The New Yorker:

A Florida Republican on how, if Trump were President, the war in Israel “wouldn’t have happened.”

By Isaac Chotiner 

Randy Fine is the only Jewish Republican in the Florida legislature, and has for several years been a strong supporter of Ron DeSantis, the state’s governor. Fine served as DeSantis’s Jewish outreach chair during the 2018 gubernatorial campaign, supported DeSantis’s reëlection bid last year, and backed him for President. Then, two weeks ago, Fine decided to switch his support to former President Donald Trump. The reason? Antisemitism. In Fine’s view, DeSantis has insufficiently addressed numerous neo-Nazi marches that have taken place in Florida in recent years. (The Times reported last month that DeSantis’s unwillingness to condemn the marches has concerned some Republican donors at a time when his campaign is already lagging well behind Trump’s.) The Hamas attack on October 7th was the final straw.

I recently spoke by phone with Fine to try and understand DeSantis’s behavior, and why Fine was now turning to a man with a long history of using antisemitic tropes, and all-around bigotry. Our conversation, edited for length and clarity, is below.

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