GOP NY governor candidate says fellow Jewish politician Lander would have helped Nazis

Bruce Blakeman, the Republican nominee for governor of New York, has said fellow Jewish politician Brad Lander, an ally of New York City’s anti-Israel Mayor Zohran Mamdani, would have collaborated with the Nazis during the Holocaust.

“He’s anti-American, he is antisemitic, even though he’s Jewish,” Bruce Blakeman said of Lander in an interview with right-wing network Newsmax on Wednesday. “This guy would be a camp guard in a concentration camp if he could. He’s a disaster. He’s terrible.”

Blakeman largely stood by his comments on Thursday, saying in a statement to NBC News that “maybe camp guard was too strong, but certainly collaborator as Brad Lander turned his back on the Jewish community when he locked arms with the extremists who want to wipe Israel off the map.”

Lander, who ousted US Congressman Dan Goldman, a Jewish centrist, in the Democratic primary this week, slammed Blakeman’s comments.

“I don’t know where Bruce Blakeman went to Hebrew school, but I was taught that ‘Never Again!’ means never again to anyone,” Lander said in a statement quoted by NBC. “Standing up for Palestinian human rights doesn’t make me any less proud to be Jewish, or any less serious about fighting antisemitism.”

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He added that voters “will resoundingly reject Blakeman’s far-right MAGA bigotry this November.”

Republican nominee for New York Governor Bruce Blakeman calls Brad Lander “anti-semitic”, says Lander “would’ve been a camp guard in a concentration camp if he could”

Source: Newsmax pic.twitter.com/SFRHuxvdLs

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Blakeman, who has the endorsement of US President Donald Trump, is trailing the Democratic incumbent Kathy Hochul by double digits in polls ahead of the general election.

Hochul herself called Blakeman’s comments about Lander “absolutely despicable.”

“Every single time Bruce Blakeman opens up his mouth, he’s simply auditioning for his next role in the Trump administration after he loses the election,” Hochul told reporters on Thursday. “What he did, and doubling down on his disgusting remarks, disqualifies him from public office.”

Lander, the former New York City comptroller, was one of three Mamdani-backed candidates who won Democratic primaries in deep-blue districts in the city, and are expected to enter the US Congress next year.

The sweep represented a major win for Mamdani, who flouted Democratic leadership by promoting his own slate of candidates.

While the other two candidates are avowedly anti-Zionist — with one of them having celebrated the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023 — Lander identifies as a “liberal Zionist,” but has also harshly criticized Israel and accused it of genocide in Gaza, which Israel forcefully denies.

Lander resigned as comptroller — the second-highest elected office in New York City — to run for mayor last year, but ultimately dropped out and backed Mamdani ahead of the leftist’s upset victory.

Luke Tress contributed to this report.