During a Wednesday evening broadcast, Newsmax host Grant Stinchfield caused an uproar after he called Israel the “home country” of American Jews. By Thursday morning, Eric Bolling posted on Twitter he would be filling in on Stinchfield’s primetime shows for the remainder of the week, The Wrap [1] reports.
Morning friends and family..
I’ll be hosting @newsmax [2] 8pET shows tonight (Thursday) and Tomorrow (Friday)“Stinchfield” and then again Saturday, 5p-7pET “The Count”, their week in review show.
Send me your thoughts, comments, concerns, missives, etc. pic.twitter.com/HURIgM9MlF [3]— 🇺🇸ERIC BOLLING🇺🇸 (@ericbolling) May 13, 2021 [4]
The Wrap tried to contact reps. for Newsmax and Stinchfield, but offered no comment on Stinchfield’s comments as of press time. In the meantime, Stinchfield’s remarks have been widely condemned.
“If you are Jewish and you are a Democrat and you are living in America today, how do you support an administration its’ back on your home country?” Stinchfield asked during the Wednesday broadcast.
Okay, so…did Stinchfield get an F in world history? Was he absent while it was being taught in high school? Does he not understand that many Jewish folks hail from somewhere in Europe? And that for a Jewish person born in the U.S., America is their home country?
I mean really, I thought only Fox News anchors were this dense.
Understandably, the tweet caught fire on Twitter, with many well-known Jewish media personalities upbraiding Stinchfield for reinforcing the false and demonstrably anti-Semitic trope of “dual loyalty.” [5]
“I don’t belong to any political party but I am Jewish and newsflash: my home country is the United States. To suggest otherwise is bigotry,” tweeted CNN’s Jake Tapper.
I don’t belong to any political party but I am Jewish and newsflash: my home country is the United States. To suggest otherwise is bigotry. https://t.co/v9pv0LvGo2 [6]
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) May 13, 2021 [7]
Molly Jong-Fast, editor-at-large for The Daily Beast put it succinctly:
“My ‘home country’ is America,” she wrote.
My "home country" is America. https://t.co/uvjrzcuY2z [8]
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) May 13, 2021 [9]
“Jew here. Care deeply about Israel. My wife was born there. Israel isn’t my home country. 100 percent American,” wrote Talking Points Memo founder Josh Marshall.
Jew here. Care deeply about Israel. My wife was born there. Israel isn't my home country. 100% American.
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) May 13, 2021 [10]
“The United States is the ‘home country’ for American Jews. The suggestion that Jews owe their fealty to a nation other than the one they live in is a vile centuries-old anti-Semitic slur” noted Big Bang Theory producer Bill Prady. Newsmax is “promoting anti-Semitism,” he added.
“Home country”?
The United States is the “home country” for American Jews. The suggestion that Jews owe their fealty to a nation other than the one they live in is a vile centuries-old antisemitic slur. @newsmax [2] is promoting antisemitism. https://t.co/Fd1qTcnSTQ [11]
— Bill Prady (@billprady) May 13, 2021 [12]
And at least one user had distinct criticism for Israel’s continuing torment of its Palestinian people.
“For many Jews, not only is Israel *very strictly* not our home country, but any country we might call ‘home’ is either the site of recent existential violence against us or continued settler colonialism that we have created and/or abetted,” wrote Judd Greenberg, in reference to the conflict in the region that drew Stinchfield’s remarks, to begin with.
For many Jews, not only is Israel *very distinctly not* our "home country", but any country we might call "home" is either the site of recent existential violence against us or continued settler colonialism that we have created and/or abetted. https://t.co/Bm0TTMLDrr [13]
— Judd Greenstein (@juddgreenstein) May 13, 2021 [14]
At least one Twitter user found humor in the situation.
Grant Stinchfield is a Catholic. Does he consider Vatican City to be his “home country”?
Stinchfield is also the guy who said on air on April 29 that the dandelion President Biden picked and gave to his wife Jill while walking on the Ellipse was “was a planted dandelion there.” https://t.co/hJpVgefvRT [15]
— Stephen Schwartz (@AtomicAnalyst) May 13, 2021 [16]
Others called out Stinchfield’s comments for what they are.
Your daily dose of disgusting antisemitism https://t.co/WbVeWs9OH8 [17]
— Asher Schechter (@AsherSchechter) May 13, 2021 [18]
There’s a word for people who think Israel is my home country: anti-Semites. https://t.co/Bjaf0wOkfd [19]
— James Gleick (@JamesGleick) May 13, 2021 [20]
I don’t know if Stinchfield will learn anything from this, considering his place of work. Newsmax is notoriously right-wing and has failed at least 10 fact checks conducted by MediaBias/FactCheck [21], including one [22] that was labeled “Pants On Fire.” [23]
Newsmax and people like Stinchfield rarely strive for credibility. Anyone capable of thinking critically already understands this. However, this is something definitely lost on Trump supporters and far too many other right-wingers.