Donald Trump is insisting that his negative tweet about Hillary Clinton did not feature a Star of David atop a pile of cash, but some say his excuse is also offensive.
Trump said Wednesday at a rally in Cincinnati that it was just “a regular star or maybe a sheriff’s star” and that he wished his campaign had not deleted the image.
Trump received criticism for the image of the star, which some had deemed anti-Semitic. He insists that the media “was racist” for assuming that the image had Jewish connotations.
He also says that he is not anti-Semitic, noting that his daughter Ivanka had converted to Judaism for marriage and is raising her children Jewish.
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Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said Trump’s attempt to dismiss the concerns of people who have taken issue with the post “falls somewhere between absurd and offensive.”
“It’s not a left-wing issue or a right-wing issue,” he said. “It’s not a Democratic issue or a Republican issue. It’s a matter of common sense.” Greenblatt said: “It would be appropriate and timely for the presumptive GOP nominee for the White House to say unequivocally, I want nothing to do with these ideas,” and to say “hate has no place in making America great again.”
Earlier Monday, Sarah Bard, director of Jewish outreach for Clinton’s Democratic presidential campaign, said in a statement that “Trump’s use of a blatantly anti-Semitic image from racist websites to promote his campaign” was part of a pattern by him. “Now, not only won’t he apologize for it, he’s peddling lies and blaming others,” she added. “Trump should be condemning hate, not offering more campaign behavior and rhetoric that engages extremists.”
In his statement, Trump accused Clinton’s campaign of using the tweet to try to “divert attention from the dishonest behavior of herself and her husband.” He cited her “missing emails” and Bill Clinton’s impromptu meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch as her agency oversees the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state.
Trump has long professed his support for Israel. But he has come under scrutiny for repeatedly re-tweeting posts from white supremacists’ accounts and for not immediately renouncing the support of former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke.
By: AP