Shapiro says Harris' vetting team asked whether he was 'an agent of the Israeli government'

[question everything]

A number of forces on the left questioned Josh Shapiro’s ties to Israel during Kamala Harris’ rushed running mate selection process in 2024. In his new memoir out next week, the Pennsylvania governor says the former vice president and her vetting team were among them.

So much so, Shapiro writes in a copy obtained by CNN, that Dana Remus, a former White House counsel under President Joe Biden who became a senior member of Harris’ VP vetting team, asked him, “Have you ever been an agent of the Israeli government?”

“Was she kidding?” Shapiro writes. “I told her how offensive the question was.”. “‘Well, we have to ask,’” Remus, a former White House counsel under President Joe Biden, said, according to his book. “‘We just wanted to check.’ She added: ‘Have you ever communicated with an undercover agent of Israel?’”

Shapiro’s anger was clearly rising.

Shapiro, an observant Jew and a proud Zionist, was critical of some protests proliferating on college campuses as tensions rose following Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack and the Israeli military’s response, warning that some of those demonstrations seemed to tip into antisemitism. Despite his condemnation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, some voices on the left called him “Genocide Josh,” which they didn’t do with other politicians.

Shapiro spent time in high school working on an Israeli kibbutz and as a volunteer on an Israeli army base. He also wrote an op-ed in college saying Palestinians “do not have the capabilities to establish their own homeland and make it successful even with the aid of Israel and the United States,” and had a brief stint in the Israeli Embassy’s public affairs division at the beginning of his career.

https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/18/politics/josh-shapiro-book-kamala-harris-israel

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Have they questioned Doug Emhoff?

[unblock]

1. What does he think vetting is?

As a Jew I have no problem with aggressive vetting, which necessarily involves asking questions that would be most inappropriate in other circumstances.

Political opponents and talking heads and so on had no basis to pursue that line of inquiry and there it was certainly offensively. But in private when vetting a candidate to rule out potential scandals? They needed to know if there was even a photo or him near an Israeli agent, if his second cousin is married to an Israeli agent, whatever. Because anything like that would become an issue for the campaign.


I would expect them to ask other questions as well that would otherwise be inappropriate such as asking about drug use, gambling, sex life, dating app use, any accusation of impropriety, etc.

And I would expect them to ask such question about the candidate to friends and family as well.

Which is pretty much the process I went through to get a security clearance. It's a highly intrusive process.

[lostincalifornia]

2. It is offensive, and it is no surprise this was coming from the left, who I have no doubt would not ask that of any Arab

American or American Muslim being vetted if they were agents of Hamas.

Hint, being a Jew who supports Israel's right to exist is not the same thing as being a spy for Israel, but that is exactly the crap that some of those from the left assume, and it is just version of anti-semitism..

Where have I heard similar bullshit?

Oh, yeah, I remember, "are you now, or have you ever been a member of the communist party?"

It is the same old "when did you start beating your wife".

It is the question itself that ASSuMEs that makes the assumption that Jews cannot be trusted.

They were never going to choose Shapiro anyway. There were too many on the left who have "Jewish problem"

[hlthe2b]

4. Fucking ridiculous to claim the Harris or other DEM campaign would not be concerned about

an active Hamas supporter. Are you fucking kidding? That is so damned offensive.

And, no, trying to assess whether someone, ANYONE was in the very corrupt and fully Trump-aligned Netanyahu's pocket as opposed to being a firm supporter of Jews and Israel--as well as ALL JEWS right to exist sans discrimination and violent targeting- is appropriate. After all, the campaign would have had to mesh their policies and positions to and with those of their vice presidential candidate. They need to know what is coming.

And to claim Harris was willing to ignore support of Hamas... REALLY? Damned disgusting.

This was vetting for the VP position, for gawd's sakes--the ONE position that cannot be "fired" later on. So, of course a full understanding of the person, their viewpoints, and past are necessary.

[BeyondGeography]

3. It's called vetting

And, yes, they do have to ask such questions.