Biden campaign slams ‘Trump’s use of anti-Semitic tropes’

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s campaign said Wednesday that President Trump’s “use of anti-Semitic tropes has emboldened all of those who hate Jews,” after a Washington Post report about anti-Semitic comments the president has allegedly made in private.

The Post reported earlier in the day, citing unnamed sources, that Trump muttered after a phone call with Jewish lawmakers that Jews “are only in it for themselves” and “stick together.” 

Biden’s Jewish engagement director Aaron Keyak slammed the alleged comments, saying “this is who Donald Trump really is.” 

“We know that Donald Trump’s use of anti-Semitic tropes has emboldened all those who hate Jews. We must not numb ourselves to Trump’s dangerous rhetoric during our sacred time of reflection and holiness,” Keyak said in a statement that came between the holiest Jewish holidays, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. 

“This should serve as a wake up call to the relatively few Jewish Americans who still insist on standing with and promoting the current occupant of the White House. Our community must stick together to do everything we can defeat Trump in November,” Keyak added. 

Trump’s reported remarks about Jews were part of a larger Washington Post story involving alleged slams against multiple races and ethnic groups, including saying that Black Americans have themselves to blame in their struggle for equality. 

White House deputy spokesperson Sarah Matthews disputed the characterizations. 

“Donald Trump’s record as a private citizen and as a president has been one of fighting for including and advocating for the equal treatment of all,” Matthews told the Post. “Anyone who suggests otherwise is only seeking to sow division.” 

Asked for comment on Trump’s reported comments, the White House directed The Hill to Matthew’s quote in the Post’s story.

In response to the Biden campaign’s criticism over Trump’s reported anti-Semitic comments about Jews, a spokesperson for Trump’s campaign highlighted the president as the “greatest ally to the State of Israel.”

“President Trump is the greatest ally the State of Israel has ever had in the White House. While the mainstream media continues to highlight anonymous sources to disparage the President weeks before the election, Americans can see the truth for themselves through the President’s actions to fight against anti-Semitism, move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, tear up the disastrous Iran nuclear deal from the Obama-Biden administration, and sign the historic Abraham Accords,” Trump spokesperson Courtney Parella said in a statement.

It is not the first time Trump has been condemned over remarks about American Jews. Last year, Jewish groups condemned him publicly calling Jews who vote for Democrats disloyal.

He reiterated a similar comment last week on a call with Jewish leaders ahead of Rosh Hashanah, lamenting the fact that he did not win the majority of the Jewish vote, according to multiple reports. 

“What really amazes me, and I have to tell you because I saw a poll, that in the last election I got 25 percent of the Jewish vote. And I said here I have a son-in-law and a daughter who are Jewish, I have beautiful grandchildren that are Jewish,” Trump said on the call, according to CNN. “But I’m amazed that it seems to be almost automatically a Democrat vote.”

He also reportedly told the American Jewish leaders, “We really appreciate you, we love your country also and thank you very much.”

Updated at 5:14 p.m.