Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) escalated a simmering controversy on Thursday by responding to a critical column with a public embrace of several figures widely condemned for anti-Semitic rhetoric and extremist associations.
The dispute began with a column by conservative writer James Kirchick, who faulted Khanna for reversals on Israel policy, his shifting stance in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary, and what he portrayed as opportunistic grandstanding over the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. According to Mediaite, Kirchick argued that Khanna has apparently decided that exploiting the Epstein scandal, facts and propriety be damned, is the way to remedy that obscurity, and branded the California Democrat a man whose lust for power is unseemly even by Washington standards.
Khanna fired back in a lengthy thread on X, offering indignation rather than a detailed rebuttal of the specific charges. ?@jkirchick? does a hit piece on me for standing up to the Epstein Class. His real beef with me has been that I have called what happened in Gaza a genocide. I welcome the hatred of Netanyahu apologists, he wrote, casting himself as a victim of pro-Israel critics rather than addressing concerns about his record.
From there, the congressmans rhetoric grew more combative, particularly in a heated exchange with Commentary editor John Podhoretz, a prominent Jewish-American journalist. You cheerled us into the war in Iraq. You called Pat Buchanan antisemitic for criticizing Israels bombing of Lebanon in 2006. You are one of the loudest supporters for Netanyahus war in Gaza. Your neocon ideology has done so much damage to America and people are on to it, Khanna charged, effectively equating mainstream conservative foreign policy with moral culpability for global conflict.
Khannas invocation of Pat Buchanan is striking, given Buchanans long and controversial history on Jewish issues. Buchanan, a former Republican presidential candidate and fixture of the old-guard right, has been repeatedly criticized for rhetoric that even conservative icons such as William F. Buckley Jr. and Tucker Carlson concluded crossed into anti-Semitism.
The congressman then moved from attacking critics to aligning himself with some of the most radical voices on the left. After Third Ways Lily Cohen said she wanted to see more Dems calling out antisemitism on their own side with the same fervor that Republicans such as Sen. Ted Cruz have shown in policing their ranks, Khanna responded by declaring, I am proud to stand with @grahamformaine @ZohranKMamdani & join @hasanthehun feed.
He followed that with a sweeping denunciation of his own partys more traditional foreign policy wing. The problem is with the neocons in our party who blundered into Iraq, 20 years in Afghanistan, Libya, Gaza, & now support the Iran war. Out with the old guard. We need a new moral direction, he wrote, signaling a desire to purge Democrats who supported interventions that, in many cases, enjoyed bipartisan backing at the time.
Khannas endorsement of Graham Platner, a Democrat running for Senate in Maine, is particularly jarring in light of Platners past. Platner only recently covered up a large Nazi tattoo on his chest and has admitted he is a longtime fan of Nate Cornacchia, an anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist whose views are far outside the American mainstream.
Equally troubling is Khannas enthusiasm for appearing on the program of far-left streamer Hasan Piker, known online as @hasanthehun. Piker has downplayed Hamass October 7 massacre of Israeli civilians, described Orthodox Jews as inbred, likened Zionists to Nazis, and notoriously celebrated the 9/11 terror attacks in which nearly 3,000 Americans were murdered.
Kirchick, for his part, framed Khannas behavior as part of a broader pattern of reckless demagoguery. It was once easy to dismiss Khanna as just another overly ambitious politician. But his recklessness concerning the Epstein affair fomenting a moral panic the likes of which this country hasnt seen since the 1980s child sexual abuse hysteria crosses a line, he wrote, warning that the congressmans tactics reflect a deeper disregard for truth and restraint.
Desperate for attention and willing to engage in the lowest forms of demagoguery to achieve it, Khanna once might have been deemed unfit for public office, but these days, theres no telling how far he could go, Kirchick concluded, capturing a concern that extends beyond partisan skirmishing. For conservatives and many centrists, Khannas willingness to align with figures tainted by anti-Semitism and to vilify neocons in sweeping, conspiratorial terms underscores a dangerous trend in progressive politics: the normalization of extremist allies so long as they share the lefts hostility to Israel, traditional American leadership abroad, and the moral clarity that once united both parties against terrorism and bigotry.
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