On Wednesday evening, Republican Jewish Coalition National Chairman Senator Norm Coleman and Executive Director Matt Brooks sent out a statement to their members and to the press, stating unequivocally:
“The Nazis, the KKK, and white supremacists are dangerous anti-Semites. There are no good Nazis and no good members of the Klan. Thankfully, in modern America, the KKK and Nazis are small fringe groups that have never been welcome in the GOP.”
“We join with our political and religious brethren in calling upon President Trump to provide greater moral clarity in rejecting racism, bigotry, and anti-Semitism,” the Republican Jews continued. “As representatives of the Party whose founder, Abraham Lincoln, broke the shackles of slavery, and of an organization with many members who experienced firsthand the inhumanity of the Nazi Holocaust, we state unequivocally our rejection of these hate-mongers – you can expect no less from the Republican Jewish Coalition.”
The statement – a full four days following the Nazi, KKK, and White Supremacists protests in full Nazi and KKK gear, and with Nazi and Confederate flags through the streets of an American city – obviously came out in response to President Trump doing the 180-degree turn on Tuesday to amend his belated condemnation of the Nazis and their associates and introduce a moral equivocation that sent KKK Grand Wizard David Duke into a tearful tweet of gratitude: “Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville & condemn the leftist terrorists in BLM/Antifa,”
It was that statement by Trump (“Do they have any semblance of guilt? What about the fact they came charging with clubs in their hands, swinging clubs? Do they have any problem? I think they do.”), equating the militant Black Lives Matter and the far-left, anarchist and often violent Antifa—both products of the recent couple of decades, with the traditional hate movements that have caused the deaths of an estimated 70 millions and were led by the most hateful man in human history – it was that unimaginable comparison that finally severed Trump’s ties with much of civilized America, including Republican Jews.
It didn’t help that Trump, who normally rattles off a string of tweets at anything, no matter how minute, that provokes his ego, would not respond to statements from the White Supremacists who were attacking him over his Jewish daughter. One Christopher Cantwell, of something called “Unite the Right,” was telling the media in the streets of Charlottesville that he can’t support Trump because he “let a Jew steal his daughter.”
“I don’t think you could feel the way I do about race, and watch that Kushner bastard walk around with that beautiful girl,” he chided the President openly, on camera, and Trump would not defend the honor of his daughter nor of his son-in-law.
Also on Wednesday, the Rabbinical Council of America condemned Trump’s “Charlottesville Moral Equivalency.” Their statement read:
The Rabbinical Council of America, the leading organization of orthodox rabbis in North America, condemns any suggestion of moral equivalency between the White Supremacists and neo-Nazis in Charlottesville and those who stood up to their repugnant messages and actions. “There is no moral comparison,” said Rabbi Elazar Muskin, president of the RCA. “Failure to unequivocally reject hatred and bias is a failing of moral leadership and fans the flames of intolerance and chauvinism. While as a rabbinic organization we prefer to address issues and not personalities, this situation rises above partisan politics and therefore we are taking the unusual approach to directly comment on the words of the President.”
Rabbi Mark Dratch, Executive Vice President, added, “The RCA joins with politicians of all parties, citizens of all political persuasions, and people of all faiths calling on President Trump to understand the critical consequences of his words. We call on all the leaders of our country to denounce all groups who incite hate, bigotry and racism, while taking action and using language that will heal the terrible national wounds of Charlottesville.”
Meanwhile, Congressman Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat representing a section of Manhattan that includes the Freedom Tower, along with Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) and Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), announced a resolution of censure against President Donald Trump “for his inadequate response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12, 2017, his failure to immediately and specifically name and condemn the white supremacist groups responsible for actions of domestic terrorism, for re-asserting that ‘both sides’ were to blame and excusing the violent behavior of participants in the ‘Unite the Right’ rally, and for employing people with ties to white supremacist movements in the White House, such as Steve Bannon and Sebastian Gorka.”
The same resolution also urges Trump “to fire any and all White House advisors who have urged him to cater to the alt-Right movement in the United States.”