Six months ago President Biden nominated the scholar and historian Deborah Lipstadt to the position of Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism. Although her credentials for this position seem impeccable, people in Trump’s party have a problem with confirming her. Senator Ron Johnson from Wisconsin, a racist, lie-embracing asshole, based on his public pronouncements, took offense at Lipstadt’s frank appraisal of his racism.

In March 2021, Lipstadt tweeted an article about a statement by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who said he would have been more concerned by the Jan. 6, 2021, mayhem at the Capitol if the rioters had been “Black Lives Matter and antifa protesters” instead of Trump supporters. Lipstadt tweeted: “This is white supremacy/nationalism. Pure and simple.”

During Tuesday’s hearing, Johnson said Lipstadt engaged in “malicious poison” when she criticized his comments. She said her comments were not nuanced and she would not do diplomacy by tweets. She said that while she disagreed with what Johnson said, she was sorry if it seemed like a personal attack. She noted she has criticized Democrats as well, describing herself as “an equal-opportunity foe of antisemitism.”

From today’s Washington Post

So yes, racists and antisemites of all stripes tend to be very sensitive about the people they hate calling their motives into question. “Malicious Poison, Jew, to call me a fucking racist just because I’m more comfortable with a violent mob of my own people than a horde of savage others!”

Understandable, of course, to take that stance. We all want to believe that we behave according to a moral code. The Nazis had a moral code, Donald Trump has a moral code. For some reason, hard to explain, Trump never put anybody in this Special Envoy position during his chaotic four years as the most important person in the world. Hmmmm…

If approved by the Senate, Lipstadt will have the rank of ambassador, unlike her predecessors. She would oversee the State Department’s Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, which was created by the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004 under President George W. Bush. The position of envoy was mostly vacant during President Donald Trump’s term

Very fine people, on both sides, on both sides!