White House press secretary Sarah Sanders declined Monday to rule out that Democrats hate Jews.
Asked during a rare White House press briefing whether President Trump believed this to be the case, Sanders said to “ask Democrats” instead.
“Democrats have had a number of opportunities to condemn specific comments and have refused to do that,” Sanders said. “That’s a question you should ask Democrats what their position is, since they’re unwilling to call this what it is and take actual action against members who have done things like this like the Republicans have done when they had the same opportunity.”
Over the weekend, Trump called out House Democrats’ alleged anti-Semitism, claiming the Democratic Party has become an “anti-Jewish party” and that Democrats hate Jews.
She said House Democrats’ recently passed resolution that condemned many forms of hatred and bigotry was not a strong enough condemnation of anti-Semitism.
The resolution, which was approved by the House on March 7, condemned anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, white supremacy, and a long list of other forms of intolerance. It came as a response to allegedly anti-Semitic comments by Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, who implied that lawmakers have “dual loyalty” and “allegiance” to Israel, and that politicians’ support for Israel is contingent upon money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
“Frankly, the remarks that have been made by a number of Democrats and failed to be called out by democratic leadership is, frankly, abhorrent and it’s sad and it’s something that should be called by name,” Sanders said. “It shouldn’t be put in a watered-down resolution.”
Sanders compared the Democrats’ resolution to House Republicans’ condemnation of Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, in January. After King questioned why the term “white supremacist” was offensive, Republicans voted on a measure to condemn King’s comments and strip the lawmaker of his committee memberships.
“We’d like to see the Democrats follow suit,” Sanders said.
Sanders highlighted Trump’s loyalty to Israel and said the president had “laid out clearly his position” on anti-Semitism.
“Look, the president’s been an unwavering and committed ally to Israel and the Jewish people,” Sanders said.
