ADL under fire for failing to link bigotry at Madison Square Garden rally to Trump – Next

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden on October 27, 2024 in New York. Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

By Jacob Kornblu
October 29, 2024

The Anti-Defamation League joined the criticism after former President Donald Trump’s campaign rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, which featured fierce anti-immigrant rhetoric and a comedian targeting minority groups.

But now the ADL itself is under fire for failing to call the rally a Trump event.

Instead, he described the hours-long tribute to Trump in a tweet as a “political rally,” without mentioning the former president.

Political rallies should be about policy and politics, not offensive jokes that denigrate Jews, Palestinians, Puerto Ricans, and other marginalized groups. At a time when hatred is running high and tensions are high, there is no room for bigotry or intolerance in the campaign…

— ADL (@ADL) October 28, 2024

The ADL responded to its critics’ criticism with a statement Tuesday:

“ADL clearly condemned Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally and the anti-Semitic, racist and bigoted comments that occurred, while linking to an article with more details.” This article is a Washington Post feature headlined: “Trump Rally Locators Make racist slurs, call Puerto Rico ‘garbage island'”

“Furthermore, we would draw on our experience in speaking out over the past months and over the years,” the ADL statement continued. The group has condemned Trump repeatedly, including over his remarks blaming Jews for a potential election loss.

Posted Monday morning, the ADL’s tweet about the rally angered prominent Jewish and non-Jewish leaders and organizations, some of whom said the omission appeared to be a deliberate attempt to avoid upsetting Trump.

“It was a Trump rally. This violent, bigoted rhetoric is integral to his MAGA movement and must be called out directly,” tweeted J Street, the liberal, pro-Israel lobby. “Organizations that claim to represent Jews and fight anti-Semitism *must* be ready to name and condemn the leaders of this hate-fueled movement.”

Randy Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, tweeted: “@ADL – it was a Trump rally.”

The ADL’s vague description of the rally also prompted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, leader of the left-wing “squad” in Congress, to accuse the ADL, one of the nation’s most prominent Jewish groups, of a double standard.

“The way this organization constantly bends over backwards to soften Trump but always finds a way to call out the only Palestinian in Congress by name sends its message loud and clear,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “And that is not integrity. Really sad to see.”

The rally and the ADL’s response to it come days after John Kelly, a former Marine general and Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff, said the former president praised Adolf Hitler while in office. Then, too, the ADL was criticized for failing to call out Trump, a Republican who is in a tight presidential race with Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat.

A group of Israeli American activists is expected to protest outside the ADL headquarters in midtown Manhattan on Thursday and demand that its leader Jonathan Greenblatt “condemn the Hitler-sympathetic presidential candidate.” The group, NYC 4 Kaplan, originally formed as part of the movement against judicial reform in Israel.

Shai Wasner, an Israeli-American pianist and singer and the son of two Holocaust survivors, said he contacted the ADL a week ago about the lack of response to Kelly’s comments and had not heard back. He said the group’s tweet about the Madison Square Garden rally also bothered him.

“When racist language was used proudly, out in the open at the Madison Square Garden rally, there seemed to be an attempt to duck and maintain an appearance of neutrality,” he said. “It’s as if Kamala Harris’ surrogates also like to insult minorities at their rallies.