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LAS VEGAS (JTA) — For Republican Jews searching for a substitute for Donald Trump in 2024’s presidential race, Ted Cruz offered a tantalizing selection on Saturday — not less than for a couple of minutes.
“Once I arrived within the Senate 10 years in the past, I set a objective to be the main defender of Israel in the US,” the Texas senator stated throughout his probability to handle the Republican Jewish Coalition convention final weekend.
The group packed right into a ballroom deep within the gold lame reaches of the Venetian on line casino advanced lapped it up in what a few of them confer with because the “kosher cattle name,” auditions for among the GOP’s greatest marketing campaign donors.
Cruz utilized his folksy bellow to phrases already rendered stale by the audio system who preceded him, making them appear contemporary. “Nancy Pelosi is out of a job,” he stated of the Democratic speaker of the U.S. Home of Representatives, eliciting extra cheers from a crowd relishing a fragile majority within the Home, one among few GOP wins throughout midterm elections earlier this month.
However the onetime constitutional lawyer misplaced the group when he requested everybody to take out their cell telephones and textual content a quantity related along with his podcast, “Verdict.” Because the murmurs graduated into grumbles it grew to become clear: A few third of the 800 or so individuals within the room had been Shabbat-observant Jews, taking texting off the desk for them.
Cruz by no means actually recovered his rapport with the viewers, which included deep-pocketed donors trying to decide a candidate and rally assist for her or him. That made his speech an excessive instance of the trajectory of nearly each tackle by potential presidential hopefuls on the RJC convention — pleasure tempered by two nagging questions: Does this candidate have what it takes to beat Trump, whose obsession with litigating the 2020 election helped gasoline this yr’s electoral losses? And is Trump inevitable whoever challenges him?
The previous president was on the middle of each presentation and of conversations within the corridors throughout breaks. On the stage, some of us named him, some didn’t, however — apart from Trump himself throughout a video tackle from his Florida residence — few did so enthusiastically.
Chris Christie, the previous New Jersey governor who was the primary of Trump’s major opponents in 2016 to drop out and endorse him, after which among the many first to repudiate him throughout his presidency, repeated the admonition he made a yr in the past to maneuver past Trump.
Say his title, Christie urged the group. “It’s time to cease whispering,” he stated. “It’s time to cease doing the figuring out nod, the ‘we will’t discuss.’ It’s time to cease being afraid of anybody individual. It’s time to arise for the ideas and the beliefs that we’ve got based this occasion on, this nation on.” He obtained huge cheers.
Trump was the primary candidate to announce for 2024, final week, and to date the one one. However others among the many half dozen or so likelys in Las Vegas had been clearly signaling a run. Nikki Haley, the previous ambassador to the United Nations who’s a star amongst right-wing pro-Israel teams for her successes on the United Nations in marginalizing the Palestinians, all however informed the group she was prepared.
“Lots of people have requested if I’m going to run for president,” Haley stated. “Now that the midterms are over I’ll have a look at it in a severe approach and I’ll have extra to say quickly.”
The most important cheers had been reserved for Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor who was a shiny spot for Republicans on Nov. 8, profitable reelection in a landslide. DeSantis listed his pro-Israel bona fides (boycotting Israel boycotters) and his tradition wars (taking up Disney after the corporate protested his “Mother and father Rights in Training” invoice, identified amongst its critics as “Don’t Say Homosexual”).
The group liked it. “The state of Florida is the place woke goes to die!” he stated to ecstatic cheers.
DeSantis didn’t as soon as point out Trump; the previous president has already focused him saying no matter success he has he owes to Trump’s endorsement of his 2018 gubernatorial bid and dubbing him “Ron DeSanctimonious.’
Getting the nickname was a transparent signal that DeSantis was a formidable opponent, stated Fred Zeidman, an RJC board member who has but to endorse a candidate. “It’s a badge of honor, in that Trump has recognized you as a reputable contender for the presidency,” he stated in an interview.
But even DeSantis was not a transparent Trump successor. The RJC often heads into campaign-year conferences with a transparent concept of which of its board members again which candidates, after which relays the phrase to Jewish Republicans whom to contact to hitch a potential marketing campaign.
That didn’t occur this yr, and Trump was the rationale. Jewish Republicans are nonetheless “buying” for candidates, Ari Fleischer, the previous George W. Bush administration spokesman who’s an RJC board member and who additionally has not endorsed a candidate, stated in a gaggle with reporters.
Trump was the elephant within the RJC room, Fleischer stated, utilizing the Hebrew phrase for the animal.
“Donald Trump is the pil within the room. There’s no query about it,” Fleischer stated proper after Trump spoke. “And he’s a former president. He has super energy and you might hear it and really feel it with this group, notably on coverage, notably on the substantive points that he was in a position to accomplish within the Center East. It resonates with many individuals.”
Trump had earned cheers throughout his speech as he reviewed the hard-right flip his administration took on Israel coverage, shifting the embassy to Jerusalem and quitting the Iran nuclear deal, amongst different measures.
“There are different individuals, they’re going to take a look at his fashion and have a look at issues he’s stated, and query if he’s too sizzling to deal with,” Fleischer continued.
Trump in his discuss at first caught to a forward-looking script however towards the top of it couldn’t resist repeating his lies about profitable the 2020 election. Requested by RJC chairman Norm Coleman how he would develop the Abraham Accords, the normalization agreements he brokered between Israel and 4 Arab nations, ought to he be reelected, Trump as an alternative bemoaned the election.
“Nicely, we had a really disgraceful election,” he stated. “We obtained many hundreds of thousands of votes greater than we had in 2016, as you all know, and the consequence was a shame for my part, absolute sham and a shame.”
It was one among many only-in-Vegas moments at an occasion that brings collectively disparate teams, together with younger secular Jews from college campuses gawking on the glitter, Orthodox Jews lurking at elevators ready for another person to push the button to allow them to get to their rooms, and Christian politicos and their staffers encountering an intensely Jewish surroundings for the primary time.
“Shabbat begins on Friday evening and ends on Saturday evening,” one younger staffer defined to a different as they contemplated a “Shabbat Bathroom” signal taped to a urinal. “However doesn’t it flush routinely anyway?” requested the opposite.
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, one other presumed 2020 hopeful, was the one speaker to decry violent assaults on Jews.
“Once I take into consideration my brothers and sisters within the Jewish neighborhood, in New York Metropolis being attacked on the streets of New York, it’s time to stand up on behalf of these residents,” he stated. “Stand up in opposition to these of us spreading antisemitism, hate and racism.” He was additionally the one speaker to reward a Democrat, Nevada Sen. Jacky Rosen, with whom he has launched an African-American Jewish coalition within the Senate.
A few contenders who’ve separated themselves from Trump stated his title out loud — however with disdain.
“Trump was saying that we’d be profitable a lot we’d get bored with profitable,” stated Larry Hogan, who’s ending a second time period because the governor of a Democratic state, Maryland, with excessive rankings. “Nicely, I’m sick and bored with our occasion dropping. This election final week, I’m much more sick and drained than I used to be earlier than. That is the third election in a row that we misplaced and will have received. I say three strikes and also you’re out.”
Former Vice President Mike Pence peppered his speech with fond references to Trump and his refusal to heed skilled personnel who endorsed an even-handed Center East coverage, a transfer that Pence and the RJC each imagine paid off.
But Pence additionally appeared to sentence Trump’s boldest rejection of norms, his effort to overturn his 2020 loss, which spurred an rebel on the U.S. Capitol wherein Pence’s life was threatened. “The American individuals should know that our occasion retains our oath to the Structure even when political expediency could counsel that we do in any other case,” Pence stated.
One contradiction for these in attendance was the eager for Trump’s combativeness whereas desirous to shuck themselves of Trump’s baggage.
Typical was Alan Kruglak, a Maryland safety programs contractor who stated he appreciated the pro-business measures Hogan had launched in his state however was extra eager about a fighter like DeSantis.
“Trump did nice issues, however I believe Trump’s previous his time, we’d like youthful blood that’s much less controversial,” stated Kruglak, 68. “Trump wants at hand the baton to someone youthful, and who doesn’t have any baggage related to them however has the identical message of being unbiased.”
The issue is that insiders stated Trump nonetheless instructions the loyalty of about 30% of the occasion, and that could possibly be insurmountable in a crowded major.
Trump, Fleischer stated, was inevitable as a finalist however he didn’t must be inevitable because the nominee.
“If there’s 5, six, seven actual conservative outsider candidates, Donald Trump will win with a plurality as a result of no one else will come shut,” he stated. “If there’s just one or two, it’s a good struggle.”
Who would these one or two be? Fleischer wouldn’t say. Among the many Republican Jews gathered in Las Vegas, nobody would.
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