WASHINGTON — Jewish and Israeli leaders and lawmakers condemned the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, as did Gabrielle Giffords, the former Arizona congresswoman who survived an assassination attempt.
The Republican Jewish Coalition said in a release:
“We pray for refuah shlema — a complete recovery and healing — for President Trump.”
Attached to the RJC release was an AP photo of a bloodied Trump raising his fist in defiance after the shooting.
The Jewish Democratic Council of America said it was “alarmed by the shooting at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania this afternoon,” and wished Trump a “speedy” recovery. “Political violence has no place in our country.”
Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee and former Florida Democratic congressman whose district in 2018 encompassed Parkland High School, where a shooter killed 17 students, said on X:
“We are all shocked and traumatized by what happened. We must come together to condemn political violence. We are all Americans. Whatever our politics.”
He was joined by an array of Jewish organizations, including the ADL, AIPAC, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, J Street and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in condemning the attack and wishing Trump a speedy recovery.
The RJC CEO, Matt Brooks was set to speak at the Republican national convention in Milwaukee convention where Trump was nominated, a first for the organization.
The RJC has pledged $15 million to help elect Trump, and an additional $5 million to be raised from donors and an affiliated PAC.
“We know President Trump will return stronger and more determined than ever to Make America Great Again,” said Brooks.
“Make America Great Again” is the Trump campaign slogan.
The gunman, positioned outside a stadium in Butler, Penn. where the former president was leading a campaign rally opened fire on Saturday evening, July 13.
Trump emerged from the attack with a bleeding ear and a defiant raised arm, pledging to continue his race for the presidency.
One rally goer — Corey Comperatore — was shot dead after diving on his family to protect them.
The Secret Service returned fire and killed the gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks.
The Secret Service has come under severe criticism for lax security at the event.
A number of Jewish lawmakers, including Democrats who oppose Trump’s bid to return to the presidency, condemned the attack.
“I am horrified by what happened at the Trump rally in Pennsylvania and relieved that former President Trump is safe,” New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, said on X. “Political violence has no place in our country.”
Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Florida Democrat who received national attention in 2018 when a gunman in the district he then represented in the state legislature killed 17 people at Parkland High School, said he was “praying for the former President.”
“This is not how we settle our differences,” he said on X. “This is why crazy people shouldn’t have guns.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is set on July 24 to address Congress about Israel’s war with Hamas, weighed in on X.
“Sara and I were shocked by the apparent attack on President Trump. We pray for his safety and speedy recovery.”
President Joe Biden, who will face Trump in a bitterly contested election in November, reached out to Trump and condemned the violence, calling it “sick.”
Pennsylvania’s Jewish governor, Democrat Josh Shapiro, said the state’s police were assisting in investigating the attack.
“Violence targeted at any political party or political leader is absolutely unacceptable,” he said on X. “It has no place in Pennsylvania or the US.”
Shapiro called the shooter’s one fatal victim, a Trump supporter, a “hero.” He also wished the two others wounded by the shooter well.
The widespread condemnations of the shooting did not entirely calm inflammatory rhetoric from both sides of the aisle.
“The entire campaign message of the Democrat Party has been the vile and monstrous lie that Trump and the GOP are trying to end democracy,” said Stephen Miller, a Jewish senior adviser to Trump.
“The last thing we needed was sympathy for the devil but here we are,” tweeted Steven Woodrow, a Jewish Colorado Democratic legislator (House District 2). After intense brushback, Woodrow apologized.