Last Sunday, Donald Trump unleashed a torrent of antisemitic rhetoric, designed to arouse the MAGA portion of his base that manifested itself in murderous fashion at Charlottesville in 2017.  Its rhetoric was “Blood and Soil” and “Jews will not replace us.”

Tom Kean, Jr. reacted to the Trump antisemitic onslaught with a studied silence.  It was not the silence of omission.  Rather, it had been part of a deliberate all-out yearlong effort on his part to win the continued loving blessing of MAGA.

Kean, Jr. began his loving courtship of MAGA with his ingratiating mail pieces in the primary stating how he would have Trump’s back.  Last weekend, his efforts were crowned with success with the appearance at his rally in Warren County of Ronna McDaniel, Chair of Republican National Committee (RNC).

Ms. McDaniel is ex-officio the political godmother of MAGA.  She won that status with the passage last February of the RNC resolution which described the violent insurrection of January 6, 2021 as “legitimate political discourse.”

The final MAGA sanctification of Tom Kean, Jr. was sealed when he announced that he would endorse Kevin McCarthy for House Speaker.  This is Kevin McCarthy, who will leave the people of Ukraine to the tender mercies of Russian terrorists.   This is Kevin McCarthy, a disciple of Larry Kudlow, whose economic program is the heart and soul of Kevin McCarthy’s economic platform, and whose policies have resulted in the current chaos in the United Kingdom and the downfall after only 44 days of the dearly departed British Prime Minister Liz Truss.

In fact, if I were a Democratic consultant to the Tom Malinowski campaign, I would run a commercial with three clips: 1) the voice of Larry Kudlow, forecasting how wonderfully the Liz Truss UK economic program would work; 2) the fact that Larry Kudlow has persuaded Kevin McCarthy to adopt the program as his own; and 3) a clip of the current violence in the UK.  The impact on McCarthy’s credibility and the Kean Jr. Congressional campaign inn New Jersey District 7 would be devastating.

As House Majority Leader, however, it has been McCarthy and his PAC that has made the Kean, Jr. campaign possible and provided most of the strategy and staff.  Outside of his family, Tom Kean, Jr. will remain more loyal to McCarthy than anybody else.

So it was no surprise to me that Tom Kean, Jr., in his deep devotion to the cause of Kevin McCarthy and MAGA, would refrain from repudiation of McCarthy’s patron, Donald Trump and his antisemitism.  Unfortunately, there is a strong element of tragedy in the silence of Tom Kean, Jr.

I have written numerous columns over the past three decades offering heartfelt praise to Robert Kean and Tom Kean, Sr. for their unsurpassed, steadfast, and unwavering support of the American Jewish community and Israel.  This is a hallowed legacy for Tom Kean, Junior.

Unfortunately, by his silence on the Trump antisemitism, Tom Kean, Jr., like the biblical Esau, has relinquished this cherished birthright for a mess of pottage.  And that mess of pottage is the support of Kean, Jr. by Kevin McCarthy, the most nefarious McCarthy since Joe.

Longtime supporters of Tom Kean, Sr., the greatest governor of New Jersey in the twentieth century, are pleading with erstwhile backers of the former Jersey chief executive to support Junior Kean, claiming that at heart, he remains a closet supporter of the Tom Kean Senior Politics of Inclusion.  That is a forlorn hope.

If Kean Junior defeats Tom Malinowski, he will serve in the House with Marjorie Taylor Green, she of virulent antisemitism and Jewish space laser fame, on the McCarthy leadership team and work to implement the platform of Kevin McCarthy.

The McCarthy agenda includes withdrawal of aid from Ukraine and the end of Social Security.  As a Congressman, Robert Kean was known as “Mr. Social Security.”    The Kean parental legacy and the McCarthy platform are two agendas that Tom Kean, Junior can never reconcile.

Indeed, it is obvious that Tom Kean, Junior will always place the McCarthy agenda first.  And the MAGA Tom Kean, Jr. is the REAL Tom Kean, Jr.

Alan J. Steinberg served as regional administrator of Region 2 EPA during the administration of former President George W. Bush and as executive director of the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission.