Author Ann Coulter insists that she has been taken out of context for asking Wednesday evening during the second televised GOP debate for a headcount on the number of “f–ing Jews” that live in the United States.
The provocateur pundit maintains that she was merely criticizing the 11 Republican presidential candidates for pandering to conservative voters on the issue of Israel.
“It has been a long theme of mine,” she said in a Business Insider interview released Friday, “attacking Republicans for all, you know, trying to prove — I don’t know what they’re trying to prove by constantly praising [Ronald] Reagan and denouncing abortion.”
“I hadn’t even mentioned their, their incessant sucking up to Israel in my column. But then I watched the debate, and then, in the end at the last question is, ‘What will America look like after your presidency?’ And the first three guys started talking about Israel!” she added.
Coulter named Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as the parties guilty of “sucking up to Israel.”
As CNN’s more than three-hours-long primary debate Wednesday evening drew to a close, and as candidates answered the final question posed by moderator Jake Tapper, Coulter tweeted, “How many f—ing Jews do these people think are in United States?”
She suggested afterwards that pro-Israel candidates are likely sucking “up to the Evangelicals,” a group well known for its support for the country.
Prior to asking how many “f–ing Jews” live in the United States, Coulter said on Twitter, “Good grief! [Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee] is running for PM of Israel,” and “Cruz, Huckabee Rubio all mentioned ISRAEL in their response to: ‘What will AMERICA look like after you are president.'”
Furor at her remarks grew that same evening, prompting her to add in a note, “I like the Jews, I like fetuses, I like Reagan. Didn’t need to hear applause lines about them all night.”
On Friday, Coulter maintained that her comments were meant as anti-pandering criticism.
“The reaction [to the tweets] was hysterical, lying, hypocritical. Mostly from supporters of the guy who just gave Iran a nuclear bomb: Obama. Or people who oppose me on immigration, the open borders crowd,” she said.
“They chopped up the tweet, sent it out, the apotheosis of which was, um, the Daily Beast article, ‘Ann Coulter shouts ‘effing Jew,'” she added.
The article she references is titled, “Trump Supporter Ann Coulter Slams Pandering to ‘F—ing Jews.‘”
“No, come on,” she responded in her Business Insider interview, “I know how to use ‘effing’ in a sentence. To just say ‘effing Jew,’ full stop, no. That’s anti-Semitic. Saying ‘how many effing anything,’ that’s a comment on quantity. This is not saying ‘effing Jews,’ it’s saying ‘how many?’ Quantity, not quality.”
She stressed that the chopping up of her tweet made it appear that she had come across as saying something “unkind.”
“The good side is, y’know, maybe they’ll stop talking about abortion, Reagan and Israel all the time. These are positions 100 percent of Republicans agree on. When I say I don’t want them talking about Reagan, abortion, um, that’s not because I’m pro-abortion or I hate Reagan,” she said.
“I’m pro-Israel, so is everyone in the room, so is everyone on the stage,” she added. “Can you give it a rest?”
