Brad Lander, former New York City comptroller who is running to unseat Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-N.Y.) in New York’s 10th Congressional District, would not have voted to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) in 2023 for the “Squad” member’s inflammatory rhetoric after Oct. 7.
That’s according to a questionnaire that Lander, who is Jewish and who skipped the Israel parade in Manhattan on Sunday, filled out last month for the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, a progressive LGBTQ group.
Lander states in his responses that he’s right for the job in Congress because he “has the courage to stand up to Trump and ICE and AIPAC.”
“It did not take two years of devastation, tens of thousands of deaths of women and children and videos of starving families before I spoke out in support of Palestinian human rights and freedom,” he wrote. “I certainly would not have voted to censure a Democratic member of Congress for speaking up for them.”
“I’m a proud Jewish New Yorker, and I support the vision of a Jewish and democratic Israel,” he said. “But I believe that AIPAC, and unrestricted U.S. support for Israel’s destruction of Gaza and occupation of the West Bank, have come to play a corrosive role in our politics and foreign policy.”
The club asked candidates specifically whether they voted to censure Tlaib and, if they weren’t in office, how they would have voted.
“I would not have voted to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib and look forward to working with her when I am in Congress,” Lander wrote. “Dan Goldman was one of only 22 Democrats who joined Republicans in voting to censure her.”
“Instead of attacking fellow Democrats for criticizing Israel, he should be condemning the MAGA Republicans consistently spewing Islamophobic and antisemitic bile,” he wrote. “As a result, he has sabotaged his ability to work with many of his Democratic colleagues. I will work with my colleagues to go after hate in all forms and organize together to fight the economic inequality and rising fascism.”
He added that he plans to “refuse donations from AIPAC and its related PACs.”
Congress did, in fact, vote to censure Tlaib, citing her calling the attacks “resistance” and her repeated support of the phrase “from the river to the sea.”
Allen Roskoff, president of the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, told JNS that the question about Tlaib was included because “we didn’t think a censure was necessary.”
“There were other ways to voice one’s disagreement,” he told JNS.
“We are in line with J Street and not AIPAC,” he added.
Goldman wrote in his responses that he voted to censure Tlaib because “it is my view that elected officials are entrusted with a higher responsibility, because our words carry weight and consequences.”
“We must not promote hate speech or inflame violence with our rhetoric,” he said. “Before the censure resolution was introduced, I reached out privately to Rep. Tlaib to communicate the hurt and concern her comments caused for many in the Jewish community and urged her to issue a public clarification that simply acknowledged the hurt that many people feel from the term ‘from the river to the sea.’ Unfortunately, she declined to do so.”
“Just as we cannot tolerate racist statements against any group or rhetoric that incites violence, we cannot accept discriminatory speech directed at Jewish Americans,” he wrote in his responses to the club. “For these reasons, I voted to censure Rep. Tlaib.”
“I would support similar action in the future against any member of Congress who uses discriminatory rhetoric against any group, including the Muslim community, or spreads misinformation that inflames violence,” he wrote. “That being said, I believe there are better alternative ways of addressing these hurtful comments than censure, and I would pursue those pathways if this situation arose again.”
Others running in New York’s 12th district also responded to the question.
Alex Bores, a state Assembly member, wrote that he would have voted against a motion that “was Republican grandstanding, punishing speech.” Jack Schlossberg said, “Although I have strongly disagreed with some of Rep. Tlaib’s rhetoric, I would not have voted to censure her.” He added in another answer that he doesn’t take any “special interest” money, including from AIPAC.
Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) wrote that he voted against the resolution.
“I believe we should be able to express their views and engage in debate without politically motivated censorship measures that risk undermining free expression and democratic discourse, while continuing to strongly oppose antisemitism, Islamophobia and all forms of hate,” he wrote.
