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Paul Ryan Discovers Jewish Roots, Experiences First Instance of Anti-Semitism, Courtesy of Ann Coulter

Coulter has long winked at anti-Semites. This week, she openly joined them.

by
Yair Rosenberg
August 03, 2018
Joshua Blanchard/Getty Images
Ann Coulter (L) and Ana Kasparian at 'Ann Coulter vs. Ana Kasparian' panel during Politicon at Pasadena Convention Center on July 29, 2017 in Pasadena, California.Joshua Blanchard/Getty Images
Joshua Blanchard/Getty Images
Ann Coulter (L) and Ana Kasparian at 'Ann Coulter vs. Ana Kasparian' panel during Politicon at Pasadena Convention Center on July 29, 2017 in Pasadena, California.Joshua Blanchard/Getty Images

Last month, retiring Speaker of the House Paul Ryan discovered that he had Jewish ancestry. The revelation came as part of Ryan’s participation in the PBS program “Finding Your Roots,” hosted by Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. “You could have knocked him over with a feather and then he was very proud of it,” said Gates at a recent press tour in Los Angeles. Though the show begins airing in January, the news leaked this week.

Guess I need to start saying “L’Chaim” now, too! pic.twitter.com/JV8tVPeBto



— Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) August 1, 2018

Reactions varied widely. Some Jews, like former Romney adviser Dan Senor, welcomed Ryan to the fold. Others, like actor and writer Mara Wilson, were less enthusiastic. Stephen Colbert joked, “Haven’t the Jewish people suffered enough?” And then there was the far-right bigot Ann Coulter, who decided to use the occasion to introduce Ryan to another aspect of the Jewish experience: anti-Semitism.

Coulter has long been a harsh critic of Ryan, to the extent that she publicly supported his white-supremacist challenger Paul Nehlen in 2016. (Ryan trounced him by 70 points, and Nehlen went on to be banned from Twitter for repeated effusions of anti-Semitism and racism.)

Was Paul Ryan ever this mad when an American was murdered by an illegal? Will someone please primary that guy? GO @pnehlen!



— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) June 7, 2016

Wisconsin, please dump Paul Ryan tomorrow! It will be historic. In 2010, only 4 of more than 390 House members lost in primaries.



— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) August 9, 2016

Coulter’s enthusiastic campaigning for an enthusiastic racist, as well as some of her other creepy tweets about Israel and Jews in 2016, suggested she likely harbored anti-Jewish animus. This week, she made it official. Responding to the news that her nemesis Ryan was, in fact, partly Jewish, Coulter sarcastically tweeted, “Another reason to love him!” It’s funny, you see, because to her and her audience, being Jewish is a bad thing.

Another reason to love him! https://t.co/Om3jERqr1k



— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) August 1, 2018

This is far from the first hateful thing Coulter has said about a minority group, and it won’t be the last. But it’s a reminder that every news channel that interviews her, every venue that hosts her, and every bookstore that sells her writings, is actively abetting and promoting an anti-Semite. Judge accordingly.

Yair Rosenberg is a senior writer at Tablet. Subscribe to his newsletter, listen to his music, and follow him on Twitter and Facebook.