(JTA) — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York accused President Donald Trump of anti-Semitism for his attacks on Rep. Adam Schiff, like her a Democrat.
Schiff, of California, chairs the House Intelligence Committee, a key panel in the impeachment inquiry against the president, a Republican.
“Understand that Trump is engaged in deliberate, atrocious, targeted antisemitism towards Chairman Schiff,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Saturday with a retweet of an article in The Intercept suggesting that Trump’s attacks against Schiff come from the neo-Nazi playbook. “Then ask yourself why no one cares to denounce it — esp when his accusation of it towards others drove full news cycles earlier this year.
“It’s wrong. It’s harmful. And his bigotry is reflective of the white supremacist base he relies on for political gain.”
On Wednesday, Trump said of Schiff: “We don’t call him ‘Shifty Schiff’ for nothing. He’s a shifty, dishonest guy.”
In a tweet last week lambasting “Democratic savages,” Trump singled out Schiff, Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York and the quartet of congresswomen including Ocasio-Cortez known as “The Squad.” Nadler, who is Jewish, heads the House Judiciary Committee.
Responses to Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet noted that Trump’s daughter and grandchildren are Jewish, and that most people were unaware that Schiff was Jewish until they read her tweet.
