By Newt Gingrich appeared on “The Ingraham Angle” to examine Kamala Harris’s recent success in securing enough delegates to become the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee following President Joe Biden’s decision to drop his reelection bid last Sunday.
In his conversation with Fox News host Laura Ingraham, Gingrich discussed the potential vice-presidential picks for Harris, and said there’s one governor in particular who could shake up the race: Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.
The Daily Caller reported that the former Republican Speaker of the House and Trump adviser pointed out that Shapiro would undercut the rising tide of liberal antisemitism growing in the party.
“Well look, they have a big problem. I think, by the way, this is why in the end Harris will not be able to pick Governor Shapiro of Pennsylvania,” Gingrich said. “I think to walk into that convention with a Jewish governor as her vice presidential candidate would cause such a level of tension in places like Michigan that it would just be a wild scene. Sort of resemble Union Station. They have a real problem.”
“The problem is more and more of their party’s anti-Semitic, more and more of their party sides with terrorism. More and more of their party is deeply hostile, not just to Israel, they are deeply hostile to the United States,” Gingrich said.
During Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s state visit Wednesday, nearly half of the Democratic lawmakers skipped out on the prime minister’s address to Congress. However, Democratic Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib protested during Netanyahu’s speech as she could be seen holding up a sign that read “War Criminal.”
“And I think this is an underlying split in their party, which will be interesting to see how they try to write a platform compared to what the Republicans achieved in Milwaukee,” Gingrich continued. “Because how do they bring their radical left-wing and what’s left of the old pro-Israel wing. How do they get something on that into the platform? I think they’ll have a very hard time.”
‘They Have A Real Problem’: Newt Gingrich Reveals Josh Shapiro As Running Mate Could Derail Kamala’s Campaign | Daily Caller
Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich revealed Thursday evening Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is the one running mate option that… pic.twitter.com/ghqSlbYRXi
— Owen Gregorian (@OwenGregorian) July 26, 2024
The problem for Harris picking the Pennsylvania leader—besides her own sympathies for the radical left—is that the very antisemitism her campaign is trying to push back against may prevent her from picking Shapiro in the first place.
Although all of the names being suggested as frontrunners to be Harris’ running mate support Israel, leftwing publications have placed their entire focus on the only Jewish person in consideration, calling him “Genocide Josh.”
A New Republic article called Shapiro “the one vice presidential pick who could ruin Democratic unity.” Shapiro, according to the article, “stands out among the current field of potential running mates as being egregiously bad on Palestine.”
“Unfortunately,” the magazine continued, “Shapiro also stands out among the current field of potential running mates as being egregiously bad on Palestine. It’s not just that he, like many Democrats, is an outspoken supporter of Israel—though he certainly is, having championed Israel’s war against Hamas consistently and without any apparent concern for Palestinian civilians. Shapiro has, moreover, done far more than most Democrats to attack pro-Palestine antiwar demonstrators, in ways that call into question his basic commitment to First Amendment rights.
In his previous role as Pennsylvania attorney general, Shapiro championed the state’s constitutionally dubious anti-BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) law against Ben & Jerry’s after the ice cream maker refused to license its product for sale in Israeli settlements. ‘BDS is rooted in antisemitism,’ Shapiro wrote in a statement in 2021, as he condemned a company named for its two Jewish American founders. ‘The stated goal of this amorphous movement is the removal of Jewish citizens from the region and I strongly oppose their efforts.’
As governor, Shapiro’s particular animus against pro-Palestine activism has only grown more apparent and troubling. Last December, he played an active role in the GOP-orchestrated sacking of University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill. During a visit to Goldie, the popular Philadelphia restaurant co-owned by the Israeli-born celebrity chef Michael Solomonov, Shapiro condemned Magill’s testimony on alleged antisemitism on the Ivy League campus before Representative Elise Stefanik, the MAGA right’s grand inquisitor. “That was an unacceptable statement from the president of Penn,” Shapiro said, referring to Magill’s unwillingness to accept Stefanik’s slippery framing on what constitutes antisemitism. “Frankly, I thought her comments were absolutely shameful. It should not be hard to condemn genocide.” Magill resigned four days after her testimony and three days after Shapiro’s statement, legitimizing the GOP’s wider assault on academic freedom, which would be repeated successfully against Harvard President Claudine Gay weeks later.
In April, Shapiro’s office baselessly claimed that a peaceful pro-Palestine encampment on the Penn campus threatened student safety. ‘If the universities in accordance with their policies can’t guarantee the safety and security and well-being of the students, then I think it is incumbent upon a local mayor or local governor or local town councilor, whoever is the local leadership there, to step in and enforce the law,’ Shapiro told Politico at the time. In May, he urged Penn to shut down the encampment completely. ‘The University of Pennsylvania has an obligation to their safety,” he said, once again alluding to nonexistent threats to the physical well-being of Jewish students. ‘It is past time for the university to act, to address this, to disband the encampment, and to restore order and safety on campus.’ The university complied; one day and 33 arrests later, Shapiro’s office said Penn “made the right decision.’”
The left has also begun to organize against Shapiro, despite the fact that he’d likely help Harris in his key battleground state.
Jewish Insider writes that “a new online campaign from far-left activists called ‘No Genocide Josh’ argued that Shapiro will get in the way of Harris’ efforts “to gain the trust of working-class, progressive and young voters.” It is in Democrats’ ‘best interests,’ according to a website associated with the campaign, that the nominee ‘support the majority of Democrats and Americans who want social and economic justice for workers and an immediate ceasefire in Palestine.’
The website was created on Wednesday, the day that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Congress. Planning documents from the team behind ‘No Genocide Josh’ that were obtained by Jewish Insider reveal a highly coordinated effort by a handful of organizers — including at least one leader of the Uncommitted movement — to put pressure on Democrats to avoid choosing Shapiro.
A messaging document shows that the group’s organizers include ‘Dear White Staffers,’ an Instagram account created to document workplace abuse on Capitol Hill but that has since Oct. 7 become one of the biggest anti-Israel platforms in Washington. The person who runs the account is a staffer for Rep. Summer Lee, a Pittsburgh Democrat who is one of Israel’s harshest critics in Congress. A spokesperson for Lee did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.
According to notes from a meeting held by the organizers on Thursday, the campaign believes Shapiro would alienate young voters. ‘Picking a candidate who TikTok turns on over his stance on Gaza would put young people right at the low engagement spot they were for Biden,’ organizers wrote. They decided not to push an alternative to Shapiro because “a candidate being associated with ‘us’ and ‘leftists’ probably isn’t good for their chances,’ one of the organizers noted.'”
The Harris campaign has been ridiculed early on for its race-based campaign that resembles a DEI seminar than an actual presidential campaign for all Americans.
[Read More: Harris Campaign Launches DEI Groups On Zoom]
