Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was asked if he was a “double agent for Israel” as part of a vetting process to be former US vice president Kamala Harris’s running mate, the New York Times reported on Sunday, citing an advance copy of Shapiro’s new memoir.
Shapiro wrote that Harris’s team asked him extensively about Israel, leaving him “wondering whether these questions were being posed to just me, the only Jewish guy in the running, or if everyone who had not held a federal office was being grilled about Israel in the same way.”
When Shapiro complained about the offensive nature of the double agent question, he was told, “Well, we have to ask,” Shapiro wrote, which “said a lot about some of the people around the VP.”
Shapiro denied antisemitism contributed to being passed over as VP pick
Shapiro was not ultimately selected as Harris’s running mate, a move that some called antisemitic, but Shapiro disagreed. He said that antisemitism played “no role” in the selection of Tim Walz as Harris’s VP pick.
“I want to make sure you hear this from me: Antisemitism played no role in the dialogue I had with the vice president. None,” he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in August of 2024.
Aaron Keyak, former Deputy Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism during the Biden/Harris administration, condemned the double agent question in a statement released on Sunday, calling it an “antisemitic inquiry.”
Keyak stated that Shapiro’s experience was similar to those of “too many” who had told Keyak about being asked similar questions. Keyak himself faced “questions in a classified setting that my fellow non-Jewish political appointees did not.”
“These sorts of antisemitic questions are anti-American and do not represent the best that the Democratic Party offers. Now and especially during the next Presidential campaign, we must demand better,” Keyak added.
RON KAMPEAS/JTA contributed to this report