Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), who recently announced a primary challenge to Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), said this week that his break with AIPAC was “a long time coming.”

A day after entering the Senate race, Moulton announced that he would reject any further donations from AIPAC and would return more than $30,000 from the group, a move that has continued to be a major talking point and feature of his early campaign. 

Coming from an outspoken moderate like Moulton, the move has also raised strategic questions in a race against a committed Israel critic like Markey.

In an online interview with a progressive commentator published on Tuesday, Moulton reiterated comments he made in his public announcement rejecting AIPAC.

“Israel is our most important ally in the Middle East, but I have strong disagreements with the Bibi Netanyahu government, and I’ve been very public about those disagreements for a long time,” Moulton said. “The problem is that AIPAC is aligned with that government, so I’ve been pushing them privately to separate themselves, but they wouldn’t do that. And so ultimately, it was my decision to distance myself from the organization.”

AIPAC has a history of supporting Israel and the U.S.-Israel relationship regardless of who is in power.

Asked whether he thinks debates about AIPAC will play a continued role in the campaign, Moulton said it “depends a lot on what happens in Gaza and Israel.”

He didn’t address the host’s argument that the group, whose supporters and leadership are U.S. citizens, should register as a foreign lobby group. 

“There’s a long way to go to actually having a peaceful settlement where both peoples can live side by side with the same rights, the same freedoms and the same safety that everybody in the world deserves,” Moulton said. “So we’re a long way away from that goal, and I certainly hope that we continue moving towards it, and we don’t resort to more violence. And if that’s the case, I think we’ll be able to talk about other issues in this campaign. Sadly, if it’s not, then I’m sure this will keep coming up.”

Jeremy Burton, the CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Boston, said many in the community were disappointed by Moulton’s initial statement disavowing AIPAC.

“People in our community will disagree with AIPAC and about AIPAC and some of their strategic choices and that includes myself, as a supporter of AIPAC. That said, AIPAC’s commitment to the state-to-state allyship of the United States and Israel has not changed between the time that the congressman actively sought their endorsement as recently as a year ago and his decision in recent weeks,” Burton told Jewish Insider. “So I would say that from my perspective, turning his back on yesterday’s supporters in order to pursue prospective voters of tomorrow says far more about the congressman than it does about AIPAC.”

Burton added that while some in the community support AIPAC and others support different groups, Moulton’s comment in his initial statement backing only “Israel’s right to exist” failed to “meet the minimum expectations that members of our community have for the kind of support for Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state that we hold, regardless of our views about AIPAC.”

David Frum, a columnist for The Atlantic, responding to the video of Moulton’s interview this week, accused the congressman of pandering to antisemites.

“Moulton is a moderate who is hoping that by opening the door *just a little* to anti-Jewish feeling, he can borrow some of that Mamdani energy to win his primary — then wedge the door, thus far and no farther. He hopes to control the hatred he wants to use. But it will use him,” Frum wrote on X, referring to New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist who has regularly criticized Israel and for months refused to condemn the slogan “globalize the intifada.”

Moulton also defended and praised Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner after the revelation that Platner for decades had a tattoo of a Nazi symbol on his chest. Jewish Insider reported at the time, and CNN has since confirmed, that Platner indicated to acquaintances years ago that he was aware of the tattoo’s meaning, which he has more recently denied.

“He should certainly be in the race. Primaries are good, they’re healthy, and he represents a new generation of leadership that’s not just cut from the same cloth, part of the old playbook, frankly, that hasn’t been serving Democrats well,” Moulton said in a CNN interview last week. 

He said he’s “certainly considering” endorsing Platner.

“He’s made mistakes in his life — we all have — he deserves an opportunity to explain those mistakes, and he’s doing that,” Moulton continued, praising Platner for “owning this mistake, correcting it. … As someone who served in the Marines myself, he’s far from the first Marine I’ve seen who got a tattoo that he didn’t understand.”