Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) is in the middle of a brutal primary fight, and a fellow New York Democrat looks like he is on the cusp of endorsing the “Squad” member’s opponent.
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), a fiercely pro-Israel member of Congress, got into a spat with Bowman over the weekend after the Israel critic questioned the sincerity of Torres’s support for the Jewish state. Torres was quick to hit back at Bowman, poking fun at the lawmaker’s stunt of pulling a fire alarm in the Capitol while on his way to a vote that would prevent a government shutdown last September.
“As for Jamaal Bowman, I care as much about his opinion on me as I do about his opinion on how to properly pull a fire alarm or his opinion on how to remain in Congress,” Torres told the New York Post. “His opinion is worse than a rubber stamp — it leaves no impression, much like his legislative record or his recent attendance record.”
Bowman said on the Night School podcast hosted by Marc Lamont Hill that Torres only stands in support of Israel because of the “power of the Israel lobby.”
“Ritchie is very calculating in this way. … Ritchie — he just seems to be always plotting, always calculating something,” Bowman said.
Bowman’s attack on Torres, a two-term representative of the Bronx, appeared unprovoked as the neighboring representative had steered clear of weighing in on Bowman’s contest.
But in the middle of the episode, Hill asked Bowman to comment on why Torres falls in line with Bowman on every matter except for when it comes to Israel.
“How can someone be so progressive on so many issues and not see the injustice going on in Palestine in the same way?” Hill asked.
Hill made the comment that Torres “tweets to Netanyahu like he is Netanyahu’s long lost cousin.”
“So if I was doing that when I first got in, my bank account first of all would be flushed,” Bowman said.
Bowman’s criticisms of Israel as it wages war with Hamas have put him in a vulnerable position with the large contingent of Jewish supporters in his district.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, an influential pro-Israel PAC, has spent millions of dollars attacking Bowman, helping give Westchester County Executive George Latimer a boost in his challenge to unseat the two-term congressman. Bowman is trailing Latimer by 17 points, according to a recent poll.
Prior to serving as U.S. representative for the Bronx, Torres was a New York City Council member for 10 years. He noted his public support for Israel dates back to 2015, when he took a trip there.
He said one of the reasons he didn’t join the “Squad” after being elected in 2020 was he believed that some of the members’ support for the BDS movement was antisemitic.
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“I have a general rule of not weighing in against a congressional Democrat who has not weighed in against me,” Torres said. “But Bowman’s gratuitous attack on my character might cause me to rethink that rule.”
New York’s primary will be on June 25.
