'A very insulting question': Trump snaps at reporter asking about rising anti-Semitism

pulse

February 16, 2017 8:38 PM

President Trump bristled at a reporter's question on Thursday about how he will respond to an "uptick in anti-Semitism" across the country.

President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017, in the East Room of the White House in Washington.

President Donald Trump bristled at a reporter's question on Thursday about how he would combat an "uptick in anti-Semitism" across the country, calling it "very insulting" and insisting that he is "the least anti-Semitic person that you've ever seen in your entire life."

Jake Turx, who is Jewish, prefaced his question by saying he hadn't seen "anybody in my community accuse either yourself or anyone on your staff of being anti-Semitic."

But he added that the Jewish-American community is "concerned about an uptick in anti-Semitism and how the government is planning to take care of it. There's been a report out that 48 bomb threats have been made against Jewish centers all across the country in the last couple of weeks. There are people committing anti-Semitic acts or threatening to."

Trump cut Turx off and said it was "not a fair question."

"Sit down — I understand the rest of your question," Trump said. "Number one, I am the least anti-Semitic person that you've ever seen in your entire life. Number two, racism — the least racist person. In fact, we did relatively well, relative to other people running as a Republican ... But let me just tell you something, that I hate the charge. I find it repulsive."

Trump then pointed out that he met Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who told reporters he'd known Trump "for a long time" and to "forget about" reports that Trump was anti-Semitic.

"There is no greater supporter of Israel or the Jewish State than President Donald Trump. I think we can put that to rest," Netanyahu said Wednesday.

"So you should take that," Trump told Turx on Thursday, "instead of having to get up and ask a very insulting question like that. Just shows you about the press, but that's the way the press is."

Another reporter followed up on the question later, reminding Trump that he failed to answer the original question about what he planned to do to address the anti-Semitic threats.

Trump replied, without offering evidence, that "many" of the people making these threats were his political opponents, suggesting that anti-Semitic acts or threats around the country were political maneuvers aimed at undermining him.

The CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt, has talked about increasing anti-Semitism in the US and Western Europe since mid-2016. Greenblatt told the Israeli Knesset in December that "anti-Semitism has wound its way into

Trump drew ire from the Jewish-American community after he released a statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day that decried the "horror inflicted on innocent people by Nazi terror" but failed to specifically mention either anti-Semitism or Jews.

pulse