CNN’s Dana Bash Unflinchingly Rips Trump ‘Anti-Semitic and Incredibly Dangerous’ Comment About Jews: ‘Calling It What It Is’

CNN anchor Dana Bash was unflinching in her condemnation of former President Donald Trump’s “anti-Semitic and incredibly dangerous” comment about Jews, making a point of noting she was “calling it for what it is.”

Trump is under fire for comments he made in an interview with Sebastian Gorka Monday.

“Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion. They hate everything about Israel and they should be ashamed of themselves because Israel will be destroyed,” Trump said.

The remarks have been widely criticized as playing to anti-Semitic tropes.

On Tuesday afternoon’s edition of CNN’s Inside Politics, Bash introduced an interview with Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) by playing Trump’s remark, denouncing them as “anti-Semitic and incredibly dangerous” and going through other similar remarks from Trump.

“How do people who are predisposed to hating Jews perceive and take comments like what we just heard from Donald Trump?” Bash pointedly asked as she interviewed Balint:

DANA BASH: Let’s recognize this comment for what it is: a longstanding anti-Semitic trope that the true allegiance for Jews is to their religion rather than their country. It was used in Nazi Germany to justify the arrests, persecutions, and mass killings that attempted extermination of the Jewish people.

And Trump has been pushing this trope for years. Here’s what he said in 2019.

DONALD TRUMP: In my opinion, you vote for a Democrat. You’re being very disloyal to Jewish people, and you’re being very disloyal to Israel. And only weak people would say anything other than that.

DANA BASH: In 2022, he posted, “U.S. Jews have to get their act together and appreciate what they have in Israel before it is too late.”

And this past September, while attempting to wish American Jews a Happy New Year on one of the holiest days of the year, Rosh Hashanah, Trump included this in his post, quote, “Liberal Jews who voted to destroy America and Israel because you believe false narratives.”

That was, of course, just a few weeks before the horrific October 7th attack, where Hamas terrorists slaughtered more than a thousand innocent people in Israel and took more than 250 as hostages.

Joining me now is Democratic Congresswoman Becca Balint of Vermont. Thank you so much for being here. What’s your reaction to those comments?

REP. BECCA BALINT: Well, of course, it’s absolutely outrageous. But what we’ve seen from Donald Trump is, as he’s gotten older, as he’s aging, he’s become a highly distilled version of himself. He’s vengeful. He’s vindictive. He is ultimately incredibly insecure. And he projects.

And so, as a former middle school teacher, I can tell you what it looks like when someone is acting from a place of insecurity with no impulse control. He is trying to call people disloyal because he himself is incredibly disloyal to the people around him.

DANA BASH: I want to continue to kind of put this in context. I just did, giving people a sense of what these kinds of statements have been used for, in different variations in different forums in the past.

But let’s look at what’s happening, of course, right now in the United States of America, since the attack on October 7th in Israel, anti-Semitic incidents are already spiking, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

The incidents in the U.S. rose 361% in the three months after October 7th, compared to the same period the year before.

Congresswoman, you are the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. It’s personal, but it’s, it’s personal for certain, for all Jews, I think.

How do you — I know that you’ve studied this as well — how do people who are predisposed to hating Jews perceive and take comments like what we just heard from Donald Trump?

REP. BECCA BALINT: Oh, it just plays into the narrative that they’ve heard, subliminally and overtly their entire lives. So the the trope of the Jew that can’t be trusted, the disloyal Jew has been with us for hundreds of years. So when he does, this again normalizes it for everyone and says, see, a former president is even speaking this, so there must be some kernel of truth in it. And ultimately we know that he is lashing out at American Jewry because they know they can see through him. Seventy percent of American Jews voted for Biden in 2020. That is ultimately what this is about.

DANA BASH: And what he sees.

REP. BECCA BALINT: Politically speaking, yes.

DANA BASH: Is, the potential given the, the discord in the Democratic Party about how Israel is prosecuting its retaliation against Hamas and to drive a wedge.

REP. BECCA BALINT: Absolutely. He wants to drive a wedge.

DANA BASH: Is is it putting aside the very important context and, calling it for what it is, which is anti-Semitic, just on the raw politics? Yeah. Is there a wedge to be driven?

REP. BECCA BALINT: I don’t think there is. I don’t think there is, because ultimately people can see through this. I do believe that. And look, why is this happening right now? This is what I’ve been thinking about. Why is it happening now? Because he’s had a terrible week, because he can’t secure a bond, and his business is being shown for what it is, a fraud. And he’s gone to 30 different bond companies to ask for money. They’ve all said no. He’s feeling like a loser. So when he feels like a loser, this is what he do. This is what he does. He lashes out.

Watch above via CNN’s Inside Politics.