Trump calls Joe Biden weak on antisemitism, ignoring his own rhetoric
New York (AP): Donald Trump is accusing Joe Biden of offering a weak response to antisemitism, wielding the clashes on colleges campuses over the war in Gaza as a campaign issue. But Trump's attacks ignore his own long history of rhetoric that invokes the language of Nazi Germany and plays on stereotypes of Jews and politics.
The latest example came over the weekend, when Trump accusing the White House of having a role in his multiple state and federal criminal prosecutions told Republican donors gathered for a private retreat at his Florida resort that Biden is running a Gestapo administration, referring to the secret police force of Nazi Germany.
Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, called it a deliberate tactic to attack Biden and distract from his own track record.
"It's wholly aligned with his long history of offensive and irresponsible comments when it comes to the Jewish community, including the normalization of antisemitism," Spitalnick said.
Biden's campaign called it despicable and an attack on law enforcement.
Trump's attempts to claim a moral high ground against antisemitism come as the Democratic president is navigating the intense divisions of the Israel-Hamas war and the resulting unrest from demonstrations. Trump and other Republicans have seized on the disruptions on college campuses, which have at times been violent, as a sign of weakness from Biden and Democrats. It's also the latest example of Trump's timeworn tactic of repackaging a censure he's received and stamping it on his opponents.
As pro-Palestinian demonstrations have broken out at college campuses, some people have reported antisemitic chants and messages at and around the protests and some Jewish students have said they have felt unsafe on campus. Trump's campaign on Monday released a video on Yom Hashoah, Israel's Holocaust remembrance day, that aimed to contrast the 2024 presidential candidates' responses on antisemitism.
The video shows images of Trump visiting Israel and speeches he has given pledging to stand with Jewish people and confront antisemitism, while showing footage of the protests on campuses and clips of Biden responding to protesters upset with his administration's support for Israel in its war against Hamas.
One of the clips shows Biden saying, They have a point, but does not include the next sentence in which Biden said, We need to get a lot more care into Gaza.
Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for Trump's campaign, criticized Biden for taking weeks to even talk about the Biden Campus Protests and not condemning what she described as pro-Hamas, pro-genocide mobs, saying the sad truth is that he needs their votes.
"Jewish Americans and Jewish leaders around the world recognize that President Trump did more for them and the State of Israel than any President in history," Leavitt also said Monday.
Trump also spoke about the protests as he arrived in court Monday for his trial in a felony hush money case. Noting Columbia University has cancelled its main commencement ceremony following weeks of pro-Palestinian protests, Trump said that shouldn't happen. He also claimed that many protesters were backed by Biden donors.
Ok, are you listening Israel? I hope you're listening, Israel. Hope you're getting smart," Trump said.
Biden has said he condemns the antisemitic protests and last week, he broke days of silence and called for order after some schools cleared demonstrators by force, leading to clashes.
James Singer, a spokesperson for Biden's campaign, said Biden stands against antisemitism but Trump does not.
Trump has praised neo-Nazis, dined with neo-Nazis, echoed the rhetoric of neo-Nazis, and reportedly praised the accomplishments of Adolf Hitler, Singer said in a statement. He cannot lead us, so he seeks to divide us with the oldest of ideas hate, anger, revenge, and retribution.
After white nationalists chanting Jews will not replace us! rallied in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 and clashed with anti-racism protesters, Trump drew some of his fiercest backlash as president when he said that there were very fine people, on both sides.
Trump last week downplayed Charlottesville, saying the deadly rally was nothing compared to ongoing pro-Palestinian campus protests.
Not long after launching his third White House campaign in 2022, Trump drew widespread condemnation for having dinner at his Mar-a-Lago club with a Holocaust-denying white nationalist and the rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, shortly after he made weeks of antisemitic comments.
He's drawn criticism on his third White House campaign for using language echoing that used by Adolf Hitler to argue that immigrants entering the U.S. illegally are poisoning the blood of our country, and labelled his opponents as vermin.
Trump has also been accused of promoting antisemitic tropes as he's suggested that Jewish people who vote for Democrats hate Israel and hate their religion are very disloyal to Israel. Critics have said the comments evoke the drop of dual loyalty, accusing Jews of being more loyal to their religion than their country.
After Trump's reference to Gestapo over the weekend, Jonathan Sarna, an American Jewish history professor at Brandeis University, said there are great dangers in the Nazi comparisons.
Not only it's historically incorrect, it's morally offensive, Sarna said. The problem is looking to associate whatever you don't like with the most evil forces, ignoring all the crucial differences. At that point, we forget what the Holocaust really was.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Nitish likely to resign as Bihar CM after last meeting of cabinet on April 14
Patna (PTI): Bihar inched towards a political transition on Sunday with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar convening a meeting of his cabinet on April 14, following which the JD(U) president is likely to relinquish the post to make way for a BJP-led government.
According to a notification issued by the cabinet secretariat department, the meeting will take place at 11 am, after which the longest-serving CM of the state, who got elected to the Rajya Sabha last week, was expected to submit his resignation to Governor Syed Ata Hasnain.
Earlier, Kumar's close aide and JD(U) national working president Sanjay Kumar Jha had told reporters that the process of formation of a new government was likely to "roll out after April 13".
Meanwhile, the BJP, which has been approaching the prospect of having its first- ever chief minister in the state with considerable restraint, got down to business and named Shivraj Singh Chouhan as a "central observer", who would oversee the change of guard.
A statement issued by the BJP headquarters in Delhi said the parliamentary board has appointed Chouhan, a Union minister and a multiple-term former CM of Madhya Pradesh, as “central observer for electing the leader of legislature party in Bihar”.
Senior JD(U) leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, had said here earlier in the day "the new chief minister will be elected by the NDA, upon the recommendation of the BJP, which has a big role to play".
Speculations are doing the rounds that Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, who holds the crucial Home portfolio in the outgoing government, is the frontrunner among contenders for the top job.
BJP leaders in the state, who have been making frantic visits to Delhi in the recent past, are keeping their cards close to the chest.
"Who will be the next CM is a decision to be taken by our central leadership," minister Dilip Jaiswal, who is a former state BJP president, had said a day ago, adding, "I am not at all in the race".
Other than Choudhary, who had joined the BJP less than a decade ago, those whose names are doing the rounds include Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai and state ministers Lakhendra Paswan and Shreyasi Singh.
According to BJP sources, all these leaders fit the bill in different ways. Choudhary is a ‘Koeri’, and his elevation could ensure that the ‘Luv Kush’ (Kurmi Koeri) equation nurtured by Kumar during his 20-year-rule remained intact in favour of the NDA, after the JD(U) supremo's departure.
Rai is a Yadav and brings the promise of support of the largest caste group in Bihar, which has been with Lalu Prasad's RJD, the BJP's principal rival in the state, for decades.
Paswan is a Dalit and his elevation could help the BJP transcend its "pro-upper caste" image, which brings its own disadvantages in the Hindi heartland, where the Mandal agitation of the 1990s has cast a long shadow, the sources said.
Singh, in her 30s, is an upper caste Rajput, but her elevation could be projected as the party giving preference to young blood.
Moreover, the party has also been trying to present itself as a champion of gender equality, by pushing through the ‘Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam’ that ensures 33 per cent reservation to women in both Houses of Parliament.
However, the BJP sources admitted that there was a strong possibility of the central leadership springing a "surprise", citing examples of many states ruled by the party, where less fancied leaders have landed the top job in the recent past.
Actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha, a Trinamool Congress MP who spent nearly three decades in the BJP, had said, while commenting on the political situation in Bihar that "we have plenty of deserving people here but we must be beware of a baba who may arrive with a parchi".
The allusion was to Rajasthan, where Bhajan Lal Sharma was named the chief minister two years ago at a legislature party meeting, where Defence Minister Rajnath Singh was seen on camera taking out a piece of paper with the name of the first-term MLA written on it.
