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Trump Blasted for ‘Anti-Semitic’ TV Ad

Donald Trump’s powerful closing argument ad is being derided by Jewish Democrats and commentators as a dog whistle to his alt-right and anti-Semitic supporters as the presidential race enters its final stretch. 

The TV spot decries the influence of “those who control the levers of power in Washington,” singling out three Jewish public figures who are Jewish — billionaire George Soros, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. “The establishment has trillions of dollars at stake in this election,” Trump is heard saying in a recent speech as images of the three prominent figures show up on the screen. “For those who control the levers of power in Washington and for the global special interests, they partner with these people that don’t have your good in mind.”

“It’s packed with anti-Semitic dog whistles, anti-Semitic tropes and anti-Semitic vocabulary,” TPM’s Josh Marshall opined on Saturday. 

Senator Al Franken (D-MN), appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union” program Sunday morning,  called Trump’s closing advertisement “something of a German shepherd whistle” designed to motivate his alt-right supporters to overcome his campaign’s get-out-the-vote disadvantage on Election Day.

“When I saw the ad, I thought that this was something of a German shepherd whistle, a dog whistle to a certain group in the United States,” Franken told host Jake Tapper. “I’m Jewish, so maybe I’m sensitive to it.  But it clearly had sort of Elders of Zion kind of feel to it, international banking crisis — plot or conspiracy, rather, and then a number of Jews… I think that it’s an appeal to some of the worst elements in our country as a closing argument.  And I think that people who aren’t sensitive to that or don’t know that history may not see that in that.  But that’s what I immediately saw.”

The National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) pointed to the ad to reinforce their message that Trump is too dangerous to sit in the Oval Office rather than demand an apology.

“Trump’s casual use of anti-Semitic memes and stereotypes in this campaign has been shocking and dangerous,” the NJDC said in a statement. “What has become increasingly clear as the election is coming to a close, especially with this latest ad, is that Trump has made a strategic choice to continue employing themes long used by anti-Semites. Let’s not forget that this is the man the KKK enthusiastically supports for president of the United States. If this is how Trump campaigns, when still faced with the possibility of turning off swing voters, imagine what a Trump White House would look like… Normally, we’d request an apology. However, we’ve asked in the past and, true to form, have only heard silence on the other end. We ask instead that the American people reject Trump’s bigotry. This ad proves once and for all that he is too dangerous to sit in the Oval Office. Donald Trump cannot become president of the United States.”

Steve Rabinowitz, a Democratic consultant and head of Bluelight Strategies, singled out Trump’s whisperers, his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner, for failing to stop the candidate – who has final word on Tv ads, according to the New York Times – from fueling racism and anti-Semitism in this critical point of the campaign. “What an irony that on the very same weekend Donald Trump’s daughter and son-in-law were visiting the late Lubavitcher Rebbe Schneerson’s Ohel, the campaign was releasing yet another anti-Semitic meme,” Rabinowitz told Jewish Insider. “I wonder if Ivanka and Jared were praying that south Florida Jews wouldn’t see it or for their own divine forgiveness regardless.”

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