Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) responded to former President Trump’s recent comments about American Jews voting for President Biden, suggesting it was a “reasonable argument” for him to make.
CNN’s Dana Bash pressed Vance on the former president’s recent comments where Trump again attacked American Jews for considering voting for Biden over him. Vance, a potential Trump running mate, ignored the comments and suggested people look at Trump’s record on Israel.
“I think it’s reasonable to look at this situation and say that if you’re an American Jew who cares about the state of Israel, who cares about these anti-Semitic riots, and you say you should be on the side of the Republicans in 2024 because they rule effectively on some of the issues that we care about, I think that’s a completely reasonable argument to make,” Vance said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“And I think Donald Trump will continue to do so,” he added.
Trump made several comments about Jewish Democrats during the campaign, saying in March that any “Jew who votes Democrat hates his religion, hates everything about Israel.” He made similar comments to reporters last week and on social media, which Vance responded to on CNN.
“What Biden is doing regarding Israel is disgraceful,” Trump told reporters last week. “If any Jew voted for Joe Biden, he should be ashamed of himself.”
Vance continued to defend Trump when pressed about the comments.
“But he made similar comments about many different groups of people, Dana. I don’t think anyone could look at the conduct of Donald Trump’s presidency and say, this is a person who is in any way anti-Semitic,” he told Bash.
Bash then noted that Trump “had dinner with Nick Fuentes, who is an avowed anti-Semite.” The former president had dinner with Fuentes in 2022, sparking reactions on both sides of the aisle.
“Dana, you should look at Joe Biden’s record and recognize that, whether you are Jewish or not, his presidency has been a disaster for the American people,” Vance responded.
At the beginning of the interview, Vance asked people to look at Trump’s record despite his recent comments.
“Well, what I think, Dana, is that people should look at the record here and recognize that Donald Trump has actually been very good for the state of Israel. We had peace and prosperity in our country and we had a very strong ally with the Israelis,” he said.
“Now Joe Biden is president. Israelis have been attacked. We have these terrible campus protests with many anti-Semitic overtones across our country, and we also have him trying to micromanage the Israeli response to the attack,” he added. .
Pro-Palestinian protests have erupted on college campuses across the country in recent weeks, prompting arrests and the cancellation of numerous graduation ceremonies. President Biden has stated that while he has supported peaceful protests, there is no place for anti-Semitism or violence.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
