Pennsylvania’s attorney general said President Trump told him he believes it’s possible his critics are making bomb threats to Jewish community centers and schools in order to make his administration look bad.
BillyPenn.com, a Philadelphia news website, reported Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro spoke with Trump about the recent vandalism at a Philadelphia Jewish cemetery and threats made to area Jewish community centers.
Shapiro told the website that Trump insinuated his opponents could be making the threats.
Trump told Shapiro the threats could be coming from “the reverse” to try and “make others look bad.” Shapiro added that Trump used the words “the reverse” multiple times in his comments.
“I really don’t know what he means,” Shapiro said, “and I don’t know why he said that.”
More than 30 Jewish community centers and schools across the country have received bomb threats just this week and at least two Jewish cemeteries, in St. Louis and Philadelphia, have been targets of vandalism.
Trump plans to address the anti-Semitic acts in his speech to Congress tonight, Shapiro said.
“We are astonished by what the president reportedly said. It is incumbent upon the White House to immediately clarify these remarks,” the American Defamation League said in a statement in reponse.
The ADL also said it is “incumbent upon” Trump to say in his speech to Congress “his plans for what the federal government will do to address this rash of anti-Semitic incidents.“
