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Doug Emhoff Calls Trump a ‘Known Antisemite’ as Biden Team Steps Up Attacks

The remarks by Mr. Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, represented an escalation of the Biden campaign’s attacks on Donald Trump over his language about Jews.

Doug Emhoff speaks at a lectern with the presidential seal at the White House. Vice President Kamala Harris, his wife, is behind him at left.
Doug Emhoff speaking in the Rose Garden on Monday at a celebration of Jewish American Heritage Month.Credit...Tierney L. Cross for The New York Times

Reporting from Washington

Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, called former President Donald J. Trump “a known antisemite” in a video released on Tuesday, a notable escalation of attacks by President Biden’s campaign against Mr. Trump over his language about Jews.

Mr. Emhoff’s remarks came in an afternoon social media post by the Biden campaign with the anodyne title “Second Gentleman @DouglasEmhoff responds to Trump attacking Jewish Americans.”

“The last person I’m going to take advice from as a Jewish person is a known antisemite who’s had dinner with antisemites, who said there was ‘good people on both sides’ after Charlottesville,” Mr. Emhoff says in the video, after he apparently watches a weeks-old video of Mr. Trump proclaiming that Jews who vote for Mr. Biden “have to have their head examined.”

Mr. Emhoff adds for emphasis, “He’s the last person I’m going to take advice from.”

The Biden campaign has been seeking to extend a news cycle that began this week when Mr. Trump posted, then later took down, a video on social media that included old-time newspaper headlines saying a victory by him in November would bring about a “unified Reich.” Mr. Biden, in a video released by his campaign, accused Mr. Trump of using “Hitler’s language.”

The Biden campaign and its surrogates have previously condemned Mr. Trump for using antisemitic language. Two weeks ago, a Biden campaign spokesman, Charles Lutvak, blasted Mr. Trump for employing “patronizing antisemitic shtick” after the former president said Jews who voted for Mr. Biden “should be ashamed of themselves.”

Mr. Trump has long flirted with antisemitic language and imagery, and shown support for far-right backers who are openly antisemitic.


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