Trump bullies Jewish reporter who asked for plan to fight anti-Semitism
Towards the end of a press conference on Thursday lasting nearly 90 minutes, President Donald Trump took a question from a Jewish reporter about antisemitism, only to interrupt him, call him a liar, and tell him to sit down.
Jake Turx, a reporter for Ami Magazine, started his question by telling the president that he hasn’t seen anyone in the Jewish community accusing him or his staff of being anti-Semitic. But he went on to ask Trump about the uptick in antisemitism since the election.
The reporter was interrupted by President Trump, who told him to sit down and who did not listen to the rest of his question.
“Number one: I am the least anti-Semitic person that you’ve ever seen in your entire life,” Trump said. “Number two, racism. The least racist person.”
Turx then chimed in to try to finish his question, but Trump told him to be quiet and called him a liar.
“See, he lied about – he was going to get up and ask a very straight, simple question,” Trump said. “Welcome to the world of the media.”
President Trump then said he found the question to be very insulting and implied the reporter had accused him of being anti-Semitic, even though Turx starting off by saying that he does not believe Trump is anti-Semitic.
Turx later said on Twitter, “President Trump clearly misunderstood my question. This is highly regretful and I’m going to seek clarification.”
Trump was previously asked on Wednesday about the uptick in antisemitism since Election Day. He responded by talking about his Electoral College victory.
“Well, I just want to say that we are, you know, very honored by the victory that we had,” Trump said when asked what he has to say to those in the Jewish community who are fearful of the increase in antisemitism in recent months. “306 Electoral College votes. We were not supposed to crack 220. You know that, right?”
A few moments later, Trump said that “We are going to do everything within our power to stop long simmering racism and every other thing that’s going on.”
On Thursday afternoon, Chelsea Clinton, daughter of Bill and Hillary Clinton, reacted to Trump’s encounter with Turx on Twitter, writing, “One would think he would have thought of an answer since yesterday. Here’s one: There’s no place for any bigotry, ever, in America.”