Conservative columnist Ann Coulter used an epithet to describe Jews in expressing frustration with pledges by candidates to support Israel during a Republican debate.
How many f—ing Jews do these people think there are in the United States?
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) September 17, 2015
Coulter posted the tweet during the final minutes of the three-hour debate Wednesday evening in Simi Valley, California, when four of the 11 candidates mentioned their support for Israel in their closing remarks. The four candidates were former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee; Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who said he would move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem as one of his first acts as president; Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. In a separate tweet, Coulter said,
Maybe it's to suck up to the Evangelicals.
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) September 17, 2015
When Christie made his pledge, Coulter tweeted,
Christie also talks @ Israel in response to the question: What will AMERICA look like after you are president?
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) September 17, 2015
Subsequently, she tweeted,
How to get applause from GOP donors: 1) Pledge to start a war 2) Talk about job creators 3) Denounce abortion 4) Cite Reagan 5) Cite Israel.
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) September 17, 2015
Christians United for Israel excoriated Coulter in a news release.
“Ann Coulter’s tweets this evening concerning Israel were completely inappropriate,” spokesman Ari Morgenstern said in the statement. “The U.S.-Israel relationship is both a moral and strategic imperative. There are tens of millions of Christians in this country who stand with the Jewish state.”
Jonathan Greenblatt, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, described Coulter’s remarks as “hyperbolic and hateful.”
“Ms. Coulter is pandering to the basest of her base. Her messages challenging the candidates’ support for Israel were offensive, ugly, spiteful and borderline anti-Semitic,” Greenblatt wrote in a statement. “Her tweets give fodder to those who buy into the anti-Semitic notions that Jews ‘control’ the U.S. government, wield disproportionate power in politics, and are more loyal to Israel than to their own country.”
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said, “Ann Coulter asks 'how many f—ing Jews' are there in America and then blithely dodges Fox News' direct challenge of her gratuitous anti-Semitic slur. Disgusting. And if a simple 'I am sorry' is beyond the reach of the vocabulary of this noted wordsmith, then perhaps she has unearned her spot among top tier political pundits.”
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