A Democratic operative who was at the center of the 2013 “Progress Kentucky” scandal went on an anti-Jewish tirade against a political client he claimed owed him money, according to an audiotape published on Monday.
Jacob Conway, the former Jefferson County Democratic Party official who made national news after he outed two Progress Kentucky activists for secretly recording a Mitch McConnell campaign meeting in 2013, was caught on tape lashing out at one of his clients, Daniel Grossberg, a Democratic candidate for state treasurer.
The tape was first reported by Insider Louisville, and audio was published by PageOne Kentucky.
In the April 23 conversation, recorded by Grossberg, Conway claimed the candidate owed him $5,500 for consulting work and threatened to sabotage his campaign if he did not pay up.
“You are why people don’t like Jews,” said Conway to Grossberg, who is Jewish. “You are exactly where the term ‘Jew you out of something’ came from. You’re exactly why my grandfather and everybody else I know has had a hard time doing business in this city, because you’re trying to stiff me out of…money that you contractually owe me.”
Conway went on to slam Grossberg as a “cheap” person who “couldn’t get a job as a…staffer on a…[Louisville] Metro Council campaign.”
The Democratic consultant complained that he needed the money from Grossberg to go to the Kentucky Derby.
“I can’t go to Derby this year,” fumed Conway. “The one thing—I don’t believe in ….God, I don’t like Xmas, I don’t like Thanksgiving, I don’t like anything. The only holiday that I like is Derby. And because of you owing me money, I can’t go. And your refusal to pay. You have now ruined my Derby.”
Conway also vowed to destroy Conway’s election chances unless he came through with the money.
“If you stiff us, my mother will go on Facebook and she will go on Twitter, and she will embarrass you two weeks before this primary,” said Conway, adding that he might leak negative stories about Grossberg to the press and his State Treasurer opponent.
Reached by phone, Conway said he had no comment at the moment and was currently consulting with his lawyers. He declined to comment on the authenticity of the recording.
However, he told Insider Louisville on Monday that he might have made the comments “in the heat of the moment,” adding that he had Jewish members of his family and was not anti-Semitic.
“I may have said something along those lines,” Conway said. “But like I said, anything that he has me on recording saying, I may have said in the heat of the moment when I was extremely angry.”
{Matzav.com Newscenter}
When someone’s angry, that’s when his true feelings come through. As it says, Bekiso, Bekaso uBekoso…
So he isn’t really an anti-Semite. Except when he’s extremely angry. So my Jewish brethren, it’s your job to make sure that Conway never, never gets extremely angry. You see he’s not responsible for he he says when he’s extremely angry.