Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff agreed with MSNBC host Jen Psaki that former President Trump was "putting a target on the backs of Jewish Americans."
In a preview for an interview airing on MSNBC on Sunday, Emhoff told the former Biden White House press secretary that he was bothered by Trump's recent remarks at a Jewish event in Washington, where the Republican nominee warned Jewish American voters against supporting Vice President Kamala Harris, Emhoff's wife, in the upcoming election.
In those comments, Trump told Jewish voters, who've traditionally supported the Democratic Party, that they would be partly responsible if he lost in November.
"What really bothered me a week or so ago was when Trump got up at an event, an event purporting to fight antisemitism, and he said vile antisemitic things," Emhoff told Psaki. "Tropes that are just terrible. We have to speak out every single time when something like that happens."
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"When you hear him say things like that, and he said that if he doesn’t win it will be essentially the fault of Jewish Americans," Psaki said.
"Blame the Jews. One of the oldest tropes," Emhoff lamented.
Psaki followed up by asking him if he was worried that Trump was "putting a target on the backs of Jewish Americans," to which Emhoff agreed.
"He is. I mean, take him at his word," he said.
"[Trump] lies about a lot of things, but you have got to take him at his word on things like this. So yeah. This is a disgusting trope. The so-called dual loyalties. It is an outrage and it is not just Jewish people who should be outraged," the second gentleman continued before arguing that every American needed to fight back against "antisemitism and hate."
"Do you think he’s antisemitic when he says things like that?" Psaki asked. "You look at him and see the repetition of this type of words and language as antisemitic?"
"Of course it is, and I said that publicly," Emhoff replied. "Definitely."
Emhoff was referring to Trump's comments at the Israeli-American Council National Summit last week, in which he honored victims of the October 7 attacks and warned Jewish Americans there would be grave consequences if they didn't support him in the November election.
"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 said. "But in all fairness, I already am," he added, Fox5 reported.
The former president also warned Jewish voters that Israel would "cease to exist" in two years if Harris won the November election and said that Jewish voters who support Democrats need to get "[their] head examined."
"If I don’t win this election – and Jewish people would have a lot to do with that, 60 percent are voting for the enemy – Israel will cease to exist in two years," Trump said, according to The Hill. "I believe I’m 100 percent right…. If I do win, Israel will be safe and secure, and we’ll stop the toxic poison of antisemitism."
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Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded with this statement to Fox News Digital:
"This is another example of inflammatory rhetoric coming from the Harris campaign that could result in more violence against Jewish people when antisemitism is already on the rise in America, as evidenced by the disgraceful anti-Semitic protests that erupted on college campuses on Kamala Harris' watch. The truth is President Trump has done more for Jewish Americans and Israel than Kamala Harris ever has."
