CNN commentator Scott Jennings said that the Democratic Party was not doing enough to denounce growing antisemitism on college campuses and at protests around the country following the Israel-Hamas war.
“Everybody at this table knows where the source of antisemitism is in this country,” Jennings said on “CNN This Morning” Friday in a debate about former President Trump’s attempts to appeal to Jewish voters.
“It is not on the right,” he said.
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He argued that Democrats are not being honest in acknowledging growing antisemitism concerns in their party.
“Let’s talk about what’s going on [at] all these college campuses,” he said. “Let’s talk about what’s going on the streets of New York City.”
Elite schools like Columbia and Brown University have been rocked by anti-Israel protests on campus, with one of Brown’s former trustees announcing his resignation in an op-ed published earlier this month in The Wall Street Journal.
Jennings further defended former President Trump for his support of Israel during his administration.
“He did have strong pro-Israel policies,” Jennings said. “He did take a hard line against Iran.”
“The antisemitism problem in this country is on the left,” he added. “It is not on the right.”
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“You cannot deny what we have seen in America since October the 7th,” Jennings said, referring to Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israeli and other citizens that started the war. “And it only has to do with one thing. Antisemitism is on the rise and there are people who feel like now is the time to let it out and it is ugly.”
“If you want to make apologies for it on the left, go ahead,” Jennings said, sparking an argument with Executive Director for Republican Voters Against Trump, Sarah Longwell, as to Trump’s reputation with Jewish voters. “I’m not going to do it.”
“No, you are denying it exists on the right,” Longwell said. “You are stumping for Trump in a way that tries to ignore that he himself dined with a White supremacist” and “cozied up” to Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Trump had dinner with White nationalist Holocaust denier and political commentator Nick Fuentes in 2023. Greene has been criticized for her comments about the 2018 California wildfires being started by “space solar generators” in a statement that has been characterized as antisemitic.
Jennings argued that anti-Israel protesters were still more highly concentrated on the left, telling Longwell, “That’s your party now, those are your people. Those are the people you seek to represent. That’s your coalition.”
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
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