The Candidate and His Defenders Try to Say He ‘Misspoke,’ but he’s Held Same Views for Entire Campaign
Valatie, NY — In a debate hosted by WAMC and WNYT, Antonio Delgado proclaimed that Israel is not a Jewish Democracy. The next night at a debate hosted by Spectrum, Antonio Delgado attempted to walk back his comments following push back. However, contrary to what candidate Delgado says now, in February he also espoused the same anti-Israel position.
Delgado said, “Israel, cannot be a Jewish Democratic state as currently constructed.” (New York Post, 10/24/2018)
The series of statements raise a red flag about Delgado’s position regarding our closest ally in the Middle East, especially due to his enthusiastic support of the dangerous Iran Deal, and his opposition to the recent decision to move the American Embassy to Jerusalem (1:40:10)
“Antonio Delgado is feeling the pressure to walk back his comments and now wants to blame it on ‘misspeaking,’ ” said Joe Gierut, communications director for the Faso campaign.
“However, he not only doubled down on in it when challenged in the WAMC debate, he’s been saying the same thing as far back as February Primary debates (1:40:10). Mr. Delgado did not misspeak in the slightest – his belief is Israel is not a Jewish democracy. It is also another example of Mr. Delgado trying to deliberately mislead voters in the 19th District about his radical left, progressive opposition to the Jewish State.
Background
“Democrat Antonio Delgado, who is trying to unseat GOP Rep. John Faso in one of the nation’s closest contests for the House, said during a debate Monday that Israel “is not a Jewish democracy” because of its settlements in disputed territories.” (New York Post, 10/23/18)
“As currently constructed, you know, Israel is not a Jewish democracy. Those settlements make it so that it can’t be.” (New York Post, 10/23/18)
Even after given a chance to clean up his remarks in the moment “Delgado stood by his statement during a brief rebuttal”
“I said it is not a Jewish democracy. Meaning that given the fact that we have settlements currently in the region, it is not deemed a nation of Jewish democracy until we deal with the settlements. Until we deal with the settlements we will have that issue,” he said.” (New York Post, 10/23/18)