Eric Levine, a top GOP fundraiser and a board member of the Republican Jewish Coalition, is calling for Steve Witkoff’s dismissal over a recent series of media appearances in which the Trump administration’s Middle East envoy praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and said he was “duped” by Hamas during failed negations to release the remaining hostages held by the terrorist group.

“Witkoff’s performance is disqualifying because it demonstrates his utter incompetence,” Levine said in a scathing email sent to his professional network on Wednesday, while calling the Trump official “an embarrassment to” the “country and the president he serves.”

The Middle East envoy “should do the honorable thing and resign,” Levine wrote. “Failing that, he should be summarily fired.”

Witkoff has faced backlash following interviews with Fox News as well as on Tucker Carlson’s podcast in which he said he did not “regard Putin as a bad guy,” suggested Hamas could be “involved politically” in post-war Gaza and said he did not believe the terrorist group is “ideologically intractable,” among other comments that raised alarms with Republican lawmakers and national security experts. 

Levine’s unvarnished comments underscore how those concerns have mounted as the Middle East envoy, a close friend of President Donald Trump, has led negotiations with Hamas and recently met Putin in Russia, among other sensitive diplomatic assignments.

“Anyone this naïve and who is willing to rely on the word of a nihilistic Nazi death cult which has been clear about its contempt for Western civilization, and its intentions to exterminate the Jews, destroy Israel, and which launched the Oct. 7 attack, is simply not qualified to represent the United States in such critical state craft,” Levine said of Witkoff.

He also criticized the Middle East envoy for joining Carlson’s show, saying that the former Fox News host “has become a malign and malevolent platform for revisionist history.”  

“From Holocaust deniers to Putin and Assad apologists and supporters, Carlson often has little use for facts and well-established documented history,” Levine said. “For guests with whom he disagrees or from whom he senses weakness, he browbeats and attempts to humiliate them until they either agree with him or are derisively prevented from finishing their point,” he added. “The Witkoff appearance was no exception.”

In his lengthy email on Wednesday, Levine argued that Secretary of State Marco Rubio should assume Witkoff’s role and correct for what he described as Witkoff’s “failures” as Middle East envoy. “He will serve his country with honor and distinction,” Levine said of Rubio. 

“Most importantly, he can succeed where Witkoff cannot,” he said. “Witkoff must go, and Rubio must take his place.”

After this story was published, Levine clarified to Jewish Insider that he was speaking in his personal capacity and not on behalf of the RJC. 

“It may or may not be the view of the RJC, but I do not represent the RJC in this,” Levine said.

Sam Markstein, an RJC spokesperson, said the group “has full confidence in Mr. Witkoff” in a statement to JI on Wednesday, reiterating that Levine was “speaking in his individual capacity.”