NEW YORK MINUTE:
Mayor Eric Adams is going out of his way to defend Donald Trump. "I sent out a very clear statement about the comments by some of the people who attended the rally,” Adams said, emphasizing the word some. “I’ve been to many rallies, protests, and I've witnessed people stand up at podiums and I cringe at some of the things they said. You can’t demonize an entire population based on the actions of those who attend,” he added.
His remarks made it clear he sought to avoid piling on Trump, as he faces an onslaught of Democratic attacks after a speaker at his Sunday rally labeled Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” and made other racist remarks. They were also a continuation of Adams’ refusal to criticize Trump as the former president moves to embrace Adams — a one-time Republican who dubbed himself the future of the Democratic party when he became mayor. If elected, Trump would have the power to pardon Adams.
More on the mayor’s Trump-boosting comments here. TEFLON DON:
The mayor also doubled down on another position: Trump is not a fascist, as his former chief of staff John Kelly has said, and anyone suggesting that is minimizing the actual acts of a fascist — Adolf Hitler. “Six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust,” Adams said, repeating, “Six million.” Republican Jews are in lockstep with the mayor as they dismiss reports that he praised
Hitler and reject comparisons between a Nazi rally held at Madison Square Garden in 1939 and Trump’s campaign rally on Sunday. “The Democrats are desperate. I get it,” said Dov Hikind, the former Democratic state Assemblyman who represented much of Brooklyn's Hasidic population and now supports Trump. “This is their last effort to picture Donald Trump as Nazi-like. It's absolute insanity, and it's not going to work.”
Hikind said he and many Jews were outraged, insulted and angered that Hillary Clinton and other Democrats compared Trump and his rally to that of Hitler’s Nazi party. The Trump-Hitler comparisons are becoming more common from Democrats after Kelly told outlets Trump made statements like, “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had.” The revelation led Vice President Kamala Harris to label her opponent a fascist without qualifications.
But pro-Trump Jews are not wavering. Jewish voters are supporting Trump in bigger numbers as antisemitism is on the rise in the U.S. and the Biden-Harris administration grows increasingly critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Hikind said. The numbers in New York appear to back that up. Siena polling of likely voters in the state — which holds the highest Jewish population — shows Trump has seen a marked increase in Jewish support this year.
A 2016 poll held days before the election showed 31 percent of New York Jews voting for Trump over Clinton. In October 2020, 24 percent of New York Jews were planning to vote for Trump. This year, 39 percent of Jewish New Yorkers said they will cast their ballot for Trump, Siena found last week.
Hikind, who predicts around 40 to 45 percent of American Jews will vote for Trump, is helping put up pro-Trump billboards in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, some of which address the Biden administration’s record on antisemitism. He said Trump’s reported praise for Hitler will be largely immaterial. “If he said it, it was a stupid thing to say, it was a silly thing to say,” Hikind said. “I don't know if he said it. I have no idea.”
“Donald Trump, as far as I'm concerned, was the best president ever in terms of the relationship between the US and Israel. And, by the way, if you ask me who was the second best, or third best, I would say ‘Donald Trump,’ ‘Donald Trump.’ It’s just a fact of life,” he added. Republican Jewish groups agree.
“Comparing President Trump — who has Jewish children and grandchildren — to Hitler is shameful, and trivializes the Holocaust,” Matt Brooks, CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition, told Playbook. “Attempting an eleventh-hour smear is typical for DC politicians like Kamala Harris, and reeks of desperation from a campaign floundering in the polls.” — Jason Beeferman |
