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CNN Analyst, WaPo Writer Try Blaming Trump-Hater's Jewish Massacre on Pro Israel Trump (Whose Daughter's Also a Jew)

 By Kara Pendleton  October 28, 2018 at 4:21pm
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In the aftermath of tragedy, there is one thing that can be counted on in the America of 2018 — and that is some people politicizing the event.

It seems some wish to blame everyone but the responsible party for what happened.

The tragic shooting in Pittsburgh at the Tree of Life synagogue is no different.

Anti-gun activist David Hogg blaming the NRA within minutes of the news breaking. On Twitter, CNN political analyst and USA Today columnist Kirsten Powers publicized a Washington Post column pointing a finger a President Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh killer’s social media posts have made it clear that he loathes Trump.

In the case of Powers, she took to Twitter to share a “Be sure to read” article from The Washington Post that pointed a finger at Trump’s “rhetoric.” Never mind all the calls from the left for violence and harassment.

Never mind the fact that Trump’s elder daughter, Ivanka, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and their children are all Jews. Never mind Trump being the president who finally followed through on recognizing the Israeli capital of Jerusalem and keeping his promise to move the U.S. Embassy there.

Do you believe President Trump is to blame for the synagogue shooting?

If The Washington Post writer and, evidently, Powers, are to be believed, Trump has some kind of anti-Semitic, murder-inducing rhetoric going on. And he shared in the blame for the deaths at the synagogue.

And how on earth can they justify such claims? The Washington Post writer Julia Ioffe (behind a paywall) is very clear about the fact that it is personal for her.

She begins by building a case that quickly highlights her personal offense with Trump. She wrote, “Trump has had enough to say about the Jews that his supporters may easily make certain pernicious inferences.”

“During the campaign, he joked at a meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition that it wouldn’t support him ‘because I don’t want your money.’ A campaign-era tweet about Hillary Clinton superimposed a Star of David over dollar bills. He said the white-supremacist marchers at Charlottesville last year were ‘fine people.’ After I published a profile of Trump’s third wife, Melania, that displeased her — and his supporters — the alt-right deluged me with anti-Semitic insults and imagery, culminating in clear death threats — such as an image of a Jew being shot execution-style or people ordering coffins in my name. When Trump was asked to condemn these attacks by his supporters, he said ‘I don’t have a message’ for them. That day, my terrified father called me and pointed out that it was the 26th anniversary of our family’s arrival in America.”

Obviously, it’s regrettable that Ioffe had those kind of interactions with the “alt-right.” But it’s a big jump from there to blaming the president for the atrocity in Pittsburgh.

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Ioffe’s strong negative feelings for Trump and his supporters is clear from word one. But her claims are supposed to have some kind of merit, particularly where she mentions her personal experience.

Well, the experiences of Jews in the deeply and anti-Semitic Soviet Union, which Ioffe’s family, are to be deplored, of course, but that doesn’t make Trump or the vast majority of his supporters guilty of anything remotely similar.

Does Trump have anti-Semite fans? Of course. No movement is responsible for the individual beliefs of every one who claims to be a member. But it’s a rock sold bet there are far more anti-Semites backing Democrats then you’ll ever find at a Republican convention. (That’s a fact about American politics traditionally liberal American Jews never seem to fully recognize.)

The uncomfortable fact is that Democrats have been caught on video blatantly calling for harassment and violence against people on the right and the tally of such acts is over 600.

If the left wants to play the “blame rhetoric” game, they only stand to lose. Badly.

Regardless, the fact is that the gunman, and the gunman alone, is responsible for the shooting.

Fortunately, not everyone is buying what the left is selling. On Twitter a lengthy, but relevant thread emerged that explained “why Donald Trump has so much Orthodox Jewish support,” and it wasn’t at all what Ioffe claimed in the Washington Post piece, and which Powers apparently endorsed.

Ryan Saavedra, a writer for The Daily Wire and author of the Twitter thread, also pointed to a piece written by another writer at the publication outlining “Trump’s Israel Policies Compared To The Last 12 Presidents,” and noted that Ioffe also appeared to be blaming Glenn Beck, the conservative media tycoon, for the shooting, as well.

Sunday’s “Be sure to read” Twitter post boosting Ioffe’s column wasn’t the first time Powers has taken a questionable side in a public issue, of course.

Check out this CNN appearance from September where she appeared defended the liberals’ attempt to torpedo then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.



As bad as that was, Ioffe’s column about Trump’s alleged anti-Semitism is even worse.

Powers merely blamed the mores of the 1980s for apparently encouraging sexual assault, and discouraging women from talking about their experience.

Ioffe, however, blamed President Donald Trump’s rhetoric for a mass killing by a man she herself admits loathes the president.

In the liberal mind, there is plenty of blame to go around.

Just none for the actual shooter.

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Kara Pendleton
Kara Pendleton is a former contributor to Liftable, a publication of the Western Journal.




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