Suspect in Hanukkah stabbing attack had journal with anti-Semitic references
Anti-Semitic hate crimes spike in New York; Jacqui Heinrich reports.
An MSNBC panel pulled no punches against President Trump Monday during a discussion on the recent wave of anti-Semitic attacks that have plagued New York and New Jersey in recent days.
After acknowledging President Trump's tweet condemning the Saturday night attack in Monsey, N.Y., which injured five people celebrating Hanukkah, MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace suggested the president was "part of the problem," noting a report that Democrats were expressing frustrations that Trump has been "insufficiently clear in denouncing anti-Semitism" and echoing an op-ed written by Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., who directly blamed Trump for "embracing" anti-Semitism.
Washington Post reporter Philip Rucker hit Trump, telling Wallace that the rise of anti-Semitic attacks has unfolded "on his watch" and that the president has been "very inconsistent" in addressing them.
Rucker then invoked the 2017 attack against protesters at the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Va., saying Trump "stopped short of fully condemning white supremacists, neo-Nazis and other hate groups" so he could avoid offending part of his "political coalition."
"Now, the attack in New York the other day over the weekend, the president did condemn in a statement, but there is certainly more he could do as the president of the United States," Rucker said. "He can direct the Justice Department to take more formal action and he could also use his bully pulpit as the president to convene more of a national discussion about what is happening in this country, and I think that's what Democrats expect him to do, but he has not done so yet."
Wallace pointed to remarks made by FBI Director Christopher Wray this past July, when he said "white supremacist violence" was responsible for the majority of domestic-terrorism cases. The suspected attacker in the Monsey incident is black.
She went on to accuse Trump of a "quid pro quo" when he slammed Jewish voters who backed Democrats despite his staunch support for Israel.
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"He is incapable of even pretending that politics isn't behind all of his foreign policy vis-à-vis Israel," Wallace said to the panel.
MSNBC commentator Elise Jordan chimed in, saying minorities "feel more threatened" with Trump in office and how "hate is flowing freely from the White House."
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