House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., on Monday blasted Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio for an "inane AND anti-Semitic" tweet that spelled billionaire hedge-fund operator Tom Steyer's last name with a "$."
Steyer, whose father was Jewish, has been a prominent donor to Democratic candidates as part of his goal to have President Donald Trump impeached. Last year, Steyer planned to spend $10 million to help Democrats regain control of the House, which they did in the midterm elections.
Jordan's spokesman Ian Fury in an emailed statement to CNBC said: "Tom Steyer is a billionaire pushing Democrats like Chairmen Cummings and Nadler to impeach the President. As you may know, the $ symbol represents dollars, of which Mr. Steyer has approximately 1.6 billion and has committed eight figures to fund far left-wing causes."
"Congressman Jordan has always stood against hatred and bigotry. Also, according to public sources, Steyer is Episcopalian," Fury said.
Steyer's spokesman declined to comment, beyond noting that Steyer had responded to Jordan directly on Twitter on Sunday.
Former New York Times columnist Clyde Haberman also had called out Jordan for the tweet's alleged anti-Semitic taint.
But Nadler said the committee, which would be responsible for handling any impeachment proceedings against Trump, is "far from making decisions" on whether to actually seek impeachment.
The White House acknowledged receipt of Nadler's request on Monday morning.
Steyer last October criticized House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., for a tweet that showed images of Steyer, former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and liberal philanthropist George Soros — all of whom are Jewish — with a message that said, "We cannot allow Soros, Steyer, and Bloomberg to BUY this election! Get out and vote Republican November 6th. #MAGA."
McCarthy's tweet was deleted on the same day that it was posted. The tweet had been posted a week after Steyer and Soros had each been sent mail bombs, along with Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama, other Democratic politicians and CNN.
McCarthy's office said at the time that the tweet "simply points out the enormous financial contributions a select few have made in this year's midterm campaigns."
But Steyer told CNN: "In terms of interpreting what he said, that seems, to me, like a straight-up anti-Semitic move. I think that there — that is a classic attempt to separate Americans. I think that absolutely falls into the category of what I'm describing as political violence."