Schiff: Trump’s presidency will ‘cement’ relationship between Dems, Jewish community

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Sunday dismissed comments from President Trump, who the previous day said a “radical agenda” being pushed by Democrats could “very well could leave Israel out there all by yourselves.”

“I hate to even dignify those remarks, but look, it’s not the Democratic Party that believes that there are good people on both sides of a Nazi rally. There’s just one party and one party leader who believes that, and that’s Donald Trump,” Schiff, one of the highest-ranking Jewish members of Congress, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

{mosads}“If there’s anything that is likely to cement the relationship between the Democratic Party and the Jewish community, it’s the presidency of Donald Trump. The lack of character and values that are certainly inconsistent with Jewish values, I think, are only consolidating support in the Jewish community and I think the president needs to look inward when it comes to the rise of anti-Semitism in the country and his own actions and his own words and how that may fuel some of the rise in hate that we see.”

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff: “If there’s anything that is likely to cement the relationship between the Democratic Party and the Jewish community, it’s the presidency of Donald Trump.” #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/xZqWGngXWA

— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) April 7, 2019

Trump during comments at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual meeting in Las Vegas also targeted Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), saying the first-year lawmaker “doesn’t like Israel.”

“Special thanks to Representative Omar of Minnesota,” he said. “Oh, I forgot. She doesn’t like Israel. I forgot. I’m so sorry.”

Omar, one of the first Muslim women to be elected to Congress, has been criticized for remarks widely seen as anti-Semitic.

“Yes there are isolated comments by members of our caucus that I have strongly condemned as being anti-Semitic,” Schiff said on CNN.

“But it’s one thing when you have a few members who make comments and it’s another when the president of the United States makes comments like he did … about Charlottesville. There’s quite a difference,” he added. “I’m very proud of our leadership and its condemnation of anti-Semitism. We will continue to speak out, we will continue to take action to try to combat this scourge. But I don’t think the president is helping by trying to divide us this way.”