LAS VEGAS — Asked how he thinks the Republican Party can stop antisemitic figures from being elected in the Republican Party, Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) said the GOP should continue continue to “beat the s**t” out of them — electorally.

McCormick, speaking to Jewish Insider on the sidelines of the Republican Jewish Coalition’s conference this weekend, pointed to Rep. Randy Fine’s (R-FL) decisive victory over a neo-Nazi candidate in Florida last month as one such example.

“We live in a country where you get to express your ideas, no matter how horrific and hateful those ideas are, and where anybody can run for office,” McCormick said. “That’s the country I want to live in. But the way that you ensure those ideas don’t get a foothold is you beat the s*** out of them. You beat them in elections. You beat their ideas with better ideas. … Within the Republican Party, we need to have that discipline.”

He said he applies the same logic to beating “these horrible antisemitic ideas on the left with better ideas on the right.” Speaking to the RJC, he argued that the Democratic Party, up to and including its leaders, have made excuses for antisemitism and given it a home in their party, as well as become consumed with an obsession with Israel.

McCormick, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Middle East subcommittee, told JI that the U.S. should continue to use “any tools at our disposal” against Iran, particularly keeping economic pressure on the regime.

“I think this is all hopefully coming to a fork in the road where the leadership can choose a path to giving up a path to a nuclear weapon and giving up any nuclear weapon program, or continued pressure,” he said.

If Iran refuses to concede, he said the U.S. should continue its campaign with a focus on economic tools and use military force “selectively,” for instance if Iran attempts to place more mines in the Strait of Hormuz.

“It’s a combination of economic and military tools, just with the explicit goal of putting added pressure on the leadership,” McCormick said. 

He acknowledged that the war is having impacts at home, particularly at the gas pump, but said he tells constituents that there’s no doubt that Iran would have had a nuclear weapon and the ability to utilize it if the U.S. didn’t take action, so he supports President Donald Trump’s decision to strike.

“There’s trade-offs involved, but I think it was the right step to take,” he said.

During his remarks to the RJC, referencing the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), McCormick made a case for continued U.S. engagement in the world as a source of American strength, an idea that he said is under attack from figures on both sides of the aisle.

“Our commitment to freedom is therefore not simply an ideal; it’s a source of national power,” McCormick said. “That doesn’t mean we impose freedom on the world by force, but it does mean we should cherish it everywhere and support it when prudent in the coldest realpolitik terms. A freer world makes America stronger.”

And, he said, “a strong America also requires a commitment to take threats seriously, and when necessary, use force to eliminate them.” He said that the U.S. must take its adversaries seriously when they threaten the country and warned such actors that doing so invites American retaliation.

“Credible deterrence requires the willingness to act,” McCormick continued, “and when all other options are exhausted, it requires us to put our men and women in uniform in harm’s way.”

He also argued that the U.S.’ commitment to strong alliances has been a source of strength. McCormick said that Israel has been a “model ally” but that even close allies can and will have disagreements, and described “tough love” as an important element of any relationship with an ally.

Asked by JI whether he was referring to any specific disagreements with Israel, McCormick said he was not but explained that “we shouldn’t misunderstand a deep-seated friendship and alliance where we’re deeply committed to one another with agreement on everything,” going on to suggest that the “media or the narrative” will take any disagreements out of proportion.

He said that such disagreements should not undermine overall confidence in the strength of the U.S.-Israel relationship.

McCormick indicated that he supports the effort to phase out U.S. military aid in the coming years, but said that increased cooperation going forward in the next generation of warfare, including drones and AI, will be crucial.

“There’s no better wingman in some of the operations that we’ve undertaken than the State of Israel,” McCormick said. “So I think the the next step will be to figure out how to ensure that coordination is happening in the most effective way possible — and I’ve read some of the criticisms around this discussion — in a way that doesn’t sacrifice any autonomy or independence on the part of the United States or on the part of Israel for that matter.”

The Pennsylvania senator said one of his key priorities for the rest of the year is trying to secure energy permitting reform, which he called “the single most important thing we could do for the U.S. economy, global security and the AI revolution” to ensure the U.S. can keep pace in computing power. He said the issue crosses multiple domains, including his work on the Middle East subcommittee.