Posted on Apr 9, 2023
"Soros-backed": The GOP’s favorite attack on the man prosecuting Trump, explained
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Donald Trump’s outraged response to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s indictment of him contained the usual mix of bombast and self-pity, with a predictable dollop of conspiracy-mongering. One line of attack stood out in particular: He accused Bragg of being “hand-picked and funded by George Soros.”
Trump wasn’t alone. The alleged Bragg-Soros connection has been everywhere in the Republican response to the indictment, including in comments from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, and a host of other prominent Republicans and Fox News coverage. It often gets shorthanded into a two-word phrase: “Soros-backed.”
Soros, a nonagenarian Holocaust survivor and billionaire financier, is a longstanding hate figure among conservatives. Over the past two decades, elements of the right in both the United States and his native Hungary have engaged in a concerted campaign to turn Soros into a boogeyman — the shadowy power behind transatlantic liberalism.
Though Bragg has never been directly funded by Soros, the accusation of a link isn’t entirely out of whole cloth — Bragg’s 2021 campaign for district attorney does seem to have indirectly received some of his financial support. But the intensity of the accusation certainly doesn’t seem proportionate to the tenuousness of the connection
Trump wasn’t alone. The alleged Bragg-Soros connection has been everywhere in the Republican response to the indictment, including in comments from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, and a host of other prominent Republicans and Fox News coverage. It often gets shorthanded into a two-word phrase: “Soros-backed.”
Soros, a nonagenarian Holocaust survivor and billionaire financier, is a longstanding hate figure among conservatives. Over the past two decades, elements of the right in both the United States and his native Hungary have engaged in a concerted campaign to turn Soros into a boogeyman — the shadowy power behind transatlantic liberalism.
Though Bragg has never been directly funded by Soros, the accusation of a link isn’t entirely out of whole cloth — Bragg’s 2021 campaign for district attorney does seem to have indirectly received some of his financial support. But the intensity of the accusation certainly doesn’t seem proportionate to the tenuousness of the connection
"Soros-backed": The GOP’s favorite attack on the man prosecuting Trump, explained
Posted from vox.com
Donald Trump
Religion
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Conspiracy Theories
Posted 1 y ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Is connecting Alvin Bragg to George Soros antisemitic?
It’s important to have these examples in mind when we think about the “Soros-backed” criticism of Bragg.
Such rhetoric is falling in a particular context: that there is a very long history of saying things about Soros that draw directly on antisemitic ideas and conspiracy theories, one that has become increasingly popular on the American and international right over time. Invoking Soros in such an atmosphere is not innocent, and it’s even worse when you’re implying that Bragg is somehow arresting Trump on Soros’s marching orders.
That is not to say that Soros should be above criticism, or that every attack on him is antisemitic.
Many more thoughtful conservatives have argued that Soros is a principal funder of the “progressive prosecutor” movement, a nationwide campaign to elect district attorneys who aim to try and tackle problems like mass incarceration by (for example) refusing to prosecute certain low-level crimes. Bragg is one such progressive prosecutor, and seems to be the beneficiary of Soros’s funding: Shortly after the group Color of Change pledged roughly $1 million to support Bragg, they received roughly $1 million in funding from Soros.
Therefore, conservatives argue, when people like Trump or DeSantis call Bragg and other progressive prosecutors “Soros-backed,” they are merely stating the facts. Here’s National Review’s Charles C.W. Cooke making the case forcefully:"...
..."Is connecting Alvin Bragg to George Soros antisemitic?
It’s important to have these examples in mind when we think about the “Soros-backed” criticism of Bragg.
Such rhetoric is falling in a particular context: that there is a very long history of saying things about Soros that draw directly on antisemitic ideas and conspiracy theories, one that has become increasingly popular on the American and international right over time. Invoking Soros in such an atmosphere is not innocent, and it’s even worse when you’re implying that Bragg is somehow arresting Trump on Soros’s marching orders.
That is not to say that Soros should be above criticism, or that every attack on him is antisemitic.
Many more thoughtful conservatives have argued that Soros is a principal funder of the “progressive prosecutor” movement, a nationwide campaign to elect district attorneys who aim to try and tackle problems like mass incarceration by (for example) refusing to prosecute certain low-level crimes. Bragg is one such progressive prosecutor, and seems to be the beneficiary of Soros’s funding: Shortly after the group Color of Change pledged roughly $1 million to support Bragg, they received roughly $1 million in funding from Soros.
Therefore, conservatives argue, when people like Trump or DeSantis call Bragg and other progressive prosecutors “Soros-backed,” they are merely stating the facts. Here’s National Review’s Charles C.W. Cooke making the case forcefully:"...
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