Florida Representative Jared Moskowitz has said sorry for his post on X where he joked about South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem wanting to eat dog with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Key points:
- The Democratic lawmaker made the comment on X on Monday, in response to a “CBS Mornings” interview where the Republican governor discussed her upcoming memoir “No Going Back,” in which she wrote about putting down her family’s “untrainable” dog, and falsely claimed to have met Kim while serving as a congresswoman.
- Moskowitz wrote in his now-deleted post on X, “Why am I getting the feeling that she wanted to eat dog with Kim Jong Un?”
- Moskowitz took down the post and said sorry after being called out by Politico reporter Nicholas Wu on X.
I have tremendous respect for Nick as a fantastic journalist. I made a joke about 2 specific people. No one else. However, I would never want to be insensitive and feed into a stereotype. He called me out, deserved.
— Jared Moskowitz (@JaredEMoskowitz) May 6, 2024
The details:
- In a statement to Politico, Moskowitz noted that his remark was “a joke about [Noem] and [Kim] – 2 people, no one else.” He added, “I took the post down as I didn’t want it to be misconstrued and offend the broader community. I condemn those stereotypes and would never want to feed into them.”
- The interview touched on Noem’s shooting of her 14-month-old wirehaired pointer after a failed hunting trip and “aggressive behavior” and her false claim about meeting Kim, the latter of which she is requesting to be removed from her book.
- Moskowitz’s now-deleted post is a reference to an Asian stereotype about Asians and dogs. The South Korean Parliament passed a bill in January that effectively bans selling or producing of dog meat.
- Reps. Andy Kim (D, NJ-3) and Marilyn Strickland (D, WA-10), the only two Korean American Democrats in the House of Representatives, thanked Moskowitz for owning up to what he did. The two lawmakers wrote in a joint statement, “While we appreciate our colleague standing up to GOP extremism, we cannot perpetuate harmful stereotypes in the process. We thank Rep. Moskowitz for apologizing and taking down his tweet.”
- Moskowitz was embroiled in controversy over a since-deleted social media post in March, in which he juxtaposed a wide-eyed Joe Biden with a picture of Sydney Sweeney. The cropped image reportedly implied that Biden was staring at the “Euphoria” actor’s cleavage.
