Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-RI) was home in Rhode Island during the congressional recess late last week, “stewing” about Tucker Carlson’s widely viewed interview with a vocal Holocaust revisionist.

In response, he sent a text to a group chat of Jewish Democratic members of the House suggesting they speak out, which led, in a matter of days, to a joint statement from all 24 Jewish House Democrats, a rare example of unanimity from a group including members from both ends of the Democratic Caucus.

“My concern was that this kind of embrace of literal fascism is happening in plain sight on the far right, and people have become so desensitized to it that they are treating it as normal, and we cannot let it become normal,” Magaziner told Jewish Insider on Tuesday.

He emphasized that he was concerned not only about the interview itself, which garnered millions of views, but also that it was promoted by Elon Musk and that Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) refused to condemn it.

Magaziner said he drafted a statement on Friday and his colleagues were eager to join the statement.

“I’m very pleased that we were able to come together as a group, because it is an extremely ideologically diverse group, even when it comes to matters related to Israel, related to antisemitism, related to what it means to be Jewish in America,” Magaziner said. “It’s a very diverse group with often diverging opinions. But I’m glad that we were able to come together on this and come together quickly.”

Magaziner said there had been some discussion among the members of whether to mention Musk in the statement, given that the X owner deleted his post promoting the interview, but said the lawmakers ultimately decided to include the tech billionaire because he “never disavowed what Carlson and Cooper said” and “this is — just to be blunt — not the first time that Musk has dabbled with antisemitic ideas and statements.”

Magaziner acknowledged that Jewish House Democrats haven’t spoken in a similar unified voice to condemn antisemitism on the left, explaining that it was “easier in this case to find language that all members were comfortable with.”

But he said that he believes each of the Jewish Democrats has condemned antisemitism on the left “in the way that they felt was appropriate,” although there are differences of opinions of when and how to do so, and “what rises to the level of antisemitic versus perhaps misguided.”

Magaziner said, “we hope we can get our colleagues on the other side of the aisle” to speak out about Carlson and the interview, but noted that the Democrats didn’t reach out to their Jewish Republican counterparts about joining the statement.

“I thought it was important that J.D. Vance be included in the statement because he is running to be vice president,” Magaziner said. “And the reality is that our Republican colleagues were not going to sign on to a statement that was critical of J.D. Vance.”

Reps. David Kustoff (R-TN) and Max Miller (R-OH) declined to comment last week on the Carlson interview, and didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment about the statement.

Magaziner, when running for Congress, said he does not practice Judaism and highlighted his mixed heritage — his father is Jewish and his mother is Catholic. But he’s been involved with various efforts by Jewish House Democrats, particularly since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. His office described the statement on Carlson as a “statement from Jewish members of the House.”

The Rhode Island Democrat explained that other Jewish Democrats approached him early in his term about joining regular informal meetings and discussions among Jewish Democrats.

“I said to them, ‘I don’t know whether or not it’s appropriate for me to be a part of that,’” but the lawmakers “were very welcoming, and they recognized that even though I don’t practice, that I do have Jewish heritage, that my family has experienced the antisemitism and the many traumas that have come with being Jewish through the years and and they welcomed me into those discussions.”

He said he would have deferred to a more senior member if they had wanted to lead the Carlson statement, but the lawmakers asked him to draft it.