Biden campaign, called the failure to divest from the company “disqualifying.”
