WASHINGTON (JTA) — An Iowa state legislator who quit the Republican Party because of Donald Trump wondered if the candidate’s next target would be Jews.
David Johnson, a state senator, told The Guardian on Tuesday that his breaking point was Trump’s racially tinged attacks on a judge of Mexican parentage presiding over a lawsuit alleging that a defunct Trump enterprise, Trump University, defrauded clients.
“I haven’t supported Mr. Trump at any point along the way, but what I am calling his racist remarks and judicial jihad is the last straw,” said Johnson, who said he would now register as not having a party.
Johnson, who said his father was among the first soldiers to liberate Nazi prison camps at the end of World War II, said he also was offended by Trump’s call to keep Muslims out of the United States and wondered whether Jews were next.
“I was raised without hearing any racial slur, any racial epithet. It’s something that if we’re going to exclude Muslims from traveling to the United States, who’s next?” he said. “Are we going to come down on Jews?”
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