David Friedman Blasts Jews Who Call Trump Anti-Semitic as ‘Morons’
David Friedman has a way with words.
Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to Israel is already being slammed for calling liberal Jews “worse than kapos” in a column on a far-right website.
Now, a November interview in which Friedman said that Senator Al Franken and others who accused the Trump campaign of anti-Semitism “sound like morons” is circulating on social media.
Asked by the website Jewish Insider about accusations that a Trump campaign ad trafficked in anti-Semitic tropes, Friedman lashed out at the Anti-Defamation League.
“Lloyd Blankfein is the head of Goldman Sachs,” Friedman said. “He’s not being criticized because he’s Jewish; he’s being criticized because he runs a bank that has extraordinarily close ties to Hillary Clinton and has paid her almost $1 million to give speeches that Hillary Clinton tried to keep secret.”
Since his election victory, Trump has nominated three Goldman Sachs Group Inc. officials to senior positions in his administration.
Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter, @joshnathankazis.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!