Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accused Politico of anti-Semitism on Saturday over an illustration that ran alongside an article that was published about Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ finances.
The article, “The Secret of Bernie’s Millions,” was an investigation into how the self-proclaimed democratic socialist amassed significant wealth and properties despite “unrelentingly” railing on the wealthy. One of the illustrations to go along with the article includes Sanders, who is Jewish, looking off into the distance with a mansion over one shoulder and a tree with dollar bills as leaves. Another one shows him holding a house in his hands with two more houses appearing on each shoulder. The three houses represent his three properties.
Politico shared the story on Twitter a second time, with a subsequent tweet explaining that the original one was deleted because it “needed more context.” The deletion appears unrelated to the claims of anti-Semitism because the illustrations are still on Twitter.
This is a tweet from Politico in regards to a story about independent Sen. Bernie Sanders’ finances. Dem. NY Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called this illustration anti-Semitic (Screenshot from Friday).
“Can @politico explain to us how photoshopping money trees next to the only Jewish candidate for president and talking about how “cheap” and rich he is *isn’t* antisemitic?” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “Or are they just letting this happen because he’s a progressive politician they don’t like?”
Can @politico explain to us how photoshopping money trees next to the only Jewish candidate for president and talking about how “cheap” and rich he is *isn’t* antisemitic?
Or are they just letting this happen because he’s a progressive politician they don’t like? pic.twitter.com/O9qvDBw4ib
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 25, 2019
She continued in a following tweet, “Notice the people willing to explain this away, yet when Ilhan’s words are taken out of context, they are the 1st to jump on her. Look at how these accusations are selectively enforced on the left, esp when it’s the *alt-right* actually committing antisemitic violence in the US.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s reference to Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar is in regards to the multiple accusations of anti-Semitism she has faced since being sworn into Congress back in January.
Sanders’ staff also took to social media to push back on Politico’s illustrations.
Meet @Politico — a DC newspaper that sees a president call Nazis “very fine people,” and then decides to create a graphic putting a money tree behind the president’s Jewish opponent, whose father’s family was killed by Nazis pic.twitter.com/dHblLCWfID
— David Sirota (@davidsirota) May 25, 2019
David Sirota, a former reporter and current speechwriter for Sanders, tweeted, “Meet @Politico — a DC newspaper that sees a president call Nazis ‘very fine people,’ and then decides to create a graphic putting a money tree behind the president’s Jewish opponent, whose father’s family was killed by Nazis.”
Sanders’ chief of staff, Ari Rabin-Havt, also called the image an “anti-Semitic trope.”