During a Sunday morning appearance on CNN’s State of the Union, Jake Tapper pressed Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, about antisemitic remarks made by former President Donald Trump earlier this week.
To open the conversation about Trump’s recent comments at the Israeli American Council (IAC) National Summit on Thursday, Tapper played video segments of his speech.
In the clip, Trump says, “Any Jewish person that votes for her [Vice President Kamala Harris] especially now, or the Democrat Party should have their head examined.” Shortly after, the Republican presidential nominee said, “If I don’t win this election…in my opinion the Jewish people would have a lot to do with the loss.”
Tapper who is Jewish and noted in the interview that he has been the target of antisemitic comments, asked Cotton, “Are you comfortable with that? With Donald Trump saying if he loses preemptively it’s the fault of the Jews, a group already experiencing a rise of antisemitism in this country?”
Cotton didn’t answer the question directly, instead discussing voters who care about Israel and a strong U.S. relationship with the country, repeatedly saying they should vote for Trump and not Harris.
Newsweek reached out to Cotton’s and Trump’s communications team for comment via email on Sunday.
Tapper repeatedly emphasized on Sunday that his questions were about American Jewish voters, who “vote for any number of reasons on any number of issues,” not about Israel. Despite this, Cotton consistently urged voters not to support Harris due to her stance on Israel, saying, “Joe Biden has not backed Israel very much over the past 11 months, Kamala Harris has been much worse. Harris has consistently been the most anti-Israel voice in this administration.”
Harris said on Tuesday during an interview that she stands for a ceasefire deal between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, as well as for a two-state solution after the conflict is settled. Harris has said that she supports Israel’s right to defend itself after Hamas’ October 7 attack, but that “how it does so matters.”
In Hamas’ attack on Israel around 1,200 people were killed and 250 were taken hostage. Israel has since launched numerous ground and air invasions on Gaza. More than 2 million Palestinians have been displaced and upwards of 40,000 have been killed. The U.S., Israel’s top ally, has provided diplomatic and military aid to the country.
Cotton did not directly address Tapper’s questions regarding Jewish American voters or Trump’s comments preemptively blaming Jewish voters. Cotton is a Trump ally, having endorsed him in January, and supports sending more aid to Israel.
At one point, Tapper read out the nonpartisan American Jewish Committee’s statement it made the day after Trump’s IAC remarks, saying, “Setting up anyone to say ‘we lost because of the Jews’ is outrageous and dangerous. Thousands of years of history have shown that scapegoating Jews can lead to antisemitic hate and violence.”
Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, is seen on May 1 in Washington, D.C. During a Sunday morning appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Jake Tapper pressed Cotton about antisemitic remarks made by former President Donald Trump earlier this week.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
After several back-and-forth comments with largely the same arguments, Tapper again asked the senator, “Are you comfortable with him [Trump] blaming it on the Jews preemptively?”
Cotton replied: “The point he is making is that anyone who cares about that relationship [U.S.- Israel] shouldn’t vote for Kamala Harris, they should vote for him [Trump]. He’s been saying things like this…for months.”
When again pressed by Tapper over Trump’s IAC remarks, Cotton said, “It’s the same kind of language he’s been using for months.”
Tapper and Cotton also spoke about North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson who is running for governor. Robinson’s gubernatorial campaign for the Tar Heel State was rocked by a CNN report on Thursday alleging that Robinson made racist and sexist posts on a pornography site over a decade ago. The lieutenant governor, who was endorsed by Trump, has repeatedly denied writing the posts and has said he’ll stay in the race, telling CNN that the alleged posts are “salacious tabloid lies.”
Tapper asked Cotton if he believes Robinson should still be the state’s next governor.
Cotton called the allegations against Robinson “concerning,” saying that he “owes the people of North Carolina more answers about it, but we are talking about the presidential race here, that matters to everyone not just the people in one state.”
CNN reported that Robinson allegedly called himself a “Black NAZI,” defended slavery, repeated homophobic slurs and fondly recalled “peeping” on women in posts on an adult website. CNN did not include many of the posts given their graphic nature.
Tapper also noted that Robinson has a history of making antisemitic remarks, mentioning a February 2018 post on his widely believed personal Facebook page about the film Black Panther, which was created by two Jewish comic book writers. The alleged Facebook post says it was “created to pull the shekels out of your Schvartze pockets,” employing derogatory stereotypes and phrases to refer to Jewish and Black people and money.
Newsweek reached out to Robinson’s communications team for comment and confirmation of the Facebook page owner via email on Sunday.
On Friday, The Washington Post reported that “minisoldr,” the username believed to be affiliated with Robinson on the Nude Africa pornography website, also expressed an affinity for Nazi literature.
“Mein Kampf is a good read,” the user reportedly wrote in a thread on book recommendations. “It’s very informative and not at all what I thought it would be. It’s a real eye opener.”
“Do you think that Trump should still support Mark Robinson in North Carolina?” Tapper inquired on Sunday.
“I’ll leave that to [former] President Trump and most importantly I’ll leave it to the people of North Carolina,” Cotton responded.
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