Josh Shapiro hits back at Trump’s anti-Semitic attack

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has been surprisingly silent on the events at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Even as Michelle and Barack Obama criticized him Tuesday night, Trump did not voice his usual complaints in real time on his Truth Social platform.

But he felt inspired to flex his thumbs Wednesday night with an anti-Semitic attack on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro after the latter’s relatively brief convention speech.

Shapiro’s speech focused on “real freedom.” He talked about funding teachers, fostering safe communities, and empowering Americans to make their own choices about their bodies, their lives, their relationships, and their children. But other than calling the speech “bad” and “poorly delivered,” none of the content of Shapiro’s speech was mentioned in Trump’s message.

Trump was simply there to declare that Shapiro was a bad Jew.

One only has to watch part of the governor’s speech to see that the manner in which it was presented and its content were anything but bad. It was a solid speech, delivered with enthusiasm, to an appreciative audience. CBS called it “fiery.”

Trump’s message makes us wonder if he actually watched Shapiro speak.

Calling Shapiro an “overrated Jewish governor” and berating him for failing to “recognize that he is the best friend that Israel and the Jewish people have ever had” makes Trump’s memo particularly ugly.

Just as Trump has often set arbitrary rules for determining who is a “real American,” he now seems to believe that he can determine who is a real Jew — and that real Jews cannot also be Democrats.

Speaking to reporters Thursday morning, Shapiro responded to Trump’s sickening post.

“I think it’s clear that over the last several years, Donald Trump has been obsessed with me and with continuing to sow hatred and division in our politics,” Shapiro said. “He’s someone who has regularly propagated anti-Semitic tropes like this.”

Shapiro reminded reporters that not only did Trump lose Pennsylvania in 2020, but his hand-picked candidates lost their elections in the state in 2022. That includes Republican Sen. Doug Mastriano, who lost the governor’s seat to Shapiro in a 15-point landslide.

“Trump is the candidate who was rejected repeatedly by the voters of Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said. “He himself in 2020, every candidate he chose lost and I think he’s going to suffer another defeat to Kamala Harris.”

Shapiro said there was another reason Trump didn’t like his speech. The popular Democrat said his message was “the exact opposite” of what Trump embodies.

“I’m talking about true freedom,” Shapiro said, “bringing people together, accepting people no matter what they look like, where they come from, who they love, who they pray to and say this is a place for them. That’s diametrically opposed to everything Donald Trump believes in and it’s clear that he’s going to continue to be the hateful, divisive person he’s always been in this campaign.”

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