CNN Anchor Sounds the Alarm On New Ad Highlighting Doug Emhoff’s Jewish Faith

CNN anchor Dana Bash sounded the alarm on a new GOP-linked ad running in Michigan that appears to praise Doug Emhoff for his Jewish faith, but is actually an ad devised to erode support for his wife Kamala Harris in the key swing state.

“Want to change subjects for a second and talk about something that is going on out there with Doug Emhoff. And specifically, there is an outside group, a PAC, that is running an ad that may seem on its face like it’s rah rah, let’s support Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff, because it would be history-making, not just because of her, but because he would be the first Jewish first spouse. Watch this and we’ll explain what it really means on the other end,” Bash said on her Friday show.

She then played the ad in which the narrator said, “Joining Kamala will be her husband and top adviser, Doug Emhoff, who would be the first Jewish presidential spouse ever. Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff making history. Standing up for what’s right, supporting Israel.”

“Now, I want to ask you about this, Heidi, because you are from Dearborn, Michigan. This is being run in Michigan where the Republicans are trying to make mischief and try to play this, not because they’re trying to appeal to people and say, please support Doug Emhoff because of this wonderful history that he would be the first Jewish first spouse, but to the very large, perhaps Arab-American vote and electorate to say, do you really want this guy in the White House?” Bash asked panelist Heidi Przybyla.

“We have a massive Middle Eastern population in Dearborn, probably the biggest in the entire country, and it is already primed in that there are a lot of Arab-Americans who are upset about Biden’s handling of the war in Israel. They are primed in the sense that they tend to be kind of culturally conservative,” Przybyla replied, adding:

That’s like the history. And a lot of them were Republicans before the Iraq war, after the war, after Trump’s Muslim ban, not so much. All you have to do is is get them to stay home. It’s not about necessarily winning the votes over for Trump, but if you get them to stay home, go back to 2016, for instance. One of the last stops Hillary Clinton made on her campaign was Michigan, because they thought they had it. But then the numbers went sideways.

It wasn’t necessarily Arab-Americans at that time, but we do know is that it can be very fluid. And so this is extremely strategic. And as Isaac said, if this is what they’re doing now, just wait for the next few weeks in terms of targeting that population, which they.

Later in the discussion, the panel denounced the ad as pushing anti-Semitic tropes by equating American Jews generally with Israeli policies. The New York Times also dubbed the ad anti-Semitic.

Watch the clip above via CNN.