Former President Donald Trump on Monday said any Jewish person who votes for President Joe Biden “does not love Israel” and “should be spoken to.”
During an interview that aired Monday night on “Real America’s Voice,” Trump claimed Democrats don’t want to talk about Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7 because Biden “is no fan of Israel.”
“Any Jewish person that votes for Biden does not love Israel and frankly, should be spoken to,” Trump said.
Trump argued that Biden, who has repeatedly said Israel has a right to defend itself amid the Israel-Hamas war even as he criticizes Israel’s handling of the war, is “totally on the side of Palestinians.”
The former president then suggested that Jewish and Black people vote for Democrats “by habit.”
“Jewish people, by habit, they vote for the Democrat, and Black people by habit vote for the Democrats,” he said.
In response to Trump’s comment, the Biden campaign on Monday night said in a post to X: “Trump appears to threaten Jewish Americans who vote against him: They, frankly, should be spoken to.” The campaign did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment on Trump’s remark.
In the interview, Trump also touted his record on Israel during his time in office, citing his controversial decision to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, which was considered a major foreign policy accomplishment by the Obama administration.
Trump’s remarks repeat an antisemitic trope he has previously pushed insinuating that American Jews have dual loyalties to the U.S. and Israel.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee last month claimed Jews who vote for Democrats “hate” Israel and “their religion.”
“Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion,” Trump said in an interview with Sebastian Gorka, a former Trump administration official, that aired last month on his web show.
“They hate everything about Israel, and they should be ashamed of themselves, because Israel will be destroyed,” the former president added.
Trump in September accused “liberal Jews” of voting to “destroy” the U.S. and Israel in a post to his Truth Social platform that came on the weekend of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.
“Just a quick reminder for liberal Jews who voted to destroy America & Israel because you believed false narratives! Let’s hope you learned from your mistake & make better choices moving forward!” he said. “Happy New Year!”
Trump had also invoked the dual loyalty trope during his presidency. In 2019, Trump came under scrutiny for saying that “any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat” demonstrated “great disloyalty” or are naive.
Megan Lebowitz contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
