FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 20, 2019
CONTACT: Sara Spain, [email protected], 202.864.0267
BEND THE ARC: TRUMP’S “DISLOYALTY” COMMENT IS TEXTBOOK ANTISEMITISM
New York – Following comments by President Trump today accusing Jewish Americans who oppose him of “ignorance” or “disloyalty,” Stosh Cotler, CEO of Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, released the following statement:
“President Trump’s abhorrent statement today accusing the vast majority of Jewish Americans who oppose him of ‘disloyalty’ is textbook antisemitism and should be called out as such, without hesitation. The antisemitic charge of disloyalty or dual loyalty dates back centuries, and this isn’t the first time this president has used it without remorse or apology. With his racist words and policies, the president every day makes clear that he shares the white nationalist worldview of those who have threatened, attacked and murdered Jewish people on U.S. soil. Donald Trump paints his opponents as antisemites and claims to care about the Jewish community, then turns around and attacks our community. His irresponsible rhetoric and embrace of white nationalism put our lives in danger.
"The American Jewish community is overwhelmingly progressive, and Trump’s attempts to call the majority of our community uninformed or disloyal is absurd. The truth is that nearly 80% of Jewish Americans voted for Democratic candidates in the midterm elections, and 76% of Jews voted against Trump in 2016. Over and over again, he demonstrates why our community overwhelmingly opposed his candidacy and why we continue to oppose his bigotry, xenophobia and authoritarianism.
“We call on members of Congress and candidates for elected office to condemn both Trump’s blatant antisemitism and the false, hypocritical accusations of antisemitism that he levels at his political opponents. Jewish Americans remain committed to working with everyone threatened by President Trump’s white nationalist agenda – immigrants, Muslim Americans, black Americans and the LGBTQ community – to build a movement that will defeat this hateful ideology and drive it out of our politics and society.”
