Obama’s Pod Bros Use Antisemitism For Their Leftist Clown Show

“The trouble with our liberal friends,” quipped Ronald Reagan, “is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.”

Well, why not both?

Vice President JD Vance erred during his remarks before the Republican Jewish Coalition this week by repeatedly conflating the blood libel — originally the false claim that Jews use the blood of Christian children during religious rituals, now a colloquial term for an antisemitic smear — with blood guilt, or, as he put it: “The idea that because of your genetics, because of your blood, because of your ancestry, you are guilty of a crime that you never committed.”

His mistake raised eyebrows not only because he asserted that the blood libel (meaning blood guilt) “is at the root of antisemitism,” but because Tucker Carlson, his vile, goose-stepping friend, oftentimes uses his professed opposition to blood guilt to deny his antisemitism even as he parrots every blood libel in the book — and concocts still more new ones for good measure.

Among those to mock Vance were two-fourths of the Obama Bro harem, who, despite or — and this is where the Gipper’s time-honored observation comes in — perhaps because of their lack of charm, knowledge, or wisdom, have managed to build a progressive media empire.

Between laughs at and scornful impressions of the veep, Jon Favreau and Jon Lovett put on sitcom-like performances so self-righteous and cringeworthy that they at once delight and appall.

“That’s not what it is. No, the blood libel is that we killed Jesus! That’s it, we killed Jesus!” explained Lovett pedantically.

“No, that’s not it either,” replied a disappointed Favreau. “No, the blood libel is that Jews supposedly put blood on a house — this is an Old Testament story — so that when the Angel of Death came by, they would skip over the houses with the blood on it, but kill the firstborn of-”

Now it was Lovett’s turn to be disappointed.

“Yeah, that’s Passover,” he reminded his friend.

“Yeah, but that’s not Jesus. That’s pre-Jesus,” declared Favreau, palpably proud of his ability to produce non sequiturs on demand.

“That’s not the blood libel; we brag about that!” replied Lovett, rightly holding his ground on this point.

Their speculation finally, mercifully came to an end when Favreau googled it, a task that would perhaps have been best performed before they climbed onto the highest horse they could find, only to immediately fall flat on their respective faces.

It should come as no surprise that the program that swooned over Graham Platner, the blood-libeling, Nazi-tattoo-clad nepo baby already consigned to history’s dustbin, has put so little effort into understanding antisemitism.

After all, for these cynical, hyperpartisan mediocrities, famous only for having once brushed their hands up against the hem of the 44th president’s garment, Jew hatred is not a cancer to be extirpated wherever and whenever it’s found, but a useful charge to be hurled at their enemies and a quirk to be tolerated among their friends.

Indeed, that’s why they’ve taken to covering for Carlson in much the same way Vance has. During a remarkable conversation between co-host Tommy Vietor and fellow Obama alum Ben Rhodes this past February, Rhodes castigated Carlson’s conservative critics for trying to get him to “shut up.” For his part, Vietor, who’s described himself as a “Tucker fan,” went on to reveal that the two have developed a relationship and that he has whitewashed Carlson’s virulent antisemitism.

And that’s why the Pod Bros’ haughty mischaracterization of the blood libel is so much more than an embarrassing gaffe; it’s an indictment of their entire project.

They have no ability to draw a line in the sand on moral grounds until it’s politically convenient or necessary; no principle that can’t be bent or broken for personal profit; and no discomfort with bloviating about that which they know nothing about. Their business is to lazily waltz into their cushy studio without having done an ounce of prep work and tell their audience of affluent, self-assured liberals exactly what they want to hear, when they want to hear it.

Sometimes it’s that their political opponents are antisemites; sometimes it’s to excuse their political allies’ antisemitism. But invariably, it’s proof of their own nescience — and dishonor.

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Isaac Schorr is a staff writer at Mediaite and a 2023–2024 Robert Novak Journalism Fellow at the Fund for American Studies.