Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) denounced recent remarks by former President Trump about Jewish Americans who vote Democratic as “reprehensible and dangerous” Tuesday, arguing they are a clear example of “unadulterated antisemitism.”
Trump said in an interview that aired Monday that Democrats “hate Israel” and that Jewish voters who support Democrats hate their religion. The comments came in response to Schumer’s call late last week for new elections in Israel and heightened criticism of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in U.S. history, responded in kind Tuesday.
“The former president’s comments were utterly disgusting and a textbook example of the kind of antisemitism facing Jews, pushing the dangerous antisemitism trope of dual loyalty,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “To say you hate Israel because you have one political view over the other is sick. It’s hateful. It is unadulterated antisemitism and it serves to use Israel as a political wedge further damaging the bonds between the U.S. and Israel.”
“We’ve always tried — I’ve always tried through the years to keep everything we do on Israel bipartisan, and to use it for partisan purposes hurts Israel, hurts America and displays how low Donald Trump will go,” Schumer continued.
The leader also noted that Trump’s past of dining with white supremacist Nick Fuentes and his 2017 remarks about the Charlottesville, Va., attack.
Schumer said that the former president has no “right to lecture Jewish Americans about their personal, political beliefs.”
Trump made the remarks during an interview with Sebastian Gorka, a former Trump White House aide.
“I actually think they hate Israel,” Trump responded when asked why Democrats “hate” Netanyahu. “And the Democrat Party hates Israel.”
“Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion, they hate everything about Israel and they should be ashamed of themselves, because Israel will be destroyed,” Trump said.
The ex-president has made similar remarks in the past. In 2019, he said that “any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat” show “great disloyalty.”
As for Schumer, he came under criticism from Republicans of all stripes after his remarks about Netanyahu on Thursday, specifically for what they say is his attempt to interfere and meddle with elections in a democratic country.