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The Anti-Defamation League’s politically risky gambit of cozying up to the MAGA movement may have just hit a brick wall.
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt has engendered palpable scorn toward his organization as it has appeared to become more MAGA-friendly — particularly in recent years. He has faced fierce rebukes from liberals for what has seemed like an eagerness to condemn leftists — especially, critics of Israel — while offering relatively meek critiques of Trump-aligned officials accused of antisemitism. And yet, many in the MAGA movement have remained skeptical of the ADL because of its past pinpointing of hatemongers in their ranks.
That’s the context for the organization’s latest bow to conservatives — a move that seems not to have engendered much love from the Trump administration, at least. On Monday, the organization announced that it was deleting its “glossary of extremism” after right-wingers — including Elon Musk, who has labeled the ADL a “hate group” — threw a tantrum over the glossary’s inclusion of Charlie Kirk-founded Turning Point USA.
Nonetheless, FBI Director Kash Patel announced Wednesday that his agency will no longer partner with the ADL, which had worked with the FBI since at least the 1940s.
Patel didn’t mention TPUSA in his announcement on X — but he did bring up former FBI Director James Comey, who has been indicted by Trump’s DOJ, saying he wrote “love letters” to the ADL, “embedded FBI agents with them” and “ran disgraceful ops spying on Americans.” Patel didn’t provide any evidence.
USA Today offered some context for the love letters thing:
In 2014, in a self-described “love letter” to the league, Comey praised its work on a variety of issues, including anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim prejudice, and terrorist threats.
“Most of the time, domestic extremists are careful to keep their actions within the bounds of constitutionally protected activity,” Comey said while speaking at the league’s National Leadership Summit in Washington, DC, that year.
“You help us police that line. You know all too well that in a heartbeat, hateful speech can become violent, even deadly. Hate becomes hate crime,” he added.
Patel told Fox News that the FBI “formally rejects Comey’s policies and any partnership with the ADL.”
The ADL’s statement in response wasn’t written with the forceful tone one might expect from an ostensibly anti-hate group that has been officially ostracized by the federal government:
“As we prepare to observe the holiest day of the year on the Jewish calendar, we have seen the statement from FBI Director Kash Patel regarding the FBI’s relationship with the ADL.
ADL has deep respect for the federal bureau of investigation and law enforcement officers at all levels across the country who work tirelessly every single day to protect all Americans regardless of their ancestry, religion, ethnicity, faith, political affiliation or any other point of difference.
In light of an unprecedented surge of antisemitism, we remain more committed than ever to our core purpose to protect the Jewish people.
Sounds like the ADL is still trying to make nice with MAGA world. Thus far, the feeling doesn’t seem mutual.