A prominent American political commentator has accused the Republican presidential candidates of pandering to Jews.

During last night’s televised debate between the 11 main candidates for the 2016 election, Ann Coulter, a conservative pundit and author, tweeted to her 660,000 followers: “How many f---ing Jews do these people think there are in the United States?”

In a separate tweet, she replied: “Maybe it's to suck up to the Evangelicals.”

Earlier, she had responded to a speech by Mike Huckabee by tweeting: “Good grief! Huckabee is running for PM of Israel,” and followed this up by observing that “Cruz, Huckabee Rubio all mentioned ISRAEL in their response to: "What will AMERICA look like after you are president.” She later added New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to this list.

Ms Coulter, whose books include “Demonic: How the Liberal is Endangering America,” defended herself today against accusations of antisemitism, writing: “It's not about Jewish people; it's about Republican panderers.

“I like the Jews, I like fetuses, I like Reagan. Didn't need to hear applause lines about them all night.”

The pundit has voiced her support for Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, introducing him at a rally in August while condemning liberal media outlets as “speech Nazis.”