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Jewish Dems: Trump Statement on Anti-Semitism is Not Enough

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Thursday released another statement condemning anti-Semitism after heavy criticism that he is not speaking out forcefully against a barrage of anti-Semitic comments by some of his supporters on social media.

“Anti-Semitism has no place our society, which needs to be united, not divided,” Trump said in a statement submitted to The Jerusalem Post, repeating the same laconic statement he gave to the New York Times last month.

The statement came a day after Trump’s Jewish advisor, Jason Greenblatt, said the presumptive Republican nominee is not responsible for the anti-Semitic abuse of journalists by his fans and has no time on his schedule to keep denouncing anti-Semitism. “I do not think Mr. Trump can be responsible for people who are anti-Semitic who support him,” Greenblatt said in a Wednesday morning interview with Nachum Segal on “JM in the AM” radio program. “It really bothers me that people think that he constantly has to repeat statements he has said before. I just think that they have to understand that he has a campaign to run, he has an election to win, and he can’t keep going around saying ‘I denounce anti-Semitism.’ He said it clearly and emphatically on multiple times.”

Greenblatt, speaking to The Jerusalem Post on Thursday, insisted that Trump’s renewed response “is a statement that a leader should make.”

But according to the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC), Trump’s statement is simply not enough.

“This simply isn’t enough,” the NJDC said in a statement to Jewish Insider. “Trump continues to inspire anti-Semites and he, himself, peddles in racism and anti-Semitic tropes. We are outraged by his demagoguery and hateful rhetoric as Americans, and as a religious minority that throughout history has been the object of similar sentiments, we are horrified.”

“Trump still doesn’t condemn it himself and no one in his camp is telling his followers to cut it out. This must stop, completely. This cannot become the new normal in American society,” they added.

The Democratic National Committee, headed by Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, described the Trump campaign’s response as “cowardly.”

“Trump has either publicly engaged in anti-Semitic behavior or cowardly refused to condemn those who engage in anti-Semitic behavior in Trump’s name,” the DNC said on Thursday.

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