A Democratic congressional candidate for a battleground House district deleted a Twitter post about Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) meeting with Hasidic Jews on Wednesday, after members of his party slammed it as anti-Semitic and "disgusting."
Mondaire Jones, a former House member who is running for New York’s highly competitive 17th district seat—which has one of the largest Jewish populations in the country—posted a photo of McCarthy meeting with Hasidic Jewish leaders, with the caption: "Well this was a waste of everyone’s time." The post was in response to McCarthy getting ousted as House speaker.
Jones’s comment drew swift criticism on Twitter, including from members of his own party.
"This disgusting post is insulting to Jewish people and every person of faith," Josh Gottheimer (D., N.J.) said.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D., Fla.) responded to Jones, "I doubt your choice of religion to highlight here was coincidental."
Jones, who is running for a Republican-held seat that Democrats view as a major potential pickup, deleted his post and denied that it was intended as an attack on religious Jews.
"My point was to communicate that Kevin McCarthy, and by extension Mike Lawler, cannot possibly deliver for communities in Rockland because he’s no longer speaker," he wrote.
"Regrettably, I did not make this point clear enough, and so I have deleted the tweet. I am proud of my record of combating antisemitism in Congress," he added.
In response, Gottheimer and Moskowitz also deleted their criticism of Jones.
Jones, who was first elected to Congress in 2021, left office last year after his district lines were redrawn. He is currently running for a seat which is now held by Republican representative Mike Lawler.
During his career, Jones built a reputation as a far-left politician, backing the "defund the police" movement and allying with "squad" members such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) and Jamaal Bowman (D., N.Y.).
He’s now trying to reframe himself as a moderate in the competitive House race. Jones recently filmed a campaign ad that showed him shaking hands with a local police chief, and he played up his "great relationship with AIPAC" in an interview with New York magazine.