Donald Trump Calls Democrats ‘Anti-Jewish’ Party After Vote To Condemn Hatred Against Jewish People
On the day after the United States House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan resolution condemning anti-Semitism and other forms of religious hatred, as National Public Radio reported, Donald Trump lashed out in a brief question-and-answer session with reporters outside the White House. Trump called the vote “disgraceful,” and condemned Democrats as “the anti-Jewish party.”
The House resolution, made available online by NPR, was spurred by comments made by first-term Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, comments that “played on tropes about Jewish money and influence on American politics,” according to NPR.
The resolution also condemned bigotry against Muslims, and was praised in a statement by Omar, as well as representatives Andre Carson of Indiana and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan — both of whom, like Omar, are Muslim — as “historic” and “the first time we have voted on a resolution condemning Anti-Muslim bigotry in our nation’s history.”
All 234 House Democrats who voted cast votes in favor of the anti-hate resolution on Thursday, along with 173 House Republicans, according to GovTrack. But 23 Republicans voted against the resolution condemning anti-Semitism and other religious bigotry.
One of those Republicans, Mo Brooks of Alabama, explained his vote against the resolution, saying that he voted “no” because it failed to “condemn discrimination against Caucasian-Americans and Christians,” according to Newsweek.
Other Republicans said that they voted against the resolution because it did not single out Omar by name, according to The Hill.
Trump, however, simply blasted the House vote as “disgraceful,” according to The Associated Press.
“The Democrats have become an anti-Israel party, the anti-Jewish party,” Trump said, as quoted by Talking Points Memo. “I thought that vote was a disgrace and so does everybody else if you get an honest answer. If you get an honest answer from politicians, they thought it was a disgrace.”
Trump says Democrats "anti-Jewish" party pic.twitter.com/lBLbSD2Fmv
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) March 8, 2019
Trump has also been repeatedly accused of anti-Semitism. Following an “alt-right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 — in which demonstrators chanted such anti-Semitic slogans as “Jews will not replace us!” — Trump said that the demonstrators included “some very fine people,” as Vanity Fair reported.
At the close of the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump aired an advertisement widely perceived as anti-Semitic, according to The Times of Israel. The advertisement displayed images of prominent bankers and investors who are Jewish coupled with warnings about “global special interests” who control “the levers of power in Washington.”
The Jewish Democratic Council of America quickly responded to Trump’s claim that Democrats are “anti-Jewish.”
“We are appalled, but not surprised, that President Trump has once again demonstrated dishonesty, hypocrisy, and willingness to use anti-Semitism and Israel as a political football,” the JDCA said in a statement.
