Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump said Hillary Clinton’s attempt to link an image he used to attack her on social media with anti-Semitism is “ridiculous.”
“These false attacks by Hillary Clinton trying to link the Star of David with a basic star, often used by sheriffs who deal with criminals and criminal behavior, showing an inscription that says ’Crooked Hillary is the most corrupt candidate ever’ with anti-Semitism is ridiculous,” Mr. Trump said in a statement Monday.
Mr. Trump said Mrs. Clinton and her surrogates are just trying to distract from her own problems with her private email server. The FBI interviewed Mrs. Clinton, the likely Democratic presidential nominee, on Saturday as part of its investigation into her private email set-up as secretary of state.
The image of Mrs. Clinton, along with the words “most corrupt candidate ever” printed on a six-pointed star with money in the backdrop, was originally posted to Mr. Trump’s Twitter account on Saturday. It was then deleted and a similar image was posted, with the star replaced by a circle.
Mrs. Clinton’s campaign called it a “blatantly anti-Semitic image from racist websites.”
Dan Scavino, Mr. Trump’s social media director, said the graphic was not created by the campaign or sourced from an anti-Semitic site, but rather was “lifted from an anti-Hillary Twitter user where countless images appear.”
“The sheriff’s badge — which is available under Microsoft’s ’shapes’ — fit with the theme of corrupt Hillary and that is why I selected it,” Mr. Scavino said in a statement.
“As the social media director for the campaign, I would never offend anyone and therefore chose to remove the image,” he said.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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