Al Franken: New Trump ad has feel of Elders of Zion

Jewish Senator Al Franken joins criticism of a new Donald Trump campaign ad that repeats the candidate’s accusations of a conspiracy against the American people, coupled with images of prominent Jews.

“When I saw the ad I thought that this was something of a German Shepherd whistle, a dog whistle, to a certain group in the United States,” the Minnesota Democrat tells CNN’s Jake Tapper.

“I’m Jewish so maybe I’sensitive to it, but it clearly had a sort of Elders of Zion kind of feel to it, international banking conspiracy and a number of Jews, so I think that it does speak to a certain part of his alt-right base,” Franken says, referring to a forged document purporting to detail a Jewish conspiracy for world domination.

“Trump has retweeted a lot of that sort of thing, and I think that it’s an appeal to some of the worst elements in our country in a closing argument. I think that people who aren’t sensitive to that and don’t know that history may not see that, but that’s what I immediately saw,” the senator concludes.