After O’Rourke comments, White House says Democrats don’t condemn anti-Semitism
Sweeping statement about 2020 candidates comes after Texan compared Trump’s rhetoric on immigrants to speech used in Nazi Germany
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
The White House is claiming the entire slate of Democratic presidential candidates has failed to adequately condemn anti-Semitism and consistently rejected the need to protect Israel.
The sweeping statement issued Saturday by White House spokesman Hogan Gidley comes after Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke compared the rhetoric used by US President Donald Trump to describe immigrants to the rhetoric used in Nazi Germany.
O’Rourke made the comments during multiple campaign stops in Iowa on Thursday. The White House did not respond to a request for comment at the time.
Instead of directly addressing O’Rourke’s comments, the statement from Gidley sought to attack the Democratic party on the same day that Trump addressed the annual meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas.
O’Rourke made the comments Thursday night at a campaign town hall, where he called out “the rhetoric of a president who not only describes immigrants as rapists and criminals but as animals and an infestation,” in response to a question on how he would address attacks from Republicans.
The former congressman from Texas said, “Now, I might expect someone to describe another human being as an infestation in the Third Reich. I would not expect that in the United States of America.”
O’Rourke says he will avoid using similar rhetoric because “if we descend into that pettiness and meanness and those personal attacks, I’m not sure that we can win.”
The Times of Israel Community.