‘Disgusting, toxic, antisemitic’: Doug Emhoff blasts Trump’s comments on Jews

Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff excoriated Donald Trump on Tuesday, after the former president told a conservative radio host that Jews who vote Democratic “hate Israel.”

“This is a disgusting, toxic, antisemitic thing to say, by anyone, let alone a former president of the United States and it must be condemned,” Emhoff said during a campaign event in Nebraska, according to Bloomberg.

One of the most prominent Jews in the Biden administration, Emhoff has served as a de-facto envoy to the Jewish community for the White House, where he’s worked on initiatives to combat the rise of antisemitism.

Trump’s comments came during an interview with Sebastian Gorka, his former campaign aide — and they drew swift backlash from the Biden campaign and the Anti-Defamation League.

“I actually think they hate Israel,” Trump had told Gorka. “Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion … They hate everything about Israel, and they should be ashamed of themselves because Israel will be destroyed.”

Fallout of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and subsequent Israel-Hamas war has divided Democrats and caused headaches for President Joe Biden, who has tried to maintain the country’s long-standing ties to Israel amid outcry at home over the rising civilian death toll and increasingly bleak humanitarian situation in the besieged Gaza strip.