House Republican Tries to Explain Away Trump Blaming the Jews If He Loses
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) tried to explain away an odious comment about Jewish Americans made by former President Donald Trump.
Speaking at the Israeli-American Council in Washington, D.C. on Thursday night, Trump said that if he loses the election to Vice President Kamala Harris, Jews will be largely responsible. The former president lamented the fact that most Jewish voters do not support him despite his record on Israel. He falsely claimed that he is only polling around 40% among Jews, but the number is at 25%.
“So I’m not going to call this as a prediction, but in my opinion, the Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss if I’m at 40%,” Trump said. “If I’m at for– think of it. That means 60% are voting for Kamala, who in particular is a bad Democrat. The Democrats are bad to Israel. Very bad. They’ll never change because they have a section of their party now which has become amazingly and quickly very powerful vote-wise.”
Jews make up about 2.4% of the U.S. population. Trump has repeatedly expressed bewilderment in public as to why more Jews do not support him. He’s gone so far as to say that those who do not support him should “have their head examined.” He’s touted the fact that he moved the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and brokered the Abraham Accords between Israel and a handful of Muslim-majority nations.
Appearing on NewsNation on Friday, Lawler was asked by host Chris Cuomo about the former president’s remarks.
“If I lose, you gotta blame the Jews for it,” Cuomo said, brutally but accurately paraphrasing Trump. “I mean, what is that about?”
After some comments about a topic earlier in the segment, the congressman addressed the matter at hand:
With respect to President Trump’s comments, I was there last night at one of the events. And I listened to his comments And obviously, people can quibble with them or say it was wrong. But what– he was making the point ultimately that the Jewish people have a big voice in this election given the issue of Israel, given the issue of anti-Semitism. And it’s an opportunity for them to have their voice heard. And he believes – and I think rightly so – that he has been a strong supporter of Israel. He has combatted anti-Semitism here in America. He was the one that implemented the executive order putting the IHRA working definition into effect with respect to anti-Semitism on college campuses and violations of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Lawler then went on to falsely claim that the vice president supports an arms embargo vis-à-vis Israel, which her camp has explicitly rejected. He also accused Harris of having a “lax approach to Iran.”
“I think what the president was [sic] making the point that Israel would be in jeopardy in a Harris administration,” Lawler concluded.
“I get that part,” Cuomo said, ignoring Lawler’s arms embargo claim. “I’m just saying, can we both agree, if Donald Trump loses the election, it is not the fault of American Jews? Can we agree on that?”
“Oh, look, it is absolutely not the fault of American Jews if he loses the election,” Lawler conceded right after insisting Trump had said something other than what he had said.
Watch above via NewsNation.
