Ex-Democratic Congressman endorses Donald Trump, blasts Joe Biden-Kamala Harris admin over Israel

Donald Trump. Image via AP.

A former Democratic Congressman who served in Washington for 12 years after a decade in the Florida House is now backing Donald Trump for President, citing what he described as a dangerously inept foreign policy under the current administration.

Former U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch believes the world has become less safe since President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris won the White House.

He said that while Trump took a hawkish approach to dealing with Iran — which funds Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, among other terrorist groups at war with Israel — the Biden-Harris administration continues to handle the hostile nation with kids’ gloves, and it’s costing lives.

“It’s not just about what is happening in the Middle East. It’s literally about the homeland. It’s about Israel. Iran, their enemy is not just Israel. Their enemy remains the United States. They still want to destroy the United States,” he said.

Deutsch, who lives part-time in Israel, said the Biden-Harris administration’s reaction to hostilities against Israel, including a historic barrage of missiles from Iran last week, “would make Neville Chamberlain proud.”

“I feel very comfortable today publicly announcing that I’m endorsing Donald Trump to be re-elected as President, and I’m planning on voting for him on Nov. 5,” he said. “I take this decision very seriously.”

Deutsch, a lawyer who represented South Florida in what is now Florida’s 20th Congressional District from 1993 to 2005, confirmed his support for Trump on Monday — one year to the day that Hamas terrorists murdered some 1,200 Israelis and took hostage 254 others.

The endorsement came during a call the Trump campaign organized to mark the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Deutsch said he also approves of Trump’s proposed policies on immigration and school choice, but policies that move toward global stability and the ideal of world peace remain the “the most important (factors) in being President.”

Trump has used Israel as a wedge issue to attract previously Democratically leaning Jewish voters to his support base. He hasn’t been especially tactful about it.

In a speech last month during an event focused on combating antisemitism, Trump touted changes during his presidency that he said helped Israel and Jews, from moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and recognizing the Golan Heights as Israeli territory to withdrawing the U.S. from the Iranian nuclear deal.

Yet, his support among Jewish voters this cycle remains relatively stagnant. Trump said that if he loses the election next month, “Jewish people would have a lot to do with (that) loss.”

Harris, whose husband is Jewish, accused Trump of “resorting to the oldest antisemitic tropes in the book because he’s weak and can’t stand the fact that the majority of America is going to reject him in November.”

In May, seven months into the Gaza war, the Biden-Harris administration paused a shipment of bombs to Israel, citing civilian casualties. To date, the conflict has led to more than 41,000 deaths in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Palestinian Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between militants and civilians.

The shipment went through two months later. Aside from its periodic criticism of Israel’s aggressive policy under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom Biden is quoted as calling a “fucking liar” in a forthcoming Bob Woodward book, the Biden-Harris administration has been stalwart in its support for the lone Jewish-majority nation.

Deutsch’s endorsement of Trump joins others from former Democrats, including ex-U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., both of whom joined the former President’s transition team and expressed interest in Cabinet posts in a second Trump administration.

Harris, who became the presumptive Democratic nominee for President after Biden dropped out of the race on July 21 following a disastrous debate performance, has amassed a slew of GOP nods. Those include former Vice President Dick Cheney, former U.S. Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, and former Trump White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham, among others.

In backing Harris, all cited Trump’s efforts to overturn — and refusal to accept — the results of the 2020 election.