House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff predicts Jewish Americans will reject President Trump in “record numbers” because of his embrace of an anti-Semitic trope.
The California Democrat said Trump’s assertion that American Jews who vote Democrat are disloyal to Israel was “deeply offensive” and not consistent with Jewish values.
“As a Jew, I find the idea that the president of the United States would suggest that if I don’t support him, that somehow I’m either being disloyal to Israel, disloyal to the United States. It’s a longstanding trope — anti-Semitic trope that Jews have to prove their loyalty to our country or Jews are really loyal to a foreign country, that is to Israel,” Schiff said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Thursday.
“More than that, though, the president is severely misguided if he thinks that his demonstration of such a profound lack of morals is disdain for the stranger among us, is somehow consistent with Jewish values, or the Jews are a monolithic voting bloc. We’re not. And I think you’re going to find Jews rejecting this president and all he stands for in record numbers,” he added.
Trump already struggles with Jewish voters in America. In the 2016 election, exit polls show 71% of Jewish voters backed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, while 23% voted for him. A Gallup poll published in March showed 71% of Jewish Americans disapproved of Trump.
Trump stirred controversy on Tuesday when he said Jewish people who vote for Democratic candidates were either ill-informed or disloyal. “I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Trump doubled down on the “disloyal” claim on Wednesday.
“In my opinion, the Democrats have gone very far away from Israel. I cannot understand how they can do that,” Trump said. “They don’t want to fund Israel. They want to take away foreign aid to Israel. They want to do a lot of bad things to Israel. In my opinion, you vote for a Democrat, you’re being very disloyal to Jewish people and very disloyal to Israel.”
Trump also tweeted a quote from a right-wing conspiracy theorist on Wednesday who claimed he was the best president for Jewish people in the U.S. and Israel, and called him “the King of Israel.”
Trump’s loyalty comments have become fodder for the 2020 race. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is Jewish, responded by saying, “I am a proud Jewish person” with “no concerns about voting Democratic.”
Asked what his message to all the Jews listening in to the program is, Schiff said it is to stay true to their values and speak out against bigotry.
“My message would be that we need to continue to speak and act our values. That is, embrace the stranger. We need to uplift, you know, the best among us. That is our fundamental commitment to decency and ethics that we have to look out for our neighbor. Really, exhibit the qualities that this president so clearly lacks,” Schiff said. “But we also need to speak out against this kind of divisive bigotry that the president shows. Jews are just obviously one of his targets right now. His brand of racist, divisive politics as being wielded against many communities, not ours alone and we have to speak out and condemn it and do what we can to fight this.”
