Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., suggested Tuesday that President Donald Trump represents a greater threat to American values than radical Islamic jihad, during a tense exchange on NewsNation’s “On Balance.”
Host Leland Vittert posed the question while discussing a deadly attack on Australian Jews over the weekend, asking whether she viewed Islamophobia or jihad as the bigger threat to American life and values.
“I think we have to focus, quite frankly, on, if we’re worried about the threat to American values, on the person who’s in the White House. I mean, we have a president …,” Schultz began, before Vittert cut in to ask whether she was serious.
“Yeah, I’m going there,” she replied. “Because we have a president who has completely undermined our democracy.”
Vittert followed up, pressing her on whether she saw jihad as a significant problem.
“What I don’t see is it as a single lens problem,” Schultz said. “We have a president who has been determined to undermine our constitutional principles, to degrade our democracy, to divide instead of unite us.”
Schultz acknowledged that antisemitism is growing, but argued it is not driven solely by Islamic extremists. She said it also involves “many young White men,” and warned against treating the issue as one-dimensional.
“It is absolutely unacceptable to just oversimplify the problem with antisemitism right now and paint it with a broad brush and say, ‘You know what, if we just deal with radical Islam then Jews are going to be fine,’” she said.
Schultz also argued that antisemitism has worsened in the U.S. in recent years, pointing to Trump’s 2022 dinner with white nationalist Nick Fuentes as an example she said contributed to the climate. She urged Trump to take additional steps to protect Jewish institutions.
“I want a president who actually walks the walk as much as he talks the talk,” Schultz said. “I want a president that makes sure that we restore the nonprofit security grant funding that protects Jewish institutions and other religious institutions from attacks like we’re talking about here. I want a president who isn’t closing down divisions that investigate discriminatory conduct and antisemitic attacks.”
In a comment to Fox News Digital, a White House spokesperson pushed back sharply, saying: “Only someone suffering from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome would make such an outlandish comment. Following several recent high profile cases of Jihadist attacks, no sane person should hesitate to condemn radical Islamic terrorism. Debbie Wasserman Schultz obviously does not fit in that category.”
Sixteen people, including one gunman, were killed during a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. Forty people were also hospitalized.
