For Hillary Rodham Clinton, the pattern is clear.
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Clinton blasted Donald Trump on Monday over a Twitter message the presumptive Republican presidential nominee posted to his account on Saturday that employed an image that originated on a white supremacist’s account.
The image, which featured a picture of Clinton superimposed on a backdrop of US$100 bills and what looked like a red Star of David emblazoned with the words: “Most corrupt candidate ever!” sparked an immediate backlash and was deleted from Trump’s feed in less than two hours.
“Donald Trump’s use of a blatantly anti-Semitic image from racist Web sites to promote his campaign would be disturbing enough, but the fact that it’s a part of a pattern should give voters major cause for concern,” former US secretary of state Clinton said in a statement released on Monday. “Now, not only won’t he apologize for it, he’s peddling lies and blaming others. Trump should be condemning hate, not offering more campaign behavior and rhetoric that engages extremists. The president should be someone who brings Americans together, not someone who sends signals and offers policies of division.”
Hours after Clinton released her statement, Trump responded with one of his own.
“These false attacks by Hillary Clinton trying to link the Star of David with a basic star, often used by sheriffs who deal with criminals and criminal behavior, showing an inscription that says ‘Crooked Hillary is the most corrupt candidate ever’ with anti-Semitism is ridiculous,” Trump said in the statement.
Still, on Saturday, a new version of the tweet, which replaced the six-pointed star with a circle, was later posted to Trump’s account.
Trump’s statement echoed what Cory Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign manager, said on CNN, the network that now employs him.
“This is a simple star,” Lewandowski said. “It’s the same star that sheriff’s departments across the country use, all over the place, to represent law enforcement.”
Lewandowski added that the attention the tweet was receiving constituted “political correctness run amok.”
However, the Anti-Defamation League saw the matter differently.
“This isn’t a liberal or conservative issue. It’s just common sense. Donald Trump should stop playing the blame game and accept that his campaign tweeted an image with obvious anti-Semitic overtones and that, reportedly, was lifted from a white supremacist Web site,” Anti-Defamation League chief executive Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement released on Monday night. “It’s long past time for Trump to unequivocally reject the hate-filled extremists orbiting around his campaign and take a stand against anti-Semitism, bigotry and hate.”
Trump’s Twitter activity has come under repeated scrutiny. In November last year, he came under fire for tweeting out a factually incorrect graphic that purported to show that blacks killed 81 percent of white homicide victims. In January, the candidate retweeted a message from @WhiteGenocideTM.
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