Trump suggests if he loses election, Jewish Americans would ‘have a lot to do with that’
Kelsey Walsh, Lalee Ibssa and Soo Rin Kim, ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — During his speech at an antisemitism event in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, former President Donald Trump pledged to be the “defender” of Jewish Americans if he wins but also seemed to suggest that if he loses the election, it will be their fault.
“My promise to Jewish Americans is this: With your vote, I will be your defender, your protector, and I will be the best friend Jewish Americans have ever had in the White House,” Trump said.
In his pitch to Jewish voters, Trump brought up some statistics — though he didn’t say where they came from — suggesting he has a lower percentage of Jewish voters ready to vote for him than Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I’m at 40%; that means you got 60% voting for somebody that hates Israel,” Trump said, alluding to the vice president. “It’s only because the Democrat[s] hold a curse on you. You can’t let this happen. 40% is not acceptable because we have an election to win.”
Trump continued, “I really haven’t been treated right, but you haven’t been treated right because you’re putting yourself in great danger, and the United States hasn’t been treated right.”
“I’m not going to call this as a prediction, but in my opinion, the Jewish people would have a lot to do with the loss. If I’m at 40%, I’m at — think of it, that means 60% of voting for Kamala, who in particular is a bad Democrat. The Democrats are bad to Israel, very bad,” he said.
Later in the evening, at an event for the Israeli American Council, Trump continued the same theme.
While talking about the election, he complained about his low support among the Jewish community, ending his speech by saying Jewish voters haven’t treated him “properly” after repeatedly saying Jewish people who vote for a Democrat should have their heads examined.
“I’ll put it to you very simply and as gently as I can, I wasn’t treated properly by the voters who happen to be Jewish,” he said. “I don’t know. Do they know what the hell is happening if I don’t win this election and the Jewish people would really have a lot to do with that if that happens because, at 40%, that means 60% of the people are voting for the enemy. Israel, in my opinion, will cease to exist within two years, and I believe I’m 100%,” said Trump as the crowd appeared to chat among themselves.
Earlier in the night, at the antisemitism event, Trump called on his Democratic opponent to “disavow the support of all Hamas sympathizers, anti-Semites, Israel haters, on college campuses and everywhere else.”
(WASHINGTON) — Speaker Mike Johnson will make a trip out West late Thursday to visit the southern border shared with California and Mexico — an effort to take criticisms of the Biden administration’s border policies outside Washington, D.C.
The visit will include a press conference along a border fence called “Whiskey 8” in San Ysidro, California — south of San Diego — with California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa as well as a tour of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities at the San Ysidro Port of Entry and Imperial Beach locations, Johnson’s office told ABC News.
During the press conference, the speaker is expected to illustrate what Republicans count as failures on the Biden administration’s part to secure the border and highlight the SAVE Act, a bill the House recently passed to ban noncitizens from voting in elections.
The border and immigration are key issues for voters who are set to head to the polls to decide the next president in what’s expected to be a close contest between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, who has secured commitments from enough delegates to become the presumptive Democratic nominee if they all honor their commitment when voting.
In recent weeks, San Diego has had the highest number of encounters of any border region in the U.S., according to a senior CBP official. But those numbers have declined by 60 percent since the new asylum restrictions from the Biden administration were put in place earlier this summer.
Details of Johnson’s visit come hours after the House approved a resolution to condemn Harris’ border policies. Six Democrats in vulnerable House races — Reps. Mary Peltola, Don Davis, Henry Cuellar, Yadira Caraveo, Gluesenkamp Perez and Jared Golden — voted with Republicans to pass the measure.
Ahead of the vote, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called the resolution “fake and fraudulent” during his weekly press conference.
“[Kamala Harris] was never assigned border czar. [Republicans] are making that up,” Jeffries said.
Johnson last visited the border in January 2024 when the speaker led a delegation of 64 Republicans to tour the Eagle Pass, Texas, port of entry.
The House has passed its own border bill called the Secure the Border Act, but rejected the bipartisan Senate border bill after Trump pressured Republicans to kill the deal.
(CHICAGO) — Former President Donald Trump’s interview on Wednesday at the National Association of Black Journalists annual convention in Chicago kicked off with a contentious start where he refused to answer his previous comments and why Black voters should trust him — and included moments where he questioned Vice President Kamala Harris’ race and said his vice presidential pick “does not have any impact” on the election.
ABC News Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott, Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner and Semafor political reporter Kadia Goba interviewed Trump.
The first question came from ABC’s Scott, who asked about Trump’s past inflammatory rhetoric toward women of color.
“I want to start by addressing the elephant in the room, sir. A lot of people did not think it was appropriate for you to be here today,” Scott said. “You have pushed false claims about some of your rivals, from Nikki Haley to former President Barack Obama, saying that they were not born in the United States, which is not true. You have told four congressmen, women of color, who were American citizens, to go back to where they came from. You have used words like ‘animal’ and ‘rabbit’ to describe Black district attorneys. You’ve attacked Black journalists, calling them a ‘loser,’ saying the questions that they ask are, ‘stupid and racist.’ You’ve had dinner with a white supremacist at your Mar a Lago resort.”
“So, my question, sir, now that you are asking Black supporters to vote for you, why should Black voters trust you after you have used language like that?” Scott asked.
“Well, first of all, I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a question. So, in such a horrible manner, a first question. You don’t even say hello. Who are you? Are you with ABC? Because I think they’re a fake news network. A terrible network,” Trump began.
He also lashed out at NABJ for starting the program late and said they had him attending under false pretenses that his 2024 opponent would be participating, too.
“I love the Black population of this country,” he said, pointing to his work with Sen. Tim Scott on “opportunity zones” and his work on the economy.
When ABC’s Scott followed up by asking him to answer her question, Trump responded: “I have answered the question. I have been the best president for the Black population since Abraham Lincoln.”
The former president went on to mock Harris and when asked about Republican comments that she is a “DEI” hire, Trump deflected — asking the journalist instead to define DEI, which she did repeatedly.
Trump also appeared to question Harris’ race.
“I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black and now, she wants to be known as Black. So, I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?” Trump said.
Harris is the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mother.
“She has always identified as a Black woman,” ABC’s Scott responded. “She went to a historically Black college.”
“I respect either one. I respect either one,” Trump said. “But she obviously doesn’t because she was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden she made a turn, and she went — she became a Black person.”
Harris’ campaign responded after the NABJ interview, saying Trump showed “hostility” on the stage that mirrored the “hostility he has shown throughout his life, throughout his term in office, and throughout his campaign for president.”
“Today’s tirade is simply a taste of the chaos and division that has been a hallmark of Trump’s MAGA rallies this entire campaign,” Harris campaign Communications Director Michael Tyler said in a statement.
NABJ worked with Politifact to real-time fact check Trump’s comments.
Trump’s appearance had stoked some criticism, though others defended the decision to interview the Republican nominee for president.
Here are some other key highlights from the interview.
Why he was at NAJB
Trump’s appearance at the convention came as he continues to try to court Black voters and slowly diminish a traditional Democratic stronghold. With Harris’ entrance into the 2024 election, Trump faces a stronger challenge with less than 100 days until the November contest.
Asked to clarify his reasoning for attending NABJ, Trump again tried to claim that migrants are taking “Black jobs” — comments he has faced backlash over.
When asked to clarify what a “Black job” is, Trump said: “A Black job is anybody that has a job. That’s what it is.”
He then resumed his assertion about migrants and tore into Harris for her handling of the border. Trump and other Republicans have claimed she is the “border czar” though she was assigned by Biden to address the root causes of migration.
In another stunning moment later on, Trump looked out to the crowd and gave an anti-immigrant and racist “warning” in which he argued if he weren’t president, the people in the audience wouldn’t have jobs.
He also railed against the economy under President Joe Biden.
“Inflation is a disaster, and it’s destroying our country and it’s destroying the Black community,” he said.
On Vance’s past comments and VP’s impact
Trump attempted to play cleanup on his vice presidential pick Sen. JD Vance’s comments on “childless cat ladies,” reiterating his past remarks that Vance was simply talking about his love for family.
“What he’s saying is that he thinks the family experience is a very important thing. It’s a very good thing,” Trump said.
“But that doesn’t mean that if you grow up and you grow older and you don’t meet somebody — that would be wonderful to meet and would have been good — that, that’s a bad thing. He’s not saying that. That would be my interpretation — you’ll have to ask him actually, but my interpretation is he’s strongly family oriented,” Trump continued.
Pressed further if he agrees with Vance that people with children should have more votes than those who don’t, Trump dodged the question, again saying he believes undocumented immigrants should not have votes even though foreign nationals are already prohibited from participating in federal elections.
Trump then defended Vance as a successful person, praising him for going to Yale University.
Later asked if he believed Vance would be “ready on Day 1,” Trump said he respects Vance but again said “I think this is well documented historically, the vice president, in terms of the election, does not have any impact. No impact.”
On Sonya Massey and police immunity
Trump was also asked about Sonya Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman who was shot and killed in her home by a police officer, and whether that police officer should have immunity.
“I don’t know the exact case, but I saw something,” Trump said. “And it didn’t look, it didn’t look good to me.”
Nonetheless, he went on to advocate for his campaign trail policy for indemnifying police officers.
“If a group of people would feel that somebody was being unfairly prosecuted because the person did a good job, maybe with crime, or made a mistake, an innocent mistake, there’s a big difference between being a bad person, and making an innocent mistake, but if somebody made an innocent mistake, I would want to help that person,” he said.
Pressed on how those distinctions would work, Trump couldn’t give a specific answer, going on to praise police officers for having difficult jobs.
On age, cognitive abilities
Now that Trump is the oldest candidate in the race, the focus on age has shifted squarely to him.
Asked if he would step down if his health were declining, Trump said he would.
“Absolutely, if I thought I was failing in some way,” he said, “I will go a step further, I want anybody running for president to take an aptitude test, to take a cognitive test. I think it is a great idea. And I took two of them and I aced them.”
Trump said he’d “love” to take a cognitive test and agreed to make it public. He then suggested he’d ask Harris to do the same as he also asked Biden.
“To be clear, you don’t think Harris would pass a cognitive test?” ABC’s Scott asked.
Trump went on to float false claims that Harris did not pass her bar exam, when it was just her first bar exam that she didn’t pass.
On pardoning Jan. 6 rioters
ABC’s Scott asked Trump: “You have called yourself the candidate of law and order. When Time magazine asked if you would consider pardoning all the rioters, you said yes, absolutely. One hundred forty police officers were assaulted that day. Their injuries included broken bones, at least one officer lost an eye, one had two cracked ribs, two smashed spinal discs, another had a stroke. Were the people who assaulted those 140 officers, including those I just mentioned patriots who deserve pardons?”
Trump initially dodged the question, attempted to make a connection to the thousands of protesters against the war in Gaza converging on Washington, D.C., during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit last week where Trump has previously claimed that if they were Republicans, they’d be in jail.
“My question is on those rioters who assaulted those officers — would you pardon those people?” Scott pressed.
“Absolutely, I would, if they’re innocent, I would pardon them,” Trump said.
“They’ve been convicted,” ABC’s Scott pushed back.
(PITTSBURGH) — Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Thursday to hunker down and prepare for the ABC News Sept. 10 debate with former President Donald Trump, according to a campaign aide.
Choosing to stay in Pennsylvania, a critical battleground state, could potentially allow Harris to continue campaigning while she prepares for the debate — and what will be her first in-person meeting with Trump.
The debate is a critical moment for Harris as it could be her last opportunity to pitch herself to a large television audience.
Harris has been preparing for the debate for weeks now. She has been holding mock debates at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington, D.C., with former Hillary Clinton aide Phillips Reines playing the part of Trump while wearing a wig, according to a source.
Reines isn’t the only one assisting Harris in her preparation — she’s also enlisted former White House aides Karen Dunn, Sean Clegg and Rohini Kosoglu. All three worked with her during her 2020 vice presidential debate against Mike Pence.
Asked by reporters Wednesday how her debate preparations were going, Harris responded, “So far, so good.”
While in Pittsburgh, Harris will work on maintaining a calm demeanor as she makes a case for her own presidency while holding Trump accountable for his, according to a source familiar with Harris’ debate preparations.
If Trump dodges a question or begins launching attacks, she wants to be able to successfully pivot the conversation, the source added.
That same source said the vice president will also focus on avoiding going down policy rabbit holes, which the source said was something she did during her 2019 debates.
Harris’ latest high-profile debates were during her presidential run four years ago and her vice presidential debate with Pence. This cycle, Trump debated President Joe Biden in June.
The ABC News debate will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 10 at 9 p.m ET. A prime-time pre-debate special will air at 8 p.m. ET.