Biden Ambassador Nominee Under Fire For Anti-Semitic Tropes: ‘The Jewish Factor, It’s Money’

President Joe Biden’s nominee to be U.S. ambassador to Brazil made a series of remarks in a 1998 interview now being called out by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle as anti-Semitic, according to a report in The Washington Free Beacon.

Elizabeth Frawley Bagley, whose nomination hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was last month and is being voted by the committee on Thursday, made the comments in a 1998 interview with a historian, which was obtained by the Free Beacon.

At the time of the interview, Bagley was U.S. Ambassador to Portugal under former President Bill Clinton.

“There is always the influence of the Jewish lobby because there is major money involved,” she said in the interview. “But, I don’t remember any major issues coming out on that, besides the usual ‘make Jerusalem the capital of Israel,’ which is always an issue in the campaign.”

She also said that “the Democrats always tend to go with the Jewish constituency on Israel and say stupid things, like moving the capital to Jerusalem always comes up. Things that we shouldn’t even touch.”

Former President Donald Trump, a Republican, recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017 and moved the U.S. embassy to there from Tel Aviv the following May.

“Jewish Democrats were going to give their money to Clinton anyway and Jews are mostly Democrats on social issues,” she also said in the interview.

She added that “the Jewish factor, it’s money,” when arguing that the Jewish community is more powerful financially than in terms of its voting bloc.

During her May hearing, Democratic members of the committee confronted Bagley about pushing anti-Semitic tropes in the 1998 interview.

“Is it a suggestion that one group of Americans don’t have the right to engage in the political process as others do?” asked committee chairman Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ). “Words, especially for those who are going to be ambassadors of the United States to other countries are incredibly important, probably more significant than maybe in our individual daily lives.”

“The language you used in regard to the Jewish community, Israel’s influence on our election, and Jewish money have me concerned,” said Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.). “The choice of words was fit into the traditional tropes of anti-Semitism.”

Bagley apologized for her remarks, saying she was “very sorry about that choice of words.”

Have a tip for us? tips@mediaite.com