What to Watch

October 5, 2020

Election Day 2020 is just 29 days away, and here is your update on the stories and trends to watch this week. Let us have your feedback at [email protected].

Top News from the Weekend:
Coronavirus in the White House and Senate

Reports that President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump tested positive for coronavirus and were experiencing symptoms led the weekend news. President Trump spent the weekend at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. We now know that White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany has also tested positive.

In addition, some key Republican members of the Senate have tested positive or been exposed to coronavirus. Sens. Mike Lee (UT), Thom Tillis (NC), and Ron Johnson (WI) have tested positive. Three more GOP senators, Ted Cruz (TX), James Lankford (OK), and Ben Sasse (NE), tested negative, but are in quarantine because they were in the room with President Trump when he introduced Amy Coney Barrett as his nominee to the Supreme Court. These potential absences from the Senate throw a new wrinkle into the drama over the timely confirmation of Judge Barrett to fill the Supreme Court seat of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

We pray for the speedy and complete recovery to health of President Trump, the First Lady, and everyone suffering from the coronavirus. 

RJC's Attention-Grabbing New Ads

Last week, the RJC released two new ads to run on broadcast and cable television in Florida. The total buy for these spots will be $3.5 million, in Miami/Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. Florida is a critical battleground state this year, and this ad buy is part of the RJC’s $10 million effort to reelect President Donald Trump. 

"Deal of the Century," an infomercial-style ad, shows a pitchman who says: "Concerned Joe Biden isn’t liberal enough? This election only: a special offer! Elect Joe Biden, get all his far-left friends too."

The second ad, titled "Fights For Us," depicts President Donald Trump as the only candidate who "has stood with the Jewish community."

The Times of Israel reports:

The Republican Jewish Coalition on Thursday announced a $3.5 million TV ad campaign targeting Jewish voters in the key swing state of Florida.

The commercials will run in the Miami, Broward and Palm Beach counties in south Florida, where roughly half a million Jews live.

"The three most important battleground states are Florida, Florida and Florida," RJC executive director Matt Brooks told The Times of Israel.

"As we saw with the victory by [Florida] Governor Ron DeSantis, an increase in the Jewish vote can have a significant impact in Republicans winning," he said. Desantis edged out his Democratic challenger in 2018 by less than 40,000 votes.

Jewish Dems are Lying about Trump

The RJC continues to stand up for the truth about President Donald Trump's record on fighting antisemitism. After the Jewish Democratic Council of America released an ad comparing President Trump and his supporters to Nazis, RJC spokesman Neil Strauss responded:

Every time someone compares their opponent to a Nazi, it only diminishes the seriousness of Nazism... 

"Diminishing the Holocaust and demeaning the memories of the six million Jews killed by the Nazis is out of bounds for rational political discourse. The Democrats have fallen far below that standard with their new ad. They owe a retraction and an apology to the American Jewish community they pretend to represent."

Laureen Lipsky, writing at AmericanThinker.com, calls out Jewish Democrats for their terrible ad and their false narrative about President Trump. In addition to all the pro-Israel policies of the Trump Administration, Lipsky writes, President Trump has defended Jews from antisemitism here at home:

[M]any leftist Jews scoff when Republican Jews heap praise on Trump and ignore Trump's growing support from moderate Democrat Jews. These leftists are not in on the open secret: Trump is good for the Jews. More than any other president, President Trump has stood with the only Jewish homeland, a country that is also one of America's greatest friends and a strategic ally. Additionally, Jews in the Diaspora are safer when Israel is strong.

...At home, the Trump administration's pro-Jewish and pro-Israel actions have been significant. The State Department now uses the correct language Judea and Samaria instead of the propaganda phrase "West Bank." Education secretary Betsy DeVos is fulfilling her promise to investigate anti-Semitism on college campuses, including the most pervasive type, anti-Zionism. And on December 11, 2019, the White House enacted the ultimate philo-Semitic executive order when it included Jews in Title VI, protecting Jewish students from anti-Semitism in federally funded institutions. Before 2019, Jews were excluded from Title VI and therefore fared poorly at programs and universities, especially where anti-Israel hate was expressed without fear of repercussion.

See it with your own eyes: Watch this video compilation of times that President Trump has disavowed and denounced white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and other haters.

Recommended Reading

• Abraham Accords makes Iran desperate
  Shoshana Bryen analyzes the effect of the Abraham Accords on Iran’s plans for regional domination.
  
  
• The threat to free speech
  RJC member Rabbi Alan Sherman writes about efforts by the Left to silence Republicans like him from speaking out about antisemitism.
  
  
• NYU settles with Education Department in antisemitism case
  New York University has reached an agreement with the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) following a complaint filed on behalf of an NYU student that cited numerous instances of antisemitic activity on the campus. The agreement is the first resolution at an American university since an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in December 2019 added antisemitism to the list of forms of discrimination prohibited by Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
  
  
• Trump succeeded where the UN failed
  President Trump’s speech this week to the United Nations General Assembly highlighted an uncomfortable truth for many foreign diplomats: Trump’s sometimes unconventional foreign policy has succeeded in four short years where traditional UN multilateralism has failed for decades.

Be Part of the RJC Action!

RJC volunteers made 14,477 Jewish voter contacts last week! We are reaching out to potential Jewish voters in Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Arizona, and Georgia, key battleground states of the 2020 election cycle.

Join us this week on Tuesday, October 6, and Thursday, October 8, to continue our Jewish voter contact calls. Every call makes a difference!

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP AND HELP.