On Saturday's The Weekend: Primetime, MS NOW co-host Catherine Rampell made a stunning admission, recalling that 90 percent of the anti-Semitic hate mail she receives comes from the left. This revelation came as she made an unusual effort to provide balance during a segment focused on anti-Semitism within the Republican party.
As left-leaning New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg appeared to discuss her recent article on the subject, she accused President Donald Trump of causing a surge in anti-Semitism in young Republicans:
I think that Donald Trump, you know, created this, you know, he opened the door to naked, open bigotry. He opened the door to this complete breakdown in any sense of cohesive reality. And what you see now is the fruits of that even though, in many cases, these are young men who, in a lot of ways are kind of disillusioned with Trump, you know, they think, but that hasn't necessarily -- or hasn't for them -- moved them to the left. It's just made them even more reactionary -- even more convinced that he's just being manipulated by the Jews. And so it's kind of made them double down on naked anti-Semitism.
After a while, Rampell jumped in to call out anti-Semitism on the left, leading to a debate between herself and Goldberg (both of whom are Jewish) about whether anti-Israel Muslims who commit terrorism against Jews in the U.S. should be considered part of the left. Rampell began:
I do want to be careful that we make clear that it's not only in the Republican party where this is a problem. There are -- there is rising anti-Semitism on the left as well. I can tell you, since I joined this network, 90 percent of the anti-Semitic comments that I get are from the left. So I do want to make sure that we are like very clear that it's bad, whatever, whatever partisan alignment we are talking about.
As the two went back and forth, Goldberg tried to downplay left-wing anti-Semitism, and Rampell brought up the recent attack on a Michigan synagogue:
GOLDBERG: But I think that you see a sort of very ferocious anti-zionism on the left that crosses the line on occasion into anti-Semitism.
RAMPELL: I mean, there was a -- there was a guy who tried to kill a bunch of preschoolers in --
GOLDBERG: Well, I don't think that you could say that he was a left-winger. He was --
RAMPELL: No, but he was about Israel, right? It was --
GOLDBERG: Well, yeah, but, absolutely, but that -- yes, there's ... (inaudible)
RAMPBELL: And there are a lot of like leftists on the internet who were like, "Well, that, you know, that's a mitigating factor." And it's like (inaudible) preschoolers.
Goldberg responded:
And it's not a mitigating factor, obviously, although I think it is true that, you know, it was both predictable and predicted that this war would lead to an increase in terrorism against Jewish people, and it can't be said that it's like a justification to just acknowledge that. But, again, you know, this -- this man who -- this person who attempted to slaughter preschoolers, there's no indication that he was a leftist in any sense.
The segment ignored a recent NBC News poll which found that support for Israel among Democrats has plummeted in the past decade while it has barely changed among Republicans.
A bit later, Rampell brought up the leading Democratic candidate for Senate in Maine who has been called out for having a Nazi tattoo. And, on Sunday, during a segment with anti-Israel activist Cameron Kasky, Rampell complained about Democrats who have been sympathetic to the synagogue attacker:
Transcript follows:
MS NOW's The Weekend: Primetime
March 14, 2026
6:47 p.m. Eastern
MICHELLE GOLDBERG, NEW YORK TIMES: I think that Donald Trump, you know, created this, you know, he opened the door to naked, open bigotry. He opened the door to this complete breakdown in any sense of cohesive reality. And what you see now is the fruits of that even though, in many cases, these are young men who, in a lot of ways are kind of disillusioned with Trump, you know, they think, but that hasn't necessarily -- or hasn't for them -- moved them to the left. It's just made them even more reactionary -- even more convinced that he's just being manipulated by the Jews. And so it's kind of made them double down on naked anti-Semitism.
AYMAN MOHYELDIN: So have you seen a place or moment in time where this anti-Semitism -- where this xenophobia jumped and became institutional within Republican politics? Because we have seen an increase in group chats -- in candidates running that espouse these feelings, and they certainly code it in a lot of very not so blatant dog whistles, I think, for people of us who follow it closely.
GOLDBERG: Right.
MOHYELDIN: They use the language, they know the issues to play on and to pray on, but it's become really, it seems like, institutional within the Republican party, and I'm wondering if you can trace that back to a specific moment or to a candidate who enabled it and made it jump the rail.
GOLDBERG: Well, I think we have to make a distinction because I think you have a lot of gutter bigotry institutionalized in the Republican party, right? Certainly you have wild Islamophobia by people -- people like Andy Ogles and Randy Fine. These people, I think, especially the right-wing Jews, somehow got the impression that they could legitimize this and yet hold the line on anti-Semitism -- which was, just on their own terms, a terrible bet. We haven't seen this kind of hardcore anti-Semitism make its way into electoral politics, but I just think it's a matter of time when you look at where the young -- where young people in the party are, you know, if you -- and it was interesting to me because I think we all know this.
You know, we see surveys, we read about those group chats, we read about, you know, just recently, a young Republicans chapter at a Florida college was shut down because of their anti-Semitism. It's one thing to kind of read it and know that it's online, and it's another thing to be in a room full of people who are talking about it openly, and to kind of see the way it moves from the internet and the dark corners of the internet to, you know, a kind of banquet room at a country club. And I just think that, you know, I don't look, I don't think James Fishback is ever going to be governor, but this is a demographic that is eventually going to be the future of the Republican party.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: I do want to be careful that we make clear that it's not only in the Republican party where this is a problem. There are -- there is rising anti-Semitism on the left as well. I can tell you, since I joined this network, 90 percent of the anti-Semitic comments that I get are from the left. So I do want to make sure that we are like very clear that it's bad, whatever, whatever partisan alignment we are talking about.
GOLDBERG: I think it looks -- I think it looks -- I mean, in my experience, it looks quite different. I mean, I don't -- I don't --
RAMPELL: I mean, you should have seen my inbox, but okay.
GOLDBERG: Well, I mean, you know, I'm sure we get some of the same --
RAMPELL: Yeah, yeah.
GOLDBERG: -- kinds of messages. But I think that you see a sort of very ferocious anti-zionism on the left that crosses the line on occasion into anti-Semitism.
RAMPELL: I mean, there was a -- there was a guy who tried to kill a bunch of preschoolers in --
GOLDBERG: Well, I don't think that you could say that he was a left-winger. He was --
RAMPELL: No, but he was about Israel, right? It was --
GOLDBERG: Well, yeah, but, absolutely, but that -- yes, there's ... (inaudible)
RAMPBELL: And there are a lot of like leftists on the internet who were like, "Well, that, you know, that's a mitigating factor." And it's like (inaudible) preschoolers.
GOLDBERG: And it's not a mitigating factor, obviously, although I think it is true that, you know, it was both predictable and predicted that this war would lead to an increase in terrorism against Jewish people, and it can't be said that it's like a justification to just acknowledge that. But, again, you know, this -- this man who -- this person who attempted to slaughter preschoolers, there's no indication that he was a leftist in any sense. And I think the difference is -- is that you don't see -- or at least I don't see -- again, you see this kind of incautious anti-zionism sometimes shading over into anti-Semitism. At least that's my experience. I think the kind of like "wink wink" Naziism is just something -- it's different. It's a different ideology,
ANTONIA HYLTON: In a way, it's barely, in my view, "wink wink" on the right at this point. ...
(...)
RAMPELL: The leading candidate in the Maine Senate primary on -- in the Democratic race had a Nazi tattoo. And we've talked about this, and I know you say it's like a, you know, you talk with him and he doesn't think it was a Nazi tattoo and all that, but, like, former members of his campaign staff have said, "We knew it was a Nazi tattoo." So, again, it's not like it's entirely absent from the Democratic party. And not saying there, like, it's equally distributed, there's any equivalence, whatever. I'm just saying it's really important that we call it out even when it's one of our friends or people who we might perceive as our allies. That's -- that's all I'm saying. I don't want it -- I don't think it's appropriate -- I just want -- don't viewers to not come away from this thinking like we're only upset about it when it's the other team that we can say do things that look kind of Naziish or they're playing footsie with the Nazis. That's all I'm trying to say.
(...)
MS NOW's The Weekend: Primetime
March 15, 2026
CAMERON KASKY, HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST: So now you have the U.S. most likely bombing this school in Iran, and we're using the same playbook that the state of Israel has used during the ongoing genocide in Gaza. It is either, "These people who were killed deserved it, and they were a valid target, this didn't actually happen at all -- it's a lie," or, "This was actually the enemy -- we didn't do this." And very often you don't even need to coordinate these responses. It's either, "Oh, there were actually terrorists there. Oh, these people deserved it."
CATHERINE RAMPELL: It's -- I mean, there's some of this happening here too. I'm sorry.
KASKY: Tell me more.
RAMPELL: I don't know, there was a would be terrorist who tried to shoot up a Jewish preschool three days ago and --
KASKY: And was apprehended and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
RAMPELL: And there are liberal mayors in Michigan who are saying -- suggesting that it was okay or that there were mitigating factors because he had some family members who were killed recently, who the state of Lebanon has said may have been members of Hezbollah. So like the idea that we care about Americans, we, you know, we always care about Americans, and we don't care about brown children abroad.
We should care about all children, and it is very upsetting to me repeatedly that we keep on -- we keep on ignoring the fact that there was literally an attempted mass shooting a few days ago that is being excused by a number of Democrats in Michigan because those kids were Jewish who had nothing to do with Israel. Sorry. We had a conversation about this last night, and I feel like the same thing happened then, but.
KASKY: Well, there's no excuse for terror.
RAMPELL: There's no excuse for terror, and we should condemn it, regardless of the religion or the race or the nationality of the children who are being targeted. That's that's all I have to say.
KASKY: And I happen to agree.
