Republican senator refuses to condemn Trump’s remark that election loss would be Jews’ fault
Former President Donald Trump and Sen, Tom Cotton (R-AK) on Aug. 2, 2017. Photo by Zach Gibson/Bloomberg via Getty Images
By Jacob Kornbluh September 22, 2024
Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, refused on Sunday morning to denounce former President Donald Trump’s remarks that American Jews would bear the responsibility if he loses the presidential election. Trump’s statement, delivered in back-to-back speeches to Jewish audiences on Thursday, faced condemnation from mainstream American Jewish groups.
“It’s the same kind of language he’s been using for months,” Cotton said in an interview on CNN’s State of the Union program. “He’s been saying things like this, not just at antisemitism events, but speaking to Christians who care about Israel as well, for months.”
CNN host Jake Tapper, who is Jewish, pushed back. “No, no, no, this is the first time he has ever said: If I lose, it will be the fault of Jews,” he said. “I happen to have a pretty good ear for when people say things like this. And that’s the first time he’s ever said that.”
When Cotton doubled down on that assertion, Tapper retorted, “That doesn’t mean it’s OK.”
Cotton, a Trump ally who is running for a key leadership position in the next Congress, said the Democratic Party is playing up the remarks because of a recent poll that shows Trump “is winning a record number of Jewish voters.”
Trump recently claimed, without evidence, that a survey had him at 40% among Jewish voters. “I’m not going to call this 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 during a campaign event in Washington, D.C., about rising antisemitism.
There is no evidence that Trump is close to the support former President Ronald Reagan got in 1980 — 39%. A poll sponsored by the Jewish Democratic Council of America, showed Harris with a 68% to 25% lead among Jewish voters, and a Pew Research Center poll showed 34% of American Jews supporting Trump. A recent Siena Research poll of Jews in New York, representing only a small sample of all respondents, showed that Trump had 54% of Jewish support in the deep blue state.
Trump has raised the ire of Jewish groups before for accusing Jews of dual loyalty — a longstanding antisemitic trope — saying that Jews supporting Democrats “should have their head examined,” and for his associations with antisemites and white supremacists. But the comments on Thursday prompted a more robust reaction. Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said “preemptively blaming American Jews for your potential election loss does zero to help American Jews.” The American Jewish Committee called Trump’s statement “outrageous and dangerous.”
In the four-minute exchange with Tapper on Sunday, Cotton repeatedly refused to address the concerns of Jews being scapegoated and instead shifted the focus to accusing Vice President Kamala Harris of turning her back on Israel.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press, encouraged Trump to focus on persuading Jewish voters to support him based on his domestic policy. “Talk about crime, talk about the economy, talk about inflation, talk about border,” he said. “That’s the way you persuade people in this country. We have an obligation to persuade people to vote for us.”
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