EXCLUSIVE — Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) is adamant that Republicans have dealt with their antisemitism problems amid his public feud with Tucker Carlson and after Vice President JD Vance did not directly address his relationship with the podcaster during his appearance at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s leadership conference Monday evening.
In a telephone interview with the Washington Examiner, Fine, who has sparred with Carlson over his criticism of Israel, underscored his own speech to the RJC last weekend, in which he claimed that, “a year ago,” Carlson “was the most dangerous antisemite in America.”
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“I’m not even sure Americans even pay attention to him anymore,” Fine said on Tuesday. “I actually think Tucker Carlson’s largely an irrelevance in the Republican Party today.”
In particular, Fine pointed to how Carlson was “repudiated” by President Donald Trump in February as a “low IQ person” and a “fool” in response to the former Fox News primetime personality’s scrutiny of the war against Iran.
Fine also compared Republican reactions to Carlson with Democratic reactions to controversial Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who, among other comments, has said that the U.S. “deserved” 9/11 and that “Hamas is a thousand times better than Israel.”
Piker has campaigned with the likes of Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul el Sayed, who has distanced himself from the surrogate who helped him get out younger, more liberal voters in his primary election last month but has so far declined to fully disavow him.
“That’s the difference between Republicans and Democrats,” Fine said. “We crush and expel our lunatics. They embrace and elevate theirs.”
The congressman, who has been criticized for being Islamophobic, reiterated that the current “focus” should be on how the Republican Party “has handled our antisemitism.”
“Both parties have them,” he said. “But one year ago, I served with two antisemites in the U.S. House of Representatives, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie. We drove one out and she quit, and the other one we beat. Tucker Carlson has been expelled from the Republican Party. Antisemitism is on the decline in the Republican Party. It is on the rise in the Democratic Party.”
Fine, who is Jewish, has been scrutinized for past remarks regarding Muslims, including an X post in February that said: “If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.”
“The fact that not all Muslims are bad does not mean that no Muslims are bad,” Fine told reporters at the Republican Jewish Coalition conference last weekend. “People are unwilling to have that discussion, and if we don’t have it, we’re going to have real problems in this country.”
Vance was reportedly asked how Republicans should respond to right-wing podcasters who have been critical of Israel, including Carlson, Joe Rogan, Megyn Kelly, and Nick Fuentes, during his closed-press Republican Jewish Coalition panel.
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The vice president told his interviewer, former Minnesota Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, that Fuentes “really does hate Jews” before defending Rogan and ignoring Carlson.
Carlson has described Israel as “one of the most destructive countries in the world,” accused Israel of genocide in Gaza and the West Bank, and contended the U.S. has “no overriding strategic interest” in the country, arguing the alliance is a net “cost.”
