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January 25, 2026
Key Developments and What We're Discussing Today:
- The vetting questions the Harris campaign asked Josh Shapiro were appropriate national security questions. Unfortunately, some people thought the questions were antisemitic based on early reports that provided incomplete information.
- AIPAC launched misleading attacks against former (and future) member of Congress Tom Malinkowski (D-NJ).
- New Jersey should resist well-intentioned but misguided pressure to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) non-legally binding working definition of antisemitism.
- Please share the facts about Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss with your friends in Illinois. Biss is the frontrunner in a crowded Democratic primary to succeed outgoing Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), who recently endorsed Biss. Early voting starts next month.
- I don't know what I can tell you about ICE that you don't already know, but I can tell you that people are being executed by federal agents because Donald Trump is president and Republicans in Congress refuse to stand up to him. Voting Democratic is the only way to win back our country, and in the November elections, we will all have a choice to make. Organizations that support Republicans have made their choice. We must make ours.
If you can and if you want to, support my work by chipping in via credit card or PayPal, Venmo @Steven-Sheffey, or check. Thank you.
Greetings!
An adage attributed to various sources cautions us that "a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on."
With Republicans champing at the bit to find antisemitism anywhere they can in the Democratic Party and too many Democrats desperate to prove that they can call out their own side, some find the temptation to comment before getting the facts irresistible.
Last week, we learned that Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro wrote in his new book that during his vice presidential vetting process, the Harris campaign asked him if he had ever been an agent of the Israeli government. He wondered if JB Pritzker, another Jewish candidate who was vetted, was asked similar questions.
If that's all you know, and if you aren't familiar with how vetting works, these questions might sound bad.
But give the truth a chance to put its pants on. The questions asked of Shapiro were appropriate. In college, Shapiro said that he had been a volunteer in the Israeli army. In 2024, Shapiro walked that back and said he had engaged in service projects on an Israeli army base. (And for the record, Pritzker said he didn’t find the Harris campaign’s questions to be inappropriate when he was vetted.)
I asked Julie Zebrak, a former employment lawyer for the Departments of Justice and the Treasury, for her view (full disclosure: she was an active supporter of Kamala Harris's campaign, but her thoughts apply to anyone vetting a vice presidential candidate). This is what she told me via email:
"The term 'vetting' in this context is a term of art. Vetting is not a job interview or a background check. Vetting can be very personal and invasive, and it's meant to delve into whether the candidate is suitable for a national security job, whether the person has skeletons in their closet that would embarrass or jeopardize the office of the executive, and whether the candidate has anything to hide that would make the person susceptible to extortion or influence by a foreign government.
"When any 'normal' person applies to the federal government for a job which relates to national security or law enforcement (even lawyers and paralegals), it is typical to have a background investigator ask the applicant and the applicant's friends and neighbors whether they have foreign contacts, foreign affiliations, and whether the applicant could be loyal to another country. That kind of questioning is typical for regular jobs in the federal government that have a connection to law enforcement or national security (think jobs with the Department of Justice, the CIA, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Treasury, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, NASA, the National Security Agency, and Department of Defense jobs).
"My very first reaction when I saw the question was that this is a national security question. If Gov. Shapiro had volunteered in Israel and built some relationships there, it is perfectly normal to have follow-up questions up to and including the question of where his loyalties lie. Same with Gov.Walz on China.
"I am Jewish. Were I asked that same question, I would not blink an eye. I would understand exactly why it was being asked. I realize that the disconnect between a Washington insider who understands this stuff and the general public is significant, but I also believe that if this had been asked by lawyers for Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden, or otherwise, I would have the same reaction. This is not antisemitism. It happens to be that Israel was where he had foreign ties. That's it.
"I also believe this type of question should be asked of every vice presidential candidate when they have a particular history with a foreign country. That is the purpose of background investigations and vetting (e.g., see Putin and Trump). That is the responsible way to vet whether candidates have foreign ties that could impede their decision-making or information sharing with respect to their own country. We have long had spies in our country -- we don't want the Vice President or President as one of them!
"One more note for context -- The federal background investigation and polygraph process also sometimes delves into sexual relationships. If they asked Gov. Shapiro if he had affairs with women, with men, etc., they weren't assuming he was a philanderer or gay or bi or in the closet. They did it to determine what, if anything, he could be hiding that could create a vulnerability in his access to sensitive intelligence, defense, and law enforcement information. The concern with those sexual related questions, like the foreign connection ones, is that a candidate who harbored a big secret might be willing to take actions on behalf of a foreign government or bad actor in order to keep those secrets secret. Again, that is the purpose of the vetting process: To find where a person might have issues that make him likely to do things to protect his personal self against the interests of the U.S."
AIPAC is attacking former Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski. Malinowski is running in the Democratic primary for the congressional seat vacated by now-New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill. He is a strong friend of Israel, and he is critical of Netanyahu.
Last weekend, AIPAC's super PAC, United Democracy Project, began airing ads attacking Malinowski for voting in favor of a 2019 bipartisan border funding bill that included funds for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE).
Today, in 2026, Malinowski wants to "defund ICE's brutality." Malinowski called the ad "laughably preposterous," adding “I have many pro-Israel supporters in the district, including AIPAC members, who believe you can be passionately pro-Israel while being critical of Netanyahu. To say that they’re appalled by this ad would be an understatement. In fact, I’m reading a collective sense that AIPAC has lost its mind.”
J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami notes that "dumping massive sums into competitive Democratic primaries to take down thoughtful pro-Israel Democrats who don’t want to give a blank check to Bibi Netanyahu is not the way to build durable bipartisan support for Israel in the United States."
On Wednesday, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro endorsed Malinowski. Please urge your friends in NJ-11 to vote for Malinowski.
Speaking of New Jersey: Nearly 100 rabbis wrote an open letter urging New Jersey to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) non-legally binding working definition of antisemitism. In their letter, they left out the "non-legally binding" part. It is unclear if they have not read the definition or if they realized the absurdity of codifying into law a definition that by its own terms is "non-legally binding."
Their letter correctly points to surging antisemitism, which is a major problem. Their letter does not explain how adopting the IHRA definition would address the surge in antisemitism, other than one vague reference to training and education. The reality is that the IHRA definition is the wrong solution to a real problem.
Let the mudslinging begin: AIPAC has become an issue in Daniel Biss's race. Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss is the frontrunner in the crowded Illinois Ninth Congressional District Democratic primary to succeed retiring Rep. Jan Schakowsky. Schakowsky recently endorsed Biss, cementing his status as the leading candidate. Biss was previously endorsed by Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) and Rep. Bill Foster (D-IL). He is the only candidate with endorsements from members of the Illinois congressional delegation.
AIPAC, likely using its super PAC, is preparing ads targeting Biss.
I strongly urge you to read and share Biss's response to the mudslinging against him in this race, which could serve as a model for how candidates should respond to smear campaigns. You can see for yourself where he stands on Israel and where he stands on AIPAC.
The winner of the primary will win the general election. We cannot miss this chance to elect someone of Biss's caliber to Congress. Early voting starts next month.
Biss ordered Evanston police not to cooperate with ICE, got rid of license plate readers when he found out ICE was using them, has held “Know Your Rights” events to help the community defend itself, and was tear gassed protesting ICE raids.
Some candidates in this race have been successful, to varying degrees, in doing good work in government. Others have been in the streets resisting Trump’s authoritarianism. Biss is the only candidate in this race who has done both, and he’s done both better than any of the other candidates.
We need our best in Congress, and that includes Tom Malinowski and Daniel Biss.
About ICE. I don't know what I can tell you that you don't already know, so I'll leave you with this: Remember when our friends who voted for Trump told us not to worry about what he said because that's the way he talks? They thought he was some gruff old guy who talked crudely but got things done. He's getting things done. Exactly as he said he would.
None of this has to happen. It's happening because Trump is president and because Republicans in Congress either agree with Trump or are afraid to stand up to him. Never before has it been more important to vote the party, not the person. Some of you hate to hear that. You pride yourself on your "independence." I pride myself on supporting American democracy.
If you don't like certain Democratic policies or certain Democrats, I get that. But do you like democracy? Do you want to stop federal agents from executing people on the streets? I hope so. Restoring our democracy must be our first priority. If you're Jewish, you know too well how this movie ends if we lose our democracy and government violence becomes the norm.
Once we get our democracy back, then we can argue about the other stuff. None of the other stuff will matter if we don't get it back. You might not be a fascist if you vote Republican in 2026, but if you vote Republican in 2026, you are voting for fascism.
Voting Democratic in 2026 doesn't mean you are a Democrat or agree with Democrats on other policies. It means that you understand where today's Republican Party is taking us, and you don't want to go there.
We cannot compartmentalize this. Don't support any organization that supports any Republicans for any reason--if you do, in 2026, you are part of the problem. In the meantime, as Dan Pfeiffer explains, Democrats must block the ICE funding bill.
In Case You Missed It:
- Hamas has yet to return the remains of Sergeant Major Ran Gvili. We will not forget him or his family. Trump, who promised the Gvili family that he would bring Ran home, said last week that "we think we know" the location of his body.
- Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) led 74 bicameral colleagues in urging the Trump Administration to push back against Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli government’s efforts to annex the West Bank, which have accelerated in recent weeks.
- Israel Policy Forum Chief Policy Officer Michael Koplow explains that Trump's Greenland problem is also Israel's Greenland problem and that "if Trump and his team begin to pay as close attention to what is coming out of Israel as they do to the deliberations of the Nobel committee, Israeli officials may not like what comes next."
- Ashley Parker writes that "Trump Derangement Syndrome, in many ways, has been replaced by Trump Exhaustion Syndrome: The populace notes the latest indignity, and then returns to business as usual." Richard Goldwasser has the antidote to Trump Exhaustion Syndrome.
Tweets of the Week. Aaron Regunberg, Adam Carlson, and David/Dovid Bashevkin.
Thread of the Week. Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL).
Facebook Post of the Week. You don't have to agree with everything in this post about Israel (I don't) to understand that Shadi Hamid is correct about why those who protested against Israel's conduct in Gaza (and probably do agree with him on Israel) are not protesting against Iran.
Video Clip of the Week. Frank Sinatra and Don Rickles present an Oscar to Mel Brooks.
Vintage Music Clip of the Week. A prescient 1997 song from David Bowie.
The Fine Print. I read every reply to this newsletter. I reply as often as I can. All I ask is that you read the Fine Print before you reply or send me anything.
For those new to this newsletter. This is the newsletter even Republicans have to read and the original home of the viral and beloved Top Ten Signs You're At a Republican Seder (yes, I wrote it). If someone forwarded this newsletter to you, why not subscribe and get it in your inbox every Sunday? Just click here--it's free.
Be sure to read my posts on distinguishing anti-Zionism from antisemitism, how to heal the generational rift on Israel and antisemitism, and the IHRA definition of antisemitism.
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