Washington. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump seems to be afraid of losing and has started the blame game. This was indicated when he said that if he loses the election in November, Jewish-American voters will be partly responsible for it. Addressing the Israeli-American Council’s national summit in Washington DC, the former president lamented that he is trailing behind his Democratic Party rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, among American Jews.
“If I don’t win this election — and if that happens, the Jewish people will really have a lot to do with it because if 40 percent, I mean, 60 percent of people are voting for the enemy — in my opinion, Israel will cease to exist within two years,” Trump said on Thursday. Trump claimed Jews were partly responsible for the outcome of the November 5 presidential election. He said they vote for Democrats. He cited an anonymous poll that found Harris got 60 percent of the vote among American Jews.
At an event in the US capital to condemn anti-Semitism in the country, Trump said the Democratic Party has a “grip or curse” on Jewish Americans and that he should get “100 percent” of the Jewish vote because of his policies on Israel. “My promise to Jewish Americans is this: With your vote, I will be your protector, your guardian, and I will be the best friend Jewish Americans have ever had in the White House… but in all honesty, I already am,” Trump said during the donor event.
Jewish voters in the US have leaned heavily toward Democrats in federal elections for decades and continue to do so, but even a slight shift in that vote could determine the winner in November. The Trump campaign has made it a priority to win over Jewish voters in key battleground states. For example, there are more than 400,000 Jews in Pennsylvania, where Joe Biden won by 81,000 votes in 2020.
Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, us elections, US Presidential Election 2024
FIRST PUBLISHED : September 20, 2024, 18:18 IST