Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Zeldin Under Fire For Defending Trump On Charlottesville

New York Rep. Lee Zeldin, one of only two Jewish Republicans in the House of Representatives, was among the few who stood up for President Trump after his Tuesday comments blaming “both sides” for the Charlottesville events.

“It is not right to suggest that President Trump is wrong for acknowledging the fact that criminals on both sides showed up for the purpose of being violent,” Zeldin wrote in a Facebook post, “That particular observation is completely true.” Zeldin, who represents the East End of Long Island, added that there is “an element of our country” that has pledged to oppose and resist Trump on every issue, “and to this population the President cannot say or do absolutely anything at all that they won’t criticize as long as he is in the office he was elected to serve in last November.”

Perry Gershon, a Democrat seeking to unseat Zeldin, seized on Zeldin’s statement and called for his removal from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council because he backed Trump’s comments. “Zeldin must condemn these attacks for what they are – racist and anti-Semitic. Until he does, he should be removed from the US Holocaust Memorial Council,” Gershon said in a statement.

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.