Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) defended former President Trump's recent comments about Jewish Americans who voted for President Biden, saying it was a “reasonable argument” for Trump to make.
CNN’s Dana Bash questioned Vance about Trump's recent remarks where he once again criticized Jewish Americans for considering voting for Biden. Vance, a potential contender to be Trump’s running mate, downplayed the comments and recommended that people examine Trump’s track record on Israel.
Vance stated on CNN’s “State of the Union” that it's reasonable to think that Jewish Americans who care about Israel and antisemitic riots should support Republicans in 2024 due to their effective governance on these issues. He also mentioned that he believes Trump will continue to make this argument.
“And I think that Donald Trump’s going to keep on making it,” he added.
Trump has made several comments about Jewish Democrats while on the campaign trail, saying in March that any “Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion, they hate everything about Israel.” He made similar comments to reporters last week and on social media, which Vance responded to on CNN.
“What Biden is doing with respect to Israel is disgraceful,” Trump said to reporters last week. “If any Jewish person voted for Joe Biden, they should be ashamed of themselves.”
Vance continued to defend Trump when pressed further about the comments.
“But he made similar comments about a lot of different groups of people, Dana. I don’t think anybody could look at the presidency in the conduct of Donald Trump and say, this is a person who’s somehow antisemitic,” he told Bash.
Bash then noted Trump “had dinner with Nick Fuentes, who is an avowed antisemitic.” The former president had dinner with Fuentes in 2022, prompting backlash on both sides of the aisle.
“Dana, you should look at the record of Joe Biden and recognize that, whether you’re Jewish or not, his presidency has been a disaster for the American people,” Vance replied.
Earlier in the interview, Vance urged people to look at Trump’s record despite the recent comments.
“Well, what I think, Dana, is that people should look at the record here and recognize that Donald Trump has actually been really good for the state of Israel. We had peace and prosperity in our country, and we had a very stalwart ally of the Israelis,” he said.
“Now Joe Biden is president. The Israelis have been attacked. You have got these terrible campus protests with a lot of antisemitic overtones all over our country, and you also have him trying to micromanage the Israeli response to them being attacked,” he added.
Pro-Palestinian protests have broken out on college campuses across the country in recent weeks, prompting arrests and the cancellation of numerous commencement ceremonies. President Biden has maintained that while he has supported peaceful protests, there is no place for antisemitism or violence.
