President Trump Questions Accuracy Of Reported Attacks On Jewish Community Centers, Cemeteries

President Trump condemned threats and vandalism against Jewish Community Centers and cemeteries in his Tuesday speech to Congress, but hours before he questioned whether the incidents were staged to look like the actions of anti-Semites.

The president was meeting during the day with the nation's attorneys general when he was asked about the recent attacks.

While Trump started by saying the attacks were "reprehensible," Florida Attorney General Josh Shapiro told Buzzfeed "he just said, 'Sometimes it's the reverse, to make people - or to make others - look bad,' and he used the word 'reverse' I would say two to three times in his comments."

Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, who is Jewish and who was in the room, told a reporter that "It seemed like was really questioning whether it was done by anti-Semitic people.

"You don't have to be Jewish to be shocked by a statement like that."

Hours before Trump spoke to the attorneys general, a top adviser questioned who was behind the attacks and tweeted a story from Breitbart.com during the campaign that suggested Democrats were behind the violence at Trump rallies.

Trump, while condemning the attacks on cemeteries, has struggled recently with questions on anti-Semitism.

The first instance came when Trump held a joint press conference with Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu.

A reporter asked: "I wonder what you say to those among the Jewish community in the states, and in Israel, and maybe around the world who believe and feel that your administration is playing with xenophobia and maybe racist tones."

Trump responded by not actually answering the question, instead to choosing to discuss his campaign.

"We are very honored by the victory that we had, 306 Electoral College votes," he said. "We were not supposed to crack 220. You know that, right? There was no way to 221, but then they said there's no way to 270. And there's tremendous enthusiasm out there."

Then, on Thursday, a reporter asked him about the reports of rising anti-Semitism. The reporter made it clear that he was not calling the president - or anyone in his administration anti-Semitic.

"I haven't seen anybody in my community accuse either yourself or anyone on your staff of being anti-Semitic," Jacob Turx told Trump. "However, what we are concerned about, and what we haven't really heard being addressed, is an uptick in anti-Semitism and how the government is planning to take care of it."

Trump responded by talking about himself, attacking the reporter, and not actually answering the question.

"Number one, I am the least anti- Semitic person that you’ve ever seen in your entire life," he said. "Number two, racism, the least racist person. In fact, we did very well relative to other people running as a Republican — quiet, quiet, quiet.

"See, he lied about — he was gonna get up and ask a very straight, simple question, so you know, welcome to the world of the media. But let me just tell you something, that I hate the charge, I find it repulsive....So you should take that instead of having to get up and ask a very insulting question like that."

When Turx tried to make it clear that he was not speaking about the president, Trump told him to sit down.

If it turns out that the Trump does believe that the attacks have been staged, he will not be alone.