At a Black History Month event in New Rochelle over the weekend, George Latimer said Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., whom he is challenging in a Democratic primary, was taking money from the Palestinian militant group Hamas, a U.S.-designated foreign terror organization. On Tuesday, Bowman’s campaign threatened to sue Latimer for defamation over the remarks and demanded he retract them.
Latimer’s comments came when a constituent, who requested anonymity for personal safety, approached the Democratic challenger with two questions: Why was he running, and why was he taking money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee? AIPAC had recruited him to run for the congressional seat and, as The Intercept previously reported, is Latimer’s largest campaign funder.
When the constituent said Latimer was “taking money from the devil,” Latimer responded that Bowman was too — that the incumbent was “taking money from Hamas.”
The incendiary charge came in a Democratic primary where AIPAC is playing an outsized role in trying to oust a progressive member of the Squad. The flagship Israel lobby’s quest to unseat Democratic incumbents and replace them with centrist and moderate candidates who vigorously support Israel has become the most prominent theme of the 2024 primary season.
“It’s outright disturbing and dangerous that he has doubled down on his Islamophobic comments,” Bowman said in a statement to The Intercept. “He should apologize to a community he continues to vilify and endanger, not double down on hatred.”
Latimer had offered his broadside against Bowman with little proof. Challenged on the comment, which was first reported by the website Black Westchester, the constituent asked Latimer to offer proof and Latimer took their email. AJ Woodson, who runs Black Westchester and wrote the article, confirmed the constituent’s account of the remarks, which Woodson witnessed from several feet away.
Latimer later sent the constituent a link to an article from the right-wing news website Washington Free Beacon with the headline “They Endorsed Hamas Terrorism. Then They Hosted a Big-Ticker Fundraiser for Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush.” While the article points to controversial remarks made about the October 7 Hamas attack by groups with ties to the campaign donors — one organization, for instance, said acts of resistance should not be condemned — it does not allege that any of the fundraiser’s participants are linked to Hamas in any way.
When asked by the press about his allegation, Latimer did not deny the remarks and again sought to tie Bowman to Hamas. “Let me set the record straight – my opponent takes money from those who endorse Hamas’ terrorism, those who try to justify the murdering of children, the kidnapping of civilian hostages, and the raping of women as acts of ‘resistance,’” Latimer said in statement to City & State. (Latimer did not respond to The Intercept’s request for comment.)
Republicans for Latimer
Latimer’s comments were part of a strategy by his campaign and AIPAC to stoke fear about Bowman among Westchester’s Jewish residents, said the constituent who confronted the candidate.
“It’s sort of like the northeast version of the southern strategy.”
“It’s sort of like the northeast version of the southern strategy,” they said. “Now the Latimer strategy, or more like the AIPAC strategy, is to link progressives who may want a ceasefire and that recognize what’s in Gaza is terrible, to link them in a racist way to Hamas, when that is not what they’re engaged in.”
Woodson, the Black Westchester writer, was a vendor at the New Rochelle event and said he also spoke to Latimer about frustration that his campaign was courting Republican voters.
AIPAC endorsed Latimer’s campaign just days after he held a fundraiser hosted by a Republican donor who supported former President Donald Trump. An AIPAC donor has also encouraged Jewish Republicans to switch parties to vote in the primary against Bowman.
“I’m against the Republicans telling all their members to register as Democrats so they can vote against Bowman in the Democratic primary,” Woodson said. “If Democrats feel that Latimer is the right candidate, then they should be free to vote for him without outside interference from hundreds or thousands of Republican voters in the Democratic primary.”
AIPAC has ramped up its attacks on members of Congress who have criticized U.S. military support for Israel and voted for a ceasefire resolution introduced in October. Bowman is one of AIPAC’s main targets this cycle, along with other members of the Squad including Reps. Cori Bush, D-Mo.; Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.; and Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.
The Israel lobby group has played a bigger role in congressional elections in recent cycles and launched a Super PAC that plans to spend $100 million against the Squad this year. During the 2020 cycle, AIAPC endorsed more than 100 Republicans who voted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
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This post was originally published on The Intercept.
