That Trump — whose own daughter has converted to the Jewish faith — is somehow anti-Semitic is the liberal media’s latest unfounded smear against the president.
Julia Ioffe, a reporter for GQ, tweeted after the murders of Jews in a Pittsburgh synagogue this past weekend, “A word to my fellow American Jews: This president makes this possible. Here. Where you live. I hope the embassy over there, where you don’t live was worth it.”
This is only the latest example of how the liberal media is dropping all pretense of objectivity in their attacks upon President Donald Trump — but it is certainly taking it to a new level by attempting to blame him for the murder of Jews. Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, and her husband, Jared Kushner, are both practicing Jews, and the president moved the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem because Jerusalem is the country’s capital.
Ioffe had previously suggested, in exceptionally graphic terms, that Trump might very well be having sexual relations with his own daughter, Ivanka. That got her fired by Politico in December 2016, but apparently was not a résumé-killer for Trump-hating CNN.
After her initial assertion that Trump had somehow caused the murders in Pennsylvania, Ioffe took to CNN on Monday, and continued her incendiary accusations against him on Jake Tapper’s show. “I think this president, one of the things that he really launched his presidential run on is talking about Islamic radicalization. And this president has radicalized so many more people than ISIS ever did. I mean, the way he talks, the way he —”
At this point she was interrupted by CNN contributor David Urban. “That’s just — it’s unconscionable for you to say that.” Urban worked in the 2016 presidential campaign of Trump.
But Ioffe did not back off. “The way that he allows these people — the way he winks and nods to these groups. The way he says, ‘I know I’m not supposed to say it, but I’m a nationalist.’ The way that he hems and haws when he has to condemn these people and kind of gritting his teeth kind of says, ‘fine, OK, I condemn this.’”
Urban turned to Tapper in disgust, saying, “Hold on. For you [Tapper] not to push back on that — for her to say, the president of the United States has radicalized more people than ISIS is irresponsible.”
Tapper haughtily responded, “OK, you disagree with it.” Can one imagine that Tapper would have sat idly by while a Democrat icon was similarly unfairly attacked?
“It’s not true. Based on what?” Urban asked. Turning to Ioffe, he asked her to back up her claims with evidence. “How many camps have you gone into and interrogated ISIS folks? Do you know? What do you base it upon?”
But Ioffe still did not moderate her caustic anti-Trump comments, adding his supporters as part of her condemnation. “ISIS had like 10,000 members. I think the president has far more supporters who espouse an equally hateful ideology.”
ISIS has killed thousands of political opponents in the Middle East, including Jews, Christians, and even fellow Muslims who differ with their murderous ideology, yet Ioffe dared to compare Trump supporters to these killers.
Later, Ioffe apologized for her comments, sort of. “This has been a very emotional and painful time, but I absolutely should not have gone with such hyperbole on the air. I apologize.”
It is little wonder that President Trump would consider CNN part of what he calls the “Fake News” media. The way the liberal media has covered both the “pipe-bomb” story and the synagogue murders contrasts sharply with their tepid response to the shooting of a U.S. congressman by an avowed Bernie Sanders supporter, or the assault upon Senator Rand Paul by another liberal activist.
In both of those cases, the liberal media went into contortions to downplay the stories, and assure their audience that neither case had much, if anything, to do with left-wing politics, or, for that matter, their own acidic reporting against Republicans.
Trump understandably reacted angrily at the insinuations that his political rhetoric is somehow responsible for either the man in Florida, a Trump supporter, or the murderer in Pennsylvania. “There is great anger in our Country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news,” Trump wrote in a Tweet.
The man charged with the murders in the Pittsburgh synagogue, Robert Bowers, has often posted anti-Semitic material online, and now faces 29 criminal counts. Eleven Jews were murdered on Saturday. Bowers has also expressed his disapproval of Trump, but that has not stopped Trump’s critics, such as Ioffe, from attempting to score political points by blaming Trump for the tragedy, and somehow triggering Bowers to kill Jews who were simply worshipping in a synagogue.
Others rose to Trump’s defense, including Ron Dermer, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. “President Trump is not responsible for the anti-Semitism that has existed really in the United States in an increased fashion over the last couple of decades.”
Yet, actor Josh Malina tweeted, “Whether or not a direct line from his words to today’s horrific acts can be drawn, Trump’s anti-Jewish rhetoric and dog whistles make such attacks more likely.”
Of course, Trump has not uttered any anti-Jewish rhetoric, explicitly or implicitly.
But he has, and rightly so, accused the liberal media of causing much of the hate and discord in the country, tweeting, “The Fake News is doing everything in their power to blame Republicans, Conservatives and me for the division and hatred that has been going on for so long in our Country. Actually, it is their Fake & Dishonest reporting which is causing problems far greater than they understand!”
Photo: Photo: tzahiV/iStock/Getty Images Plus
