AP
Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown created a tense moment with a conservative pro-Israel audience when he told them he was concerned about "bigotry and anti-Semitism" at the highest levels of the Trump administration.
Addressing the Zionist Organization of America's event in D.C. on Tuesday, Brown said, "There are a whole lot of members in the Senate, in both parties, that are very concerned about the bigotry and the anti-Semitism in the White House."
It didn't go down well. Brown, whose office did not respond to a request for comment, signaled to the conservative audience that Steve Bannon was the guy he was referring to when he mentioned "anti-Semitism in the White House." "I think we know the history of Breitbart," he said.
A source said there were boos and hisses, and a video shot at the event bears that out, with the crowd cheering every time Brown mentioned Bannon's name and the Ohio Senator admitting he wasn't telling the audience what they wanted to hear.
ZOA's president Mort Klein is a close friend of Bannon's. Arthur Schwartz, an external advisor to ZOA said in a statement: "We were deeply disappointed by Senator Brown's attacks on President Trump, Steve Bannon, Sebastian Gorka and others that serve in this White House. We work closely with Mr. Bannon and Dr. Gorka; they are true friends of the Jewish state of Israel. The same cannot be said of Senator Brown, a supporter of the catastrophic Iran Deal."