Ocasio-Cortez: Trump Is Engaged in ‘Targeted Antisemitism’ Towards Adam Schiff

Win McNamee/Getty Images
Win McNamee/Getty Images
Hannah Knudsen

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on Saturday accused President Donald Trump of engaging in “targeted antisemitism” towards House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA).

“Understand that Trump is engaged in deliberate, atrocious, targeted antisemitism towards Chairman Schiff,” Ocasio-Cortez proclaimed.

“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,” she wrote.

“It’s wrong. It’s harmful,” she continued, adding that Trump’s purported “bigotry” is “reflective” his “white supremacist base.”

The “Squad” ringleader tweeted an article from The Intercept, which bizarrely accused the president of launching antisemitic attacks against the notorious anti-Trump lawmaker, who is largely driving the partisan impeachment effort.

“On October 2, Trump escalated his brazenly anti-Semitic attack on Schiff,” The Intercept claimed before quoting Trump.

“‘We don’t call him ‘Shifty Schiff’ for nothing,” Trump said of Schiff, calling him a “shifty, dishonest guy.”

The outlet claimed that Trump’s use of the word “shifty” is an antisemitic attack – suggesting that Jews are “sneaky and manipulative” – rather than a simple play on his last name.

The outlet also accuses Donald Trump Jr. of being in on the “attack,” participating by linking Schiff to the notorious left-wing billionaire George Soros:

The Intercept wrote:

Don Jr.’s tweets provoked a rare response from Jonathan Greenblatt, head of the Anti-Defamation League, who referred to his invocation of Soros, a left-leaning Jewish billionaire, as an “anti-Semitic trope” and a “dangerous” insinuation.

Despite The Intercept’s claims, there is no evidence that Trump’s critiques of Schiff are antisemitic in nature.

Schiff is largely driving the Democrat impeachment effort alongside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). He remains a controversial figure, particularly following a week of bombshells.

It was revealed this week that Schiff knew of the “whistleblower” complaint – a complaint based entirely on hearsay, not firsthand knowledge – days before it was formally filed. The “whistleblower,” who was revealed to be a registered Democrat, took his accusations to a House Intelligence Committee aide, who relayed the information to Schiff.

The revelation called Schiff’s September 17 claims into question. He told MSNBC’s Morning Joe that “we have not spoken directly with the whistleblower”:

A committee spokesperson told the Washington Post that Schiff “intended to answer the question of whether the Committee had heard testimony from the whistleblower, which they had not” and added that Schiff “acknowledges that his statement should have been more carefully phrased.”

Despite that, the Post gave Schiff Four Pinocchios.

House Democrats – at the lead of Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD), Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel (D-NY), and Schiff – subpoenaed the White House on Friday over documents related to the Ukraine investigation. The White House signaled that it would not comply with requests until the House held a full vote on the impeachment inquiry.

Schiff said on Thursday that House Democrats may have to proceed with impeachment without being able to “flesh out the facts.”

“And there may very well come a point where we have to make the decision that the effort to obstruct has become such an impediment that we have reached a decision point — even in the absence of being able to fully follow and flesh out the facts surrounding the president’s Ukraine conduct,” Schiff said during an appearance at Northwestern University.

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