Donald Trump Is Silent On Supporters’ Anti-Semitic Bigotry–Again (WITH VIDEO AND AUDIO)

Donald Trump with volunteers in Manchester, New Hampshire in February (image from Trump's Facebook)
Donald Trump with volunteers in Manchester, New Hampshire in February (image from Trump’s Facebook)

In the week since Donald Trump completed his hostile takeover of the Republican Party, the news cycle has been dominated by his all-out war with House Speaker Paul Ryan and his flip-flopping on his vaunted tax plan. What hasn’t gained a lot of notice, though, is that barely 24 hours after all but clinching the GOP nomination, the Donald had an easy opportunity to look presidential and condemn his supporters’ latest act of thuggery–and blew it eight ways to Sunday. Never mind that the target of that ugliness was unnerved enough to file a police report.

Late last month, Julia Ioffe wrote a profile of Trump’s wife, Melania, in GQ. It delved heavily into Melania’s past in Slovenia. Notably, it revealed that Melania’s father, Victor Knavs, was a deadbeat dad; he had fathered a son with another woman before meeting Melania’s mother, and fought orders to pay child support all the way to Slovenia’s highest court. Melania initially denied that her half-brother even existed, only to admit that she’d “known about this for years.”

Melania hit the ceiling, accusing Ioffe of writing a hit piece. Like husband, like wife. Apparently Trump’s followers took it as a call to arms, because Ioffe has been bombarded with vile, obscene, and outright threatening emails and tweets. When word got out that she is Jewish, the attacks took on an anti-Semitic vein. Ioffe shared some examples on her Twitter feed.

She also got a number of calls from people playing Hitler speeches, as well as calls asking about overnight casket deliveries. This was particularly unnerving to Ioffe, since it reminded her of “the horrible anti-Semitic shit” her family had to endure before fleeing to the United States in 1990. Indeed, her article went live 26 years to the day that her family arrived in this country.

Last Wednesday, Trump sat down with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer for his first national interview as the presumptive Republican nominee. When Blitzer asked Trump to condemn the attacks on Ioffe, the Donald flatly refused. Watch here.

When Blitzer asked Trump if he had a “message” for his supporters, Trump echoed Melania’s claim that the article was “very inaccurate” and “nasty”–though he admitted he hadn’t read it. When Blitzer pressed him, Trump seemed surprised. However, he equivocated, telling Blitzer that “you’ll have to talk to them about it.”

Blitzer gave Trump a third chance to denounce this bilge–but the Donald didn’t take it.

“I don’t have a message to the fans. A woman wrote an article that was inaccurate.”

So let’s see if we’ve got this right. In Trump’s world, if someone writes a hit piece, it excuses anti-Semitic garbage of the worst type. Then again, we’re talking about a guy who plasters private cell phone numbers on social media, mocks the disabled, and has no problem with protesters being beaten up.

Well, Ioffe, like any fair-minded person, doesn’t think this is at all acceptable. On Monday, she filed a police report alleging threats to “kidnap or injure a person or damage his property,” a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Given the anti-Semitic tenor of the threats, it’s a near-certainty that this will be prosecuted as a hate crime. She has also enlisted the Anti-Defamation League in her quest to ferret out the bottom-feeders.

And what has been the response from the Trump camp?

This is wrong. This is unacceptable. This is outrageous. And it is equally unacceptable that the Republican brass hasn’t stepped in either. After all, for all intents and purposes, Trump is now the Republican National Committee’s problem. If Reince Preibus and others who pass for leadership in the GOP aren’t willing to speak up, then that party will deserve everything it will get in November–including a 40-state Democratic landslide.

Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.