Trump Says Jews Who Support Dems Show Great Disloyalty.
TRUMP: Where has the Democratic Party gone? Where have they gone where they're defending these two people over the state of Israel? And I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or a great disloyalty.</s>CAMEROTA: Well, that was President Trump politicizing support for Israel while attacking two freshmen congresswomen who have been critical of the Israeli government. But his remarks is drawing sharp criticism from some Jewish leaders and the president's 2020 opponents for playing into anti-Semitic tropes. Back with us, CNN's Chris Cillizza and Kaitlan Collins. Also joining us is Arlette Saenz, CNN political reporter who is covering the Biden campaign. So, Arlette, what has the response been to what the president said about disloyalty on the campaign trail?</s>ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, Alisyn, this really just plays into the arguments that a lot of these Democratic candidates are making out on the campaign trail, saying that President Trump is dividing the country. Former vice president Joe Biden tweeting overnight that these comments are inexcusable and intolerant. You had Bernie Sanders weighing in. He is Jewish himself saying that he proudly is voting Democrat and plans on voting for a Democratic candidate coming around this election cycle. But really this is just adding fuel to the fire for Democrats who are trying to paint the president as a divider right now in this country. That's one of Joe Biden's central arguments of his campaign that you saw play out from the very first day with that digital video where he talked about the clashes in Charlottesville, the president's response to that, saying that this is a battle for the soul of the country. So comments like this from the president just give the Democrats more animation for them to try to paint the president as a divider in this election.</s>BERMAN: Let me be clear. It is an anti-Semitic trope suggesting that Jews are disloyal if they don't feel a certain way on Israel, suggests that they have a duel loyalty, which is the anti-Semitic trope to the United States, but also a loyalty to Israel, is exactly what Republicans criticized Ilhan Omar for earlier this year. And by the way, the president has done this before. He told American Jews that Benjamin Netanyahu was their prime minister. Of course, he's not. President of the United States is American Jews' president. And Chris, there's a long record here of the president talking this way and it undermines, I think, even Republicans say this, their efforts to go after Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.</s>CILLIZZA: Sure. I mean, if you're attacking people for saying that what they say really matters and what they say and what they believe means they can't enter a foreign country, then if you are then saying things that are decidedly controversial and not being kind as it relates to American Jews, well, aren't you doing the same thing? I mean, I think this is -- Donald Trump does not see gray area in the world. It is either for Trump or against Trump. You are either all in or you are all out. That's how he sees things. It's how he presents things. And it's how he talks. You know, this whole thing is simply about if you have the audacity, American Jewish person, not to view things this way, you are disloyal. Right? Those are the terms he talks in loyalty. I'll remind you, John, even though I know I don't have to, he sits down with Jim Comey two days after he gets inaugurated and he says, I need your loyalty. I expect your loyalty. It's a very big thing for him. And unfortunately, I don't think he doesn't define loyalty to the country or loyalty to serve the global world. He defines loyalty to Donald Trump. And that I think is the danger.</s>CAMEROTA: Obviously, Kaitlan, Jewish people are not a monolith. There are lots of distinctions even political ones inside the Jewish community. And, you know, I always wonder, Kaitlan, how Jared and Ivanka feel when the president says something like this. They're Jewish, the president has called them reportedly the Democrats. They have fundraised money in the past for Democrats. So, you know, how can they not take this personally on some level?</s>COLLINS: And we should also note that they have not been in Washington over the last few days. They may have returned now recently in the last 24 hours or so. But they have not been in Washington when the president was making this remark and saying this now that he has returned from his vacation in New Jersey. They still haven't weighed in which is typically a pattern you see from the two of them when something like this happens. We've seen it in the past where it takes Ivanka or Jared Kushner a few days to put out a statement, typically Ivanka, on something that the president has said or done. But to be clear here, this is the way that the president operates because for the last several weeks, he's been trying to target these four Democratic freshmen congresswomen painting them as the picture of the Democratic Party saying that they're anti-Semitic, saying that the Democratic Party doesn't like Jewish people. So when the president goes and watches Rashida Tlaib's press conference which is what they were referencing when he made this remark about loyal yesterday, in his mind he doesn't see how any Democrats or how any Jewish people could vote for a Democrat in this situation now that he's been demonizing them for so long. And of course the numbers do back up and show that in the midterm elections that a majority of Jewish people did vote for Democrats. That's something that the president is aware of when he's looking toward 2020. So when the president makes a comment like that, he's essentially saying he doesn't see how the strategy over the last few weeks to demonize these congresswomen has not worked yet.</s>BERMAN: He's calling 70 percent of American jury disloyal. And it might be that he's as much of an American jury on American Jews. Just going to throw that out there. Another major development overnight in a long list is that the White House today is going to try to do a workaround on Flores which is a court case which establishes that children can only be held for 20 days. Immigrant children detained can only be held for 20 days. What they're going to try to do is make it so they can be held indefinitely. This is one of the court cases, one of the barriers the Trump administration has fell to in their immigration policy. It was one of the reasons why they had the child separation policy at the beginning. Now they're just going to ignore, I guess, a court case here and try to do a workaround. I know there will be challenges but, Chris Cillizza, I don't know if this is a distraction, but this certainly plays to the politics of immigration that the president likes to focus on.</s>CILLIZZA: Yes. You know, Kaitlan made the point earlier that everything Donald Trump does and I would say has done since being elected president is aimed at getting re-elected as president. Let's remember, on the day that he was sworn in, they formed the 2020 committee. So I think this is more of the same here, John. I think Donald Trump has a very clear theory of the case. I am going to placate and play to my base at all times. The walk away from guns is that. Some of his rhetoric vis-a-vis the rest of the world is that. Sort of taking his ball and going home from Denmark is that. Hey, you don't want to give us Greenland, even though we want it? We're not doing that. And I think Immigration has always been at the root of this base politic. Let's remember, first speech he ever gave, Mexico is sending America rapists and criminals, build that wall. This is fundamental to who he believes he is and how he believes he animates his base. Now, I continue to remind people Donald Trump won by 70,000 votes in three states, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin. He loses the overall popular vote by almost three million. He threaded a needle. Now to his credit, he thread the needle. I didn't think he could thread it, but he threaded a needle. This -- the ability to replicate that model by playing to your base I think is very, very a big gamble in 2020.</s>CAMEROTA: Yes, I mean, I hear you. But I also think that we do need to later in the program talk about the real-life consequences of this because it's beyond just the base play. We already have overcrowded detention centers with filthy conditions as we know, inhumane. And so the idea that now you can keep children in there indefinitely obviously has all sorts of repercussions. So we have Jeff Merkley, Senator Jeff Merkley coming up. He has just written a book -- END