CNN Analyst, WaPo Writer Try Blaming Trump-Hater's Jewish Massacre on Pro Israel Trump (Whose Daughter's Also a Jew)
In the aftermath of tragedy, there is one thing that can be counted on in the America of 2018 — and that is some people politicizing the event.
It seems some wish to blame everyone but the responsible party for what happened.
The tragic shooting in Pittsburgh at the Tree of Life synagogue is no different.
Anti-gun activist David Hogg blaming the NRA within minutes of the news breaking. On Twitter, CNN political analyst and USA Today columnist Kirsten Powers publicized a Washington Post column pointing a finger a President Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh killer’s social media posts have made it clear that he loathes Trump.
In the case of Powers, she took to Twitter to share a “Be sure to read” article from The Washington Post that pointed a finger at Trump’s “rhetoric.” Never mind all the calls from the left for violence and harassment.
Be sure to read @juliaioffe today: “Rhetoric matters, and [Trump has] had some unfortunate things to say about Jews.” via @washingtonposthttps://t.co/jRGyNIxlOF
— Kirsten Powers (@KirstenPowers) October 28, 2018
Never mind the fact that Trump’s elder daughter, Ivanka, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and their children are all Jews. Never mind Trump being the president who finally followed through on recognizing the Israeli capital of Jerusalem and keeping his promise to move the U.S. Embassy there.
If The Washington Post writer and, evidently, Powers, are to be believed, Trump has some kind of anti-Semitic, murder-inducing rhetoric going on. And he shared in the blame for the deaths at the synagogue.
And how on earth can they justify such claims? The Washington Post writer Julia Ioffe (behind a paywall) is very clear about the fact that it is personal for her.
She begins by building a case that quickly highlights her personal offense with Trump. She wrote, “Trump has had enough to say about the Jews that his supporters may easily make certain pernicious inferences.”
“During the campaign, he joked at a meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition that it wouldn’t support him ‘because I don’t want your money.’ A campaign-era tweet about Hillary Clinton superimposed a Star of David over dollar bills. He said the white-supremacist marchers at Charlottesville last year were ‘fine people.’ After I published a profile of Trump’s third wife, Melania, that displeased her — and his supporters — the alt-right deluged me with anti-Semitic insults and imagery, culminating in clear death threats — such as an image of a Jew being shot execution-style or people ordering coffins in my name. When Trump was asked to condemn these attacks by his supporters, he said ‘I don’t have a message’ for them. That day, my terrified father called me and pointed out that it was the 26th anniversary of our family’s arrival in America.”
Obviously, it’s regrettable that Ioffe had those kind of interactions with the “alt-right.” But it’s a big jump from there to blaming the president for the atrocity in Pittsburgh.
Ioffe’s strong negative feelings for Trump and his supporters is clear from word one. But her claims are supposed to have some kind of merit, particularly where she mentions her personal experience.
Well, the experiences of Jews in the deeply and anti-Semitic Soviet Union, which Ioffe’s family, are to be deplored, of course, but that doesn’t make Trump or the vast majority of his supporters guilty of anything remotely similar.
Does Trump have anti-Semite fans? Of course. No movement is responsible for the individual beliefs of every one who claims to be a member. But it’s a rock sold bet there are far more anti-Semites backing Democrats then you’ll ever find at a Republican convention. (That’s a fact about American politics traditionally liberal American Jews never seem to fully recognize.)
The uncomfortable fact is that Democrats have been caught on video blatantly calling for harassment and violence against people on the right and the tally of such acts is over 600.
If the left wants to play the “blame rhetoric” game, they only stand to lose. Badly.
Regardless, the fact is that the gunman, and the gunman alone, is responsible for the shooting.
Fortunately, not everyone is buying what the left is selling. On Twitter a lengthy, but relevant thread emerged that explained “why Donald Trump has so much Orthodox Jewish support,” and it wasn’t at all what Ioffe claimed in the Washington Post piece, and which Powers apparently endorsed.
This thread is why Donald Trump has so much Orthodox Jewish support. (And his daughter and son in law are Jewish.) https://t.co/pN7lOmHImE
— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) October 28, 2018
Appearing to suggest that Trump is responsible for the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting is absurd.
Here are just a few things that the Trump admin has done in support of Israel and the Jewish community (THREAD):
1. Recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital: https://t.co/lD5lSCX5ct pic.twitter.com/U6QHm8iaBq
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) October 28, 2018
2. Trump moves the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem pic.twitter.com/899Nfljnf8
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) October 28, 2018
3. The Trump administration made it a top priority to arrest the last Nazi war criminal hiding out in the U.S. and deported him back to Germanyhttps://t.co/13aTWCSVRw
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) October 28, 2018
4. Trump nominated Kenneth Marcus to head the Education Department’s civil rights office
Marcus is the president & founder of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing civil rights of the Jewish people https://t.co/JGqKX8tq5c
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) October 28, 2018
5. The Trump admin reopened a 7-year-old case brought by a Zionist group against Rutgers University, saying the Obama administration, in closing the case, ignored evidence that suggested the school allowed a hostile environment for Jewish students. https://t.co/cRGQDjD8z7
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) October 28, 2018
6. “The Trump administration has made defending Israel at the United Nations and abroad a pillar of its foreign policy.”https://t.co/20xRF5lbQi
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) October 28, 2018
7. Trump destroyed the Iran deal, saying it “was supposed to protect the U.S. & our allies from the lunacy of an Iranian nuclear bomb,” but that the deal “allowed Iran to continue enriching uranium and – over time – reach the brink of a nuclear breakout.”https://t.co/l2hkX4ltti
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) October 28, 2018
8. “The Trump administration is quietly pushing ahead with a bid to create a new security and political alliance with six Gulf Arab states, Egypt and Jordan, in part to counter Iran’s” increasing threats against Israel. https://t.co/Tg2FI1Ztnb
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) October 28, 2018
9. Donald Trump cuts more than $200 million in aid to Palestinianshttps://t.co/vjH4NxvAEC
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) October 28, 2018
10. “Trump Administration confirmed earlier reports that it would withhold $65 million from the anti-Israel U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)”https://t.co/QsWPdeg9P3
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) October 28, 2018
11. Trump nominated Nikki Haley for U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.
“Haley didn’t simply defend Israel…She led a game change: On her watch, and with the blessing of US President Donald Trump, support for Israel became a “with or against us” proposition.”https://t.co/ipSV2OBKQ7
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) October 28, 2018
12. “The Trump administration is ordering the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to shutter its Washington, D.C., office in a bid to increase pressure on Palestinian leadership amid stalled peace talks.”https://t.co/958x7XQYVC
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) October 28, 2018
Ryan Saavedra, a writer for The Daily Wire and author of the Twitter thread, also pointed to a piece written by another writer at the publication outlining “Trump’s Israel Policies Compared To The Last 12 Presidents,” and noted that Ioffe also appeared to be blaming Glenn Beck, the conservative media tycoon, for the shooting, as well.
Sunday’s “Be sure to read” Twitter post boosting Ioffe’s column wasn’t the first time Powers has taken a questionable side in a public issue, of course.
Check out this CNN appearance from September where she appeared defended the liberals’ attempt to torpedo then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
As bad as that was, Ioffe’s column about Trump’s alleged anti-Semitism is even worse.
Powers merely blamed the mores of the 1980s for apparently encouraging sexual assault, and discouraging women from talking about their experience.
Ioffe, however, blamed President Donald Trump’s rhetoric for a mass killing by a man she herself admits loathes the president.
In the liberal mind, there is plenty of blame to go around.
Just none for the actual shooter.
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