WASHINGTON — GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson and Dem Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have teamed up for a rare bipartisan rebuke of a Florida Republican pol who spewed vile antisemitic rhetoric against his primary foe.
Wannabe House member Daniel Bilzerian rolled out a disturbing ad last week attacking fellow Republican and incumbent Rep Randy Fine as a “fat Jew,” “Shylock” and “satanic whore” and suggesting whether it was worth revisiting Adolf Hitler’s “opinions.”
“The vile attack ads against Congressman Randy Fine in Florida’s 6th District are disgusting and should be condemned by all political leaders on the Right and Left,” Johnson said in a statement late Sunday. “Antisemitism and outward hatred of Jewish communities have no place in our politics or in America.”
Jeffries echoed the speaker about an hour afterward, calling Bilzerian out by name.
“The hateful campaign being run by Daniel Bilzerian in Florida is blatantly antisemitic and shocks the conscience,” Jeffries said.
“People of goodwill regardless of political affiliation must reject his vile attacks on the Jewish community. This cannot and will not stand.”
Bilzerian’s ad was only the latest sickening salvo in both sides’ scorched-earth attacks involving Israel and the Gaza war.
Fine for his part has spouted egregious Islamophobic rhetoric and seemingly implied that the Gaza Strip, home to about 2 million Palestinians, should be nuked.
Bilzerian’s ad was filled with depictions of the Israeli flag, used artificial intelligence to add some physical girth to the Sunshine State Republican and showed him hugging a bag full of cash. It also called him a “Jewish supremacist” and “Satan’s creepy little minion.
“Should we revisit that Austrian painter’s opinions?” a singer in the ad asked in footage of Hitler.
The ad meanwhile boasted that Bilzerian doesn’t take money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
On social media, Bilzerian has railed against “the Jewish problem.”
While Bilzerian dropped the sickening attack ad last week, his antics got the attention of the Jewish Insider outlet Sunday, and the spot was seemingly the impetus for Johnson and Jeffries to speak out.
Fine, who succeeded US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz in the Florida district, called Bilzerian a “Nazi” and vowed to “defeat this evil on Tuesday,” when the pair face off in a primary.
The rep is one of the most hardcore pro-Israel voices in either chamber of Congress, going so far as to say, “There is no such thing as Palestinian” and spouting egregious Islamophobic rhetoric.
“If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one,” Fine posted on X in February in comments he has repeatedly defended.
At one point, Fine seemingly implied Gaza should be nuked.
“In World War II, we did not negotiate a surrender with the Nazis,” he told Fox News last year. “We did not negotiate a surrender with the Japanese. We nuked the Japanese twice in order to get unconditional surrender. That needs to be the same here.”
Fine also has a history of implying or outright calling Muslim politicians terrorists.
“Jihadi Mamdani does not belong as Mayor of NYC. He needs to be denaturalized and sent back home to Uganda,” Fine posted on X on Sunday, referring to Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
“Tell your fellow Muslim terrorists to release the hostages and surrender. Until then, #StarveAway,” he said to “Squad” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) last year on X.
Bilzerian cited some of Fine’s past hateful rhetoric in his disturbing attack ad.
