Report: 2 Sanders Staffers Linked to Anti-Semitism Scandal

Two top advisers to Sen. Bernie Sanders were criticized several years ago for their involvement in an anti-Semitism scandal involving a Washington, D.C think tank, The Washington Free Beacon is reporting.

Sanders’ foreign policy adviser Matt Duss and his 2020 campaign manager Faiz Shakir had faced allegations of promoting anti-Semitic conspiracy theories while at the Center for American Progress (CAP), according to the Free Beacon.

The website said that during their time at CAP the two emerged at the forefront of the scandal. Duss was CAP’s Middle East director, and Shakir was editor-in-chief of the group’s Think Progress blog in 2012.

The Free Beacon said several Think Progress bloggers accused pro-Israel Jews and members of Congress of being “Israel firsters.” The term suggests those supporting the Jewish state have dual loyalties.

Shakir later said in an internal email that his staffers used “terrible, anti-Semitic language” when they used the “Israel firster” phrase.

The Free Beacon said Duss at the time declined to condemn the anti-Semitic language. But he did pen articles for the organization.

And The Jerusalem Post had said the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Anti-Defamation League termed anti-Israeli rhetoric of Duss and others to be infected with Jew-hatred and discriminatory policy positions toward Israel.

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