Fox News contributor Ari Fleischer defended Donald Trump’s recent claim that Jewish people who vote for Democrats “hate Israel” and “their religion,” insisting on Tuesday that the former president was “basically right” even though he “put it indelicately.”
During a Monday radio interview with former White House aide Seb Gorka, Trump sparked intense criticism when he (once again) peddled the antisemitic trope that Jewish Americans have a dual loyalty to Israel and the United States.
“I actually think they hate Israel. I don’t think they hate him, I think they hate Israel. And the Democrat Party hates Israel,” Trump said, reacting to Democratic criticism of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “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.”
Fox News, which had spent days raging that Trump’s controversial “bloodbath” remarks were taken out of context, virtually ignored the backlash over the ex-president’s comments about Jewish Democrats until he publicly defended himself on Tuesday afternoon. Even then, it merely received compulsory coverage from the network’s venerable “hard news” anchors Neil Cavuto and Bret Baier.
During Tuesday night’s broadcast of Special Report, Baier asked Fleischer to react not only the Trump’s defense of his comments but to the accusations from Democrats that Trump is peddling “unadulterated antisemitism” with his “disgusting” remarks. The former George W. Bush White House spokesperson, meanwhile, wasted no time in giving Trump a positive PR spin.
“You know, Donald Trump, as he has a habit of doing, puts things in the most blunt, tough form you can ever say them. But this has been a long-standing debate inside the Jewish community,” Fleischer, who is Jewish, said. “And let me just set the table. When George H.W. Bush ran for president in 1992 and lost, he got only 11 percent of the Jewish vote as a Republican, George H.W. Bush. Donald Trump almost tripled it. He got 30 percent of the Jewish vote.”
After saying that American Jews are still a largely “Democratic bloc,” Fleischer added that the group is “trending Republican” primarily due to the conflict in Gaza and liberals expressing support for Palestinians. Additionally, he suggested that progressive Jews are not religious.
“The Jews who never go to synagogue are definitely more liberal. That's true of all religions,” he said. “In the Fox News poll of 2020, it showed that among those who go to church every week, Donald Trump won by 24 points. Among those who never go to church, Joe Biden won by 28 points. So, the more religious you are, the more you tend to be conservative and vote Republican, that is the bigger point Donald Trump was making.”
Fleischer concluded: “And when it comes to Israel and Gaza, certainly for people who are Jewish, if Israel is your first concern, you tend to vote Republican. If abortion is your first concern or fear of Christian conservatives is your first concern, you tend to vote Democrat. This is a long-standing issue. Trump puts it indelicately, but Trump is basically right on the bigger issue.”
Fleischer isn’t the only Fox News personality who has rallied to Trump’s defense over his inflammatory remarks about Jewish Democrats. During his radio show on Tuesday, Fox News star and Trump confidant Sean Hannity said that the former president “could have been more articulate,” suggesting Trump meant to say “how inappropriate” it was for the Democratic Party to seemingly abandon Israel after it “suffered the worst terrorist attack in their history.”
Besides the White House and prominent Democrats denouncing Trump’s comments, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League also took issue with the ex-president blasting Jews who don’t vote for him.
“Accusing Jews of hating their religion because they might vote for a particular party is defamatory & patently false,” ADL chief Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted. “Serious leaders who care about the historic US-Israel alliance should focus on strengthening, rather than unraveling, bipartisan support for the State of Israel.”
Fox Newser: Trump’s ‘Basically Right’ to Say Jewish Dems ‘Hate Their Religion’
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20.03.2024
Fox News contributor Ari Fleischer defended Donald Trump’s recent claim that Jewish people who vote for Democrats “hate Israel” and “their religion,” insisting on Tuesday that the former president was “basically right” even though he “put it indelicately.”
During a Monday radio interview with former White House aide Seb Gorka, Trump sparked intense criticism when he (once again) peddled the antisemitic trope that Jewish Americans have a dual loyalty to Israel and the United States.
“I actually think they hate Israel. I don’t think they hate him, I think they hate Israel. And the Democrat Party hates Israel,” Trump said, reacting to Democratic criticism of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “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.”
Fox News, which had spent days raging that Trump’s controversial “bloodbath” remarks were taken out of context, virtually........
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