Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff warned that former President Trump would praise Nazis “behind closed doors” in what was billed as a “closing argument” against Trump on the topic of antisemitism in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Monday.
Emhoff chose Pittsburgh as the setting for the address, not only because Pennsylvania is a swing state, but because of the sixth anniversary of the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting, in which eleven Jews were killed in the largest murder against Jews in the history of the United States. (Emhoff also referred to the shooting of an Orthodox Jew in Chicago on Sunday, who was wounded by a man, apparently illegally in the country, who was shouting “Allahu Akbar.”)
Reading from a Teleprompter, Emhoff began by claiming that Trump “unhinged and just un-American view of our fellow Americans.”
He continued by condemning what he called the “antisemitic and racist speeches [sic] at Trump’s rally in Madison Square Garden yesterday.” (He did not quote any; there were in fact no such speeches — only jokes told by a comedian at the start of the six-hour event, which was well-attended by Jews and Americans of all races.)
The Second Gentleman also warned that Trump would praise Nazis “behind closed doors.” He offered no evidence.
He promised that Harris would take the concerns of the Jewish community to heart, and made a half-promise: “The White House residence could — and I gotta check first — could have a mezuzah on its doorpost” if she were elected.
(A mezuzah is a box containing a scroll with Biblical verses that is affixed to all of the doors of a Jewish home. It is believed to bring God’s blessings to a home and to offer protection from dangers, diseases, and other threats.)
On Israel, Emhoff touted Vice President Harris’s work for a ceasefire in Gaza — a position opposed by many Israelis, 66% of whom prefer Trump be elected president, versus 17% for Harris, in the most recent poll by Israel’s Channel 12.
Emhoff implied that the choice voters face in 2024 is similar to the choices the world faced when confronted by the Nazis and other antisemites. “Why didn’t they stop it? Why didn’t they act?” He urged voting as the answer.
He asked voters to trust their kishkes — a Yiddish word referring to “guts” — and choose Harris over Trump.
He said that the Torah, referred to in the Bible as a “Tree of Life,” was “only a sources of goodness if you choose to honor it,” implying that voting for Trump would defy the essential text of the Jewish faith and Jewish law.
Emhoff has largely dodged questions about his personal life, including accusations that he impregnated the family nanny, ending his first marriage; and that he later slapped his subsequent girlfriend so hard that she spun around.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
