President Joe Biden withdrew the U.S.’s nomination of Yale law professor James Cavallaro to an international human rights organization Tuesday after a resurfaced tweet. The post was critical of the cozy relationship between House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Israel and widely denounced as antisemitic. State Department Spokesperson Ned Price insisted that nobody in the administration knew about James Cavallaro’s “statements and writings” prior to his nomination to the Inter American Commission on Human Rights. Cavallaro’s tweet accused Jeffries of being “bought,” "purchased” and “controlled” by pro-Israel groups who make big-dollar donations to politicians across both parties in Congress. He also accused the country of being an “apartheid state”—a label Israel strenuously denounces. The language echoed that of Rep. Ilhan Omar, who was recently barred by House Republicans from serving on the chamber’s Intelligence Committee over a similar tweet.
