Rep. Jason Lewis (R-MN) was defeated after just one term in 2018, losing to Democratic-Farmer-Labor candidate Angie Craig. And a big part of that loss is due to his history of appalling remarks on his former right-wing talk radio show as "America's Mr. Right." He complained to listeners that single women are "ignorant of the important issues in life," compared progressive income taxes and same-sex marriage to slavery, and lamented that it is no longer socially acceptable to call women "sluts."
This summer, Lewis announced he would be mounting a Senate campaign against Tina Smith. But his radio show comments are still haunting him — and he's not happy about it.
According to the Minneapolis City Pages, Lewis is complaining that it is a "worn-out playbook" to criticize him for comments unearthed by CNN last week, in which he said that "blind loyalty towards Israel [was] the linchpin of being a good Republican,” due to the "very strong American Jewish lobby."
“Is this nation controlled by a Jewish cabal? The Jewish banker theory? Of course not,” said Lewis. “Is the Republican Party, however, unduly influenced by AIPAC and the Israeli lobby? Of course they are. The neoconservatives in the Republican Party from John Bolton on down view Israel as a 51st state.” He went on to call Bolton a "dual citizen" of America and Israel (even though he is not a dual citizen and is not even Jewish.)
Lewis has insisted that his voting record proves him to be an ally of Israel, and that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who faced blowback of her own for a poorly-worded criticism of Israeli lobbying, is the one with "genuinely anti-Israel views."
