‘Pretty Repulsive Stuff’: Morning Joe Goes Off on Trump’s ‘Anti-Semitic Screed’ as Bias and Hate Crimes ‘Skyrocket’
Morning Joe opened Monday’s show by sharply rebuking a recent social media message posted by former President Donald Trump, which they described as an “anti-Semitic screed” that was “pretty repulsive.”
In a Sunday afternoon post, Trump complained that he doesn’t get enough support from Jewish people in a Sunday Truth Social post, writing:
“No President has done more for Israel than I have,” the ex-president said. “Somewhat surprisingly, however, our wonderful Evangelicals are far more appreciative of this than the people of the Jewish faith, especially those living in the U.S. Those living in Israel, though, are a different story – Highest approval rating in the World, could easily be P.M.! U.S. Jews have to get their act together and appreciate what they have in Israel – Before it is too late!”
Joe Scarborough opened the show by asking Jonathan Lemire about what he described as “this anti-semitic screed that Donald Trump went on yesterday, a lot of observers saying that I saw yesterday at least, conservatives saying this was his worst anti-semitic rant yet. Tell us, give us some reporting from it. What was it about? What was behind it?”
“No one knows,” Lemire replied, adding, “It seems to have come out of nowhere, this rant from the former president over the weekend. But he has danced very dangerously to anti-semitic remarks before, a couple of moments during the campaign. His defense would be my daughter is married to someone who is Jewish. Therefore I can’t be anti-semitic, but this is pretty repulsive stuff, and it was widely condemned, not just by the usual Democrats; some conservatives also spoke out against this.”
Lemire then added context, saying, “This tweet comes at a moment where bias incidents and hate crimes, anti-semitic incidents are already skyrocketing, they have been on the rise in recent years, and it feels like we know the president has inspired the violence of January 6th, called for supporters to be violent other times, related to the Mar-a-Lago case, sending out warnings, and threats to the FBI, and the fear here is this could be interpreted by his followers as a moment to potentially commit violence against Jews, and that is deeply worrisome, and we will now need to see who else steps forward and do any Republican lawmakers also condemn these remarks in the days ahead.”
“There were some observers that said, ‘as always, it’s not about Jews in Israel, it’s not about Jews in America, it’s always about Donald Trump,'” Scarborough added. “Over three out of four Jews in America voted for Joe Biden, so there are people close to him that suggest that still wrangles him that he got beaten so badly among Jewish voters in America, but to do that, and say basically they better get their act together before it’s too late, sounds ominous. It sounds ominous, like saying that Mitch McConnell has a ‘death wish.'”
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt slammed Trump, saying, “We don’t need the former president, who curries favor with extremists and antisemites, to lecture us about the U.S.-Israel relationship. It is not about a quid pro quo; it rests on shared values and security interests. This ‘Jewsplaining’ is insulting and disgusting,” he said.
Watch above via MSNBC.
