Name: Donald Trump makes play for Jewish vote
Uploaded: 2024-09-24T13:07:04.000Z
Duration: 5 min 20 s
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Well, former President Donald Trump is making a play for the Jewish vote, hoping to make inroads with the community as Democrats remain divided over the war in Gaza.

Polling shows that could be an uphill battle for him, too.

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So Trump is here in D.C. today for two events, a forum on anti-Semitism with a Republican megadonor, and he'll be making an address also to the Israeli-American Council.

Joining us now, one of the two Jewish Republicans in Congress, Tennessee Representative David Kustov.

Before we get to Trump, I do want to ask you about the latest news out of Lebanon with this dramatic story about Pager and walkie-talkie explosions that took out members of Hezbollah.

It also injured a lot of civilians, as you know, and sources are telling us that Israel is responsible for these attacks, though no one has claimed responsibility yet.

Do you support this action, and what do you think it means for the war going forward?

I think Israel has to do what Israel needs to do to defend itself, and obviously we've seen the explosions as a result of the Pagers exploding and the walkie-talkies, and it seems like out of a spy movie, but these are real devices, and the Israelis have other means of attack if they need to attack.

So in the end, there are a lot of bad and evil people that are out there trying to literally destroy Israel, and Israel will do what it needs to do to protect its people.

He is here in our nation's capital courting Jewish voters.

Do you think he has a chance of winning them over?

So, Kira, I went to an anti-Semitism forum that President Trump did, which I assume is several hundred Jewish Americans there to talk about anti-Semitism, and I thought it was a really good forum.

He talked about the issues that they cared about, if you will, stayed on script, and was really good, and there was a lot of good give and take between President Trump, people in the audience, and a good forum discussion.

So I assume that that's what he's going to do tonight.

Obviously, it's a different audience, and as far as I know of the two presidential candidates, Donald Trump is the only one who is doing this outreach directly to the Jewish people, and I commend him for it.

You know, Trump has said a number of things considered anti-Semitic in the past.

He has also said that Kamala Harris doesn't like Jewish people, despite her husband being Jewish.

Do you think this kind of rhetoric is hurting his outreach?

You know, President Trump, look, we've got a history of President Trump talking directly to the American people.

He might talk differently than I would talk or you would talk, necessarily, but I do think about the accomplishments that he had during his four years in office, moving our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, negotiating the Abraham Accords, and again, this outreach, like what he's doing tonight, what he did in the group that I was in a few weeks ago, I don't see the Vice President doing that type of outreach, and I think she should.

I think, you know, here I am just a few feet away from the floor of the House of Representatives.

I think she should have presided over that joint address to Congress that Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed back in July.

She presided over all the other joint addresses to Congress, and she chose to abdicate.

So I applaud President Trump for the very forward way that he's trying to attract Jewish voters in this country, and if I were the Vice President, I'd be doing exactly what Donald Trump is doing.

One more question, if you don't mind, Congressman.

Last night, the House failed to pass this funding bill due to about a dozen Republicans voting against it.

Is the U.S. headed for a shutdown, and are you worried about the message this sends about Republican and just the Republicans' ability to lead?

Well, Kyra, I don't think the government should shut down under any circumstances.

We need to pass 12 different spending bills.

To your point, the deadline to fund the government is next week, September 30th, in just a few days.

I voted for the bill to fund the government through March, which the SAVE Act was attached to it, which prohibits noncitizens from voting.

But in the end, we do not need a government shutdown.

We need the government to continue to function.

And so what that looks like, whether we continue government funding into November or December or March, I don't know, but let's get something that we can vote on and let's get 218 votes for it so that it passes the House of Representatives.

Congressman David Kustoff, good to see you again.