Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, de Blasio said that “an atmosphere of hate has been developing in this country over the last few years. A lot of it is emanating from Washington, and it’s having an effect on all of us.”
After seeing Giuliani’s tweet, de Blasio added that his predecessor was “exploiting a tragedy to sow division between New Yorkers and promote himself,” and “the guy who spent this week spreading anti-Semitic conspiracy theories over cocktails can take a seat today.”
Giuliani responded to de Blasio that night by describing him on Twitter as “possibly the worst Mayor in NYC.” He also claimed that his successor “has watched anti-semitism rapidly metastasize, like a cancer, & is too unconcerned or lazy to “nip it in the bud.”
After reiterating his support for the “broken windows theory" in fighting crime, Giuliani concluded that de Blasio was a “coward,” because he has yet “to condemn anti-semities in his own party who support BDS & similar movements, who’s main objective is to destroy the Jewish Homeland.”
Trump’s lawyer also had harsh words for Swalwell, tweeting that “not only have I condemned anti-semitism early & often, I threw Arafat out of UN concert, prosecuted 2 Nazi War criminals, & went to Israel to help after bombings. Meanwhile, Swalwell, doesn’t have the guts to condemn the anti-semites in his own party - a fraud & COWARD!”
Giuliani’s comments came after Swalwell promoted an editorial in the Jewish Forward blaming the Trump administration for enabling anti-Semitism. In his tweet, Swalwell referenced Giuliani’s claim last week that he was “more Jewish than [George] Soros.”
In an interview published by New York Magazine last week, Giuliani was quoted as saying that he could oppose Soros, a liberal philanthropist and billionaire, without being accused of anti-Semitism, because “Soros is hardly a Jew. I’m more of a Jew than Soros is. I probably know more about — he doesn’t go to church, he doesn’t go to religion — synagogue. He doesn’t belong to a synagogue. He doesn’t support Israel. He’s an enemy of Israel.”
Swalwell has not been alone among prominent Democrats who have claimed that Trump bears some responsibility for the rise of anti-Semitism in the U.S.
“President Trump is not solely to blame for the rise of anti-Semitic violence – and we do not yet know the political beliefs or motivations of the perpetrators of recent attacks – but the president is not absolved of responsibility for emboldening hateful ideologies and extremists in our country," Jewish Democratic Council of America Executive Director Halie Soifer said in a statement shared with Salon on Sunday. "Hatred does not emerge in a vacuum, and President Trump’s rhetoric and policies have unquestionably played a role in legitimizing and normalizing the rise of hatred that has afflicted our community in recent years. Symbolic gestures on Israel have done nothing to make American Jews more secure."
