Carl Gibson
Alternet / July 27, 2024
Former President Donald Trump has been attempting different approaches to attacking Vice President Kamala Harris since she became the presumptive Democratic nominee this week. His latest approach drew mockery and apparent confusion from Harris’ campaign.
On Friday, Trump said during a campaign rally that Harris “stabbed Israel in the back in its great hour of need” by skipping Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint session of Congress, which his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), missed as well (roughly 128 other House and Senate Democrats also declined to attend). He then accused the vice president of being “totally against the Jewish people.” During that same rally, Trump also suggested that there would be no need for his supporters to vote in future elections, though he didn’t elaborate further.
Harris’ campaign was quick to respond to that attack. The @KamalaHQ X/Twitter account, which handles rapid-response operations for the vice president’s campaign, tweeted: “Her husband is literally Jewish.”
In his fact-check of Trump’s speech, CNN’s Daniel Dale also noted Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff’s background.
Harris has been married to a Jewish man, Doug Emhoff, for nearly 10 years – and she has repeatedly denounced antisemitism, expressed fondness for the Jewish community and its traditions, complimented Israel at length, and endorsed ‘America’s ironclad commitment to the security of Israel,'” he wrote.
Dale also cited a report by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA), which read that Harris “has been surrounded by Jews, from her schoolmates to her colleagues to her closest family members,” for the bulk “of her life and career.”
“That background has given Harris, 59, an easy familiarity with Jewish spaces, say those who have interacted with her,” JTA reported. “She has also encouraged Emhoff to embrace his Jewish identity as the second gentleman; for the first time, mezuzahs have been installed at the vice presidential residence, and Emhoff has taken a leading role in the administration’s efforts to fight antisemitism.”
As The Daily Beast reported, Harris met with Netanyahu despite missing his speech. The vice president — who has taken a markedly different tone toward the far-right Israeli government than President Joe Biden — said that despite asserting that Israel has a right to self-defense, Palestinian suffering should also not be swept under the rug.
“The images of dead children and desperate hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time. We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be silent,” Harris said.
Harris is expected to unofficially lock up the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination by tonight at 6 PM Eastern Time, which is the Democratic National Committee’s deadline for other potential candidates to file their paperwork ahead of August’s national convention. No other challengers have so far emerged to make their case to be the nominee.
Carl Gibson is a journalist
