Trump Vows To Be ‘Best Friend’ To Jewish Americans, As Allegations Of Ally’s Antisemitism Surface | EUROtoday

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump on Thursday decried antisemitism hours after an explosive CNN report detailed how certainly one of his allies working for North Carolina governor made a sequence of racial and sexual feedback on an internet site the place he additionally referred to himself as a “black NAZI.”

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson vowed to stay within the race regardless of the report, and the Trump marketing campaign gave the impression to be distancing itself from the candidate whereas nonetheless calling the battleground state a significant half to successful again the White House. Trump has continuously voiced his help for Robinson, who has been thought-about a rising star in his celebration regardless of a historical past of inflammatory remarks about race and abortion.

Trump didn’t touch upon the allegations throughout his Thursday addresses to a gaggle of Jewish donors and to the Israeli-American Council in Washington. His marketing campaign issued a press release concerning the CNN story that didn’t point out Robinson, saying as an alternative that Trump “is focused on winning the White House and saving this country” and that North Carolina was a “vital part of that plan.”

Robinson’s reported remarks — together with a 2012 remark during which he mentioned he most well-liked Adolf Hitler to the management in Washington — clashed with Trump’s denunciations of antisemitism in Washington and his declare that Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, sympathized with enemies of Israel. The story additionally may threaten Trump’s probabilities of successful North Carolina, a key battleground state, with Robinson already working effectively behind his Democratic opponent in public polls.

“This story is not about the governor’s race in North Carolina. It’s about the presidential race,” mentioned Paul Shumaker, a Republican pollster who’s labored for Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and warned that Trump may danger shedding a state he gained in 2016 and 2020.

“The question is going to be, does Mark Robinson cost Donald Trump the White House?” Shumaker added.

After allegations towards Robinson grew to become public, a spokesman for Harris’ marketing campaign, Ammar Moussa, reposted on social media a photograph of Trump and the embattled candidate. “Donald Trump has a Mark Robinson problem,” he wrote.

The North Carolina Republican Party issued a press release standing by Robinson, noting he “categorically denied the allegations made by CNN but that won’t stop the Left from trying to demonize him via personal attacks.”

Trump has angled to make inroads amongst Black voters and continuously aligned himself with Robinson alongside the marketing campaign path, which has increasingly continuously taken him to North Carolina. At a rally in Greensboro, he known as Robinson “Martin Luther King on steroids” in reference to the civil rights chief, for his talking means.

Robinson has been on the path with Trump as just lately as final month, when he appeared with the GOP nominee at an occasion in Asheboro, North Carolina.

Recent polls of North Carolina voters present Trump and Harris locked in a detailed race. The similar polls present Democrat Josh Stein with a roughly 10-point lead over Robinson.

Both Trump and Harris, the Democratic nominee, have been making appearances meant to fireplace up their core supporters, with Harris taking part in a livestream with Oprah Winfrey.

Trump appeared Thursday with Miriam Adelson, a co-owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and widow of billionaire on line casino magnate Sheldon Adelson.

“My promise to Jewish Americans is this: With your vote, I will be your defender, your protector, and I will be the best friend Jewish Americans have ever had in the White House,” Trump mentioned throughout the donor occasion in Washington, titled “Fighting Anti-Semitism in America.”

“But in all fairness, I already am,” Trump added.

Trump additionally has been criticized for his affiliation with extremists who spew antisemitic rhetoric reminiscent of far-right activist Nick Fuentes and rapper Ye, previously referred to as Kanye West. And when former Ku Klux Klan chief David Duke endorsed Trump in 2016, Trump responded in a CNN interview that he knew “nothing about David Duke, I know nothing about white supremacists.”

But throughout his 4 years in workplace Trump authorised a sequence of coverage modifications lengthy sought by many advocates of Israel, reminiscent of transferring the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and recognizing Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights.

In his remarks, Trump criticized Harris over the Biden administration’s dealing with of the Israel-Hamas conflict and for what he known as antisemitic protests on school campuses and elsewhere.

“Kamala Harris has done absolutely nothing. She has not lifted a single finger to protect you or to protect your children,” Trump mentioned. He additionally repeated a speaking level that Jewish voters who vote for Democrats “should have their head examined.”

Multiple attendees on the occasion mentioned they weren’t conversant in the story about Robinson or declined to debate it. Rep. Virginia Foxx, a conservative North Carolina Republican who was requested concerning the CNN report beforehand, advised reporters she wasn’t taking questions.

Later Thursday, Trump spoke on the Israeli-American Council National Summit to honor the victims of Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault on Israel and painted a dire future for the nation if Harris have been to be elected.

“Israel will not exist within two years if she becomes president,” he advised the group, additionally including that if he loses the presidential election to her on Nov. 5 “the Jewish people would really have a lot to do with that.”

Harris on Thursday confronted stress from elements of her liberal base over the conflict. Leaders of the Democratic protest vote motion “Uncommitted” mentioned the group wouldn’t endorse Harris for president, but additionally urged supporters to vote towards Trump. The group, which opposes the Biden administration’s dealing with of the Israel-Hamas conflict, has known as for a direct ceasefire in Gaza and an finish to U.S. weapons transfers to Israel.

“Uncommitted” drew a whole lot of 1000’s of votes on this yr’s Democratic primaries, surfacing a rift inside the celebration. The group has warned that some Democratic voters might keep residence in November, significantly in locations like Michigan.

Harris’ marketing campaign didn’t straight tackle the group’s announcement, however mentioned in a press release that she is going to “continue working to bring the war in Gaza to an end in a way where Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination.”

Gomez Licon reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Associated Press author Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.