(JTA) — Former Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Democrat turned Independent who ran for vice president in 2000, said the Democratic Party is not anti-Jewish, but individual members have problems with Jews.
“The Democratic Party is not an anti-Jewish party, but there are some people in the party now, including in Congress as we’ve seen from Congresswoman Omar … who are saying explicitly anti-Semitic things,” Lieberman, who is Jewish, told radio host John Catsimatidis on AM 970 in New York in an interview Sunday, The Hill first reported.
Lieberman was referring to remarks made in recent weeks by Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar suggesting that she and her colleagues were being asked to show “allegiance” to a foreign country and that the pro-Israel lobby buys its support in Congress.
Following Omar’s latest comments, President Donald Trump tweeted 10 days ago that the Democratic party is “anti-Jewish.”
Trump, quoting former campaign aide Elizabeth Pipko, also tweeted last Tuesday that “‘Jewish people are leaving the Democratic Party. We saw a lot of anti Israel policies start under the Obama Administration, and it got worsts [sic] and worse. There is anti-Semitism in the Democratic Party. They don’t care about Israel or the Jewish people.’ Elizabeth Pipko, Jexodus.” Pipko is the spokeswoman for Jexodus, a Republican effort to get millennial Jews to bolt the Democratic Party.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
