‘Blame the Jews, One of the Oldest’: Doug Emhoff Accuses Trump of Pushing ‘Vile’ Antisemitic Tropes
Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff accused former President Donald Trump of pushing a “vile” and “disgusting” antisemitic trope when he preemptively blamed Jewish voters for a potential election loss.
Emhoff sat with MSNBC host Jen Psaki — who previously served as press secretary in President Joe Biden’s administration — this week for an interview that will air in full on Sunday. In a clip shared by Andrea Mitchell, Emhoff told Psaki he believes Trump is putting a “target” on Jewish Americans.
“What really bothered me a week or so ago is when Trump got up there at an event purporting, an event purporting to fight antisemitism and he said vile antisemitic things long tropes that are just terrible, and we have to speak every single time when something like that happens,” Emhoff said. “I’m going to continue not to be afraid, not to be intimidated, not to live in fear, but to live openly and proudly as a Jewish person.”
Speaking in front of the conservative Israeli-American Council in Washington D.C., Trump told the crowd that if he loses in November to Vice President Kamala Harris, Jewish voters “would have a lot to do with that.”
The former president said:
I only want to be– 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%. 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.
Emhoff called Trump’s words one of the “oldest tropes” used against Jewish people.
“When you hear him say things like that, and he said that if he doesn’t win, it will be essentially the fault of Jewish Americans —” Psaki said in their interview.
“Blame the Jews, one of the oldest tropes,” Emhoff said.
“An old trope, I know you put out a statement on X at the time. Do you worry that he’s putting a target on the backs of Jewish Americans?” Psaki then asked.
“He is. I mean, take him at his word. He lies about a lot of things, but you’ve got to take him at his word on things like this, so yeah, this is a disgusting trope, this so-called due loyalties,” Emhoff said. “It’s an outrage and it’s not just Jewish people that should be outraged.”
Watch above via MSNBC.