Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D.N.Y.) on Tuesday condemned former President Trump's recent comments about Jewish Americans who vote Democratic as “reprehensible and dangerous,” and said they were a clear example of “absolute anti-Semitism.”
Trump said in an interview broadcast Monday that Democrats “hate Israel” and that Jewish voters who support Democrats hate their religion. These statements came in response to Schumer's call late last week to hold new elections in Israel and the growing criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in US history, responded in kind on Tuesday.
“The former president’s comments were absolutely disgusting and a textbook example of the type of anti-Semitism that Jews face, pushing forward the dangerous anti-Semitism trope of dual loyalty,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “To say you hate Israel because you have one political view over another is sick, and it's abhorrent. “It is pure anti-Semitism, and it works to use Israel as a political wedge that further damages the ties between the United States and Israel.”
Schumer continued: “We have always tried – I have always tried over the years to keep everything we do on Israel bipartisan, and using that for partisan purposes hurts Israel, hurts America and shows how low Donald Trump will go.”
The leader also pointed to Trump's past dining with white supremacist Nick Fuentes and his 2017 comments about the Charlottesville attack.
Schumer said the former president had “no right to lecture Jewish Americans about their personal and political beliefs.”
Trump's statements came as part of an interview with Sebastian Gorka, Trump's former aide in the White House.
“I actually think they hate Israel,” Trump responded when asked why Democrats “hate” Netanyahu. “And the Democratic Party hates Israel.”
Trump said: “Any Jew who votes for the Democrats hates his religion, hates everything related to Israel, and should be ashamed of himself because Israel will be destroyed.”
The former president has made similar statements in the past. in 2019He said that “any Jewish people who vote for a Democrat” shows “a great betrayal.”
As for Schumer, he was criticized by Republicans of all stripes after his statements about Netanyahu on Thursday, specifically because of what they say is his attempt to meddle and meddle in the elections in a democratic country.
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