Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign refuted Donald Trump’s assertion Friday that she “doesn’t like Jewish people,” pointing to how second gentleman Doug Emhoff “is literally Jewish,” and later called out the former president on a number of policy-related matters, as well as his ability to speak.
Trump, who had made an almost identical version of the baseless “Jewish people” claim on Wednesday, tried to depict the vice president as an enemy of Israel during a speech at a Turning Point USA gathering in Florida.
“Kamala Harris stabbed Israel in the back in its great hour of need,” Trump said bluntly, mispronouncing her first name. He then noted that Harris did not attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint session of Congress on Thursday.
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Harris, who did meet with Netanyahu that day, said afterwards that she expressed “serious concern” to him about the suffering in Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war. While noting that “Israel has a right to defend itself and how it does so matters,” she also vowed to “not be silent” about the “devastating” events there.
“The images of dead children and desperate hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time. We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be silent,” she said at the time.
When Trump insisted on Friday that Harris simply “doesn’t like Jewish people,” her campaign quickly called attention to Emhoff’s background.
“(Her husband is literally Jewish),” read a post on X.
In Trump’s speech, which included false claims about the 2020 presidential election that he lost, he also made ominous comments about his supporters not having to vote in four years because “it will be fixed.”
“You have to get out and vote, and Christians: you have to get out and vote! Just this time.
“You won’t have to do it anymore. In four more years, you know what? It will be fixed. It will be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians,” Trump said. “We’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote.”
Trump, of course, has refused to rule out breaking the law if re-elected.
Once Trump left the stage, the Harris campaign responded again with a press release criticizing several of his most controversial comments—and his ability to express them.
“Tonight, Donald Trump couldn’t pronounce words, insulted the faith of Jewish and Catholic Americans, lied about the election (again), lied about other stuff, bragged about repealing Roe, proposed cutting billions in education funding, announced he would appoint more extremist judges, revealed he planned to fill a second Trump term with more criminals like himself, attacked lawful voting, went on and on and on, and generally sounded like someone you wouldn’t want to sit near at a restaurant—let alone be President of the United States,” campaign spokesperson James Singer said in a statement.
“America can do better than the bitter, bizarre, and backward looking delusions of criminal Donald Trump. Vice President Kamala Harris offers a vision for America’s future focused on freedom, opportunity, and security.”
