Mitch McConnell Makes Antisemitic Comment During Debate with Challenger Amy McGrath

As part of his closing remarks during the Kentucky Senate debate, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) asked Kentucky voters: “It’s not complicated. Do you want somebody from New York to be setting the agenda for America?”

McConnell mentioned “New York” twelve times during the hour-long debate, referring to “rich people in New York” and “Chuck Schumer from New York” in his attacks on Democratic challenger Amy McGrath. He occasionally also mentioned “California,” a state that, like New York, is thought of as extremely liberal. However, California only received five mentions in contrast to New York’s twelve.

There is a decades-long history in the United States of referring to “New York” as a euphemism for Jews. During the 2016 Republican Presidential Primary, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) was widely criticized for making a derisive comment about “New York values,” which many interpreted as an antisemitic comment. In March of 2020, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) blamed, without evidence, the COVID-19 outbreak in his state on “people from New York.” The trope is known well enough that it was even referenced in pilot episode of The West Wing:

By “somebody from New York,” McConnell was likely referencing Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who would replace McConnell as Majority Leader if Democrats flip the Senate in 2020, and who is Jewish. The idea of Jewish control over government is a long-standing antisemitic trope, adding a deeper and potentially antisemitic message to McConnell’s suggestion that “somebody from New York” would be “setting the agenda.”