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A social media attack by two far-left House Democrats on moderate Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., backfired after one confused him with another Jewish Democrat named Josh, and a New Jersey centrist used their votes for Ukraine aid to turn the exchange back on them.
The clash erupted after Gottheimer criticized the growing influence of democratic socialists within the Democratic Party.
“The DSA are not Democrats. They’re socialists, who want to hijack the Democratic Party,” he wrote in an X post Monday.
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“The Democrats have a big tent. That’s our strength. We embrace a range of ideas — but there’s no room for anti-American bomb-throwers who oppose our ideas, values, & leaders.”
The next day, Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., fired back by accusing him of being among the Democrats who “sign bombs and vote to drop them,” apparently confusing Gottheimer with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
Shapiro, not Gottheimer, signed an artillery shell bound for Ukraine during President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s 2024 visit to Pennsylvania, Fox News Digital reported in September 2024.
“You know that’s the other Jewish guy named Josh, right?” Gottheimer said in response to Lee.
“Squad” Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., then jumped in to defend Lee, writing that Shapiro had signed “the bombs you voted to be dropped.”
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Neither Omar nor Lee identified a specific vote, but Gottheimer turned the accusation back on both lawmakers by pointing out that they had voted for a $60.8 billion Ukraine aid package before Shapiro signed the Ukraine-bound artillery shell.
“Ilhan, you know who else voted for it?” Gottheimer said in response, including a screenshot of the “Official House Roll Call” for the April 2024 vote on H.R. 8035. “You.”
The exchange comes as Gottheimer has increasingly accused his own party of applying a double standard to antisemitism. In a May New York Times opinion piece, the Jewish congressman argued that Democrats routinely condemn antisemitism from the political right but are too often silent when it emerges from the far left, calling the disparity a “glaring double standard.”
That intraparty divide has also widened over support for Israel.
According to the official House roll call, Lee and Omar were among 103 Democrats who voted last week for a failed amendment from Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., that would have prohibited funds in the underlying bill from being used for Israel and reduced the foreign military financing account by $3.3 billion. Gottheimer voted against the amendment.
Fox News Digital reached out to the offices of Gottheimer, Lee and Omar for comment but did not hear back in time for publication.
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