Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) ripped a caller to C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” on Wednesday who suggested Cardin’s Jewish faith poses a conflict of interest with his duties as a U.S. senator.
“I’m normally pretty tolerant to people who ask questions, but I’m not to your assumption,” said Cardin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“I take great offense to that. Our loyalty is to America, our concerns are with America, our religion is our personal business and should have nothing to do with an evaluation from anyone as to our objectivity on issues concerning America,” he said.
{mosads}The call came at the beginning of Cardin’s segment, which was focused on the nuclear deal with Iran announced on Tuesday.
“Mr. Cardin looks like a regular white guy, nice guy, but in actuality he’s a Jewish white guy,” said the caller, identified as Eric from Georgia. “If the public was informed of that by C-SPAN, I think they would take his comments differently.”
Cardin asked the viewer to look at his political record, and said his record of U.S. loyalty speaks for itself.
The Anti-Defamation League has noted that Jewish politicians have long faced accusations of anti-Semitic accusations of mixed loyalties.
Just last month, Diane Rehm, a nationally syndicated radio show host, incorrectly stated, in a question to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), that he had dual citizenship with the United States and Israel.
Sanders took offense to the question, and Rehm apologized for the incident.