David Friedman Blasts Jews Who Call Trump Anti-Semitic as ‘Morons’

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By Josh Nathan-Kazis December 20, 2016

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 nathankazis@forward.com or follow him on Twitter, @joshnathankazis.

Josh Nathan-Kazis is a staff writer for the Forward. He covers charities and politics, and writes investigations and longform.

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