After meeting PM, Trump says Jews who vote Harris ‘should have their head examined’
GOP nominee writes VP’s sit-down with Netanyahu was ‘terrible’ and ‘insulting,’ repeats claim she’s an antisemite; says likely Democrat nominee’s ‘ineptness’ will prolong Gaza war
The Times of Israel
Jul 27, 2024
Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and his wife Sara (R) gets
welcomed by former US President Donald Trump at the Mar-a-Lago Club in
Palm Beach, Florida, July 26, 2024
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said Saturday that Jews who support presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris or the Democratic Party should “have their head examined,” after the United States vice president’s “terrible and insulting” meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday and her absence from the prime minister’s speech to Congress on Wednesday.
Trump also wrote on his social media platform that Harris’s “ineptness” would “greatly prolong” the war in Gaza and prevent the release of hostages Hamas is holding there.
The word “insulting” was put in quotation marks. It was unclear whom Trump was quoting, if at all.
Trump has a history of accusing Jewish Democrats of betraying their religion and Israel. In April, when Joe Biden was still the presumptive Democratic nominee, Trump had also said that Jewish Biden voters “should have their head examined.”
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has been in the US since Monday. On Friday, he met with Trump in Florida. The meeting appeared to be part of Netanyahu’s reported bid to mend fences with the Republican candidate, whom Netanyahu hadn’t met since Trump’s presidency ended.
Netanyahu met separately with Harris and Biden at the White House on Thursday. After meeting the prime minister, Harris said she would “not be silent” over Palestinian civilians’ suffering in Gaza.
Her speech drew an Israeli complaint that Harris’s highlighting the “dire humanitarian crisis” in the Strip and the need to “end the war” there could toughen Hamas’s stance in negotiations to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages held by the terror group.
After meeting Netanyahu on Friday, Trump wrote that Harris is part of the administration “that embarrassed us in AFGHANISTAN” and was now “telling Israel not to fight any longer with Hamas.”
Trump said Harris had “refused to preside over Congress during [Netanyahu’s] speech, which is an obligation of the [vice president].”
“Rarely has such a thing happened,” wrote Trump.
The US vice president, who is president of the US Senate, traditionally sits at the chamber’s rostrum during foreign leaders’ addresses. Citing a scheduling conflict, Harris declined to do so at Netanyahu’s speech to Congress on Wednesday, which was boycotted by nearly 70 Democratic lawmakers.
“Any Jewish person who votes for Kamala, or a Democrat, should immediately have their head examined. Likewise Catholics, who are being persecuted by this Administration, should not be voting for radical left Kamala,” Trump wrote.
Later on Friday, Trump said at a religious convention in southern Florida that Harris, whose husband and stepchildren are Jewish, had skipped Netanyahu’s Wednesday address due to antisemitism.
“She doesn’t like Jewish people. She doesn’t like Israel,” said Trump. “That’s the way it is, and that’s the way it’s always going to be. She’s not going to change.”
The remark — coupled with his claim that Harris “is totally against the Jewish people” in North Carolina on Wednesday — marked an escalation in Trump’s incendiary rhetoric, days after his campaign said an attempt on his life had given him a focus on unity.
Harris has all but secured the Democratic Party’s nomination for president after Biden, 81, decided not to seek reelection amid intense concern over his age and mental acuity.
It is believed that 111 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas during the October 7 attack remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 39 confirmed dead by the IDF. The shock assault saw thousands of Hamas-led terrorists storm southern Israel to kill nearly 1,200 people, sparking the war in Gaza.
Polls have shown Harris running neck-and-neck with Trump, who had solidly led Biden since the US president’s halting debate performance on June 27.
Analysts say Harris’s ascent has caught the Trump campaign unprepared and that Trump is workshopping lines of attack on her at his rallies.
On Wednesday, the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal — whose owner, Rupert Murdoch, is a leading supporter of Trump — warned Republicans against attacking Harris for her race and for not being a biological mother.
The editorial came as 2021 remarks by Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, resurfaced, in which Vance said “childless cat ladies,” including Harris, were bent on making the rest of the country as “miserable” as they were.
The comment generated a torrent of negative press for the Trump-Vance campaign as it scrambles to regain momentum in the face of a re-energized Democratic party.
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