Politics

Alan Dershowitz: I Warned Hillary About ‘Bigoted’ Sid Blumenthal

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Jamie Weinstein Senior Writer
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Retired Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz says he has personally warned the Clintons about the toxic influence of adviser Sidney Blumenthal.

Dershowitz revealed his warning about Blumenthal during the first episode of “The Jamie Weinstein Show” podcast, where he also opened up about his relationship with Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, the state of American politics and the lessons he learned over his successful career.

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Though he has endorsed Clinton for president, Dershowitz spoke about the threat he believes the “repressive” left poses to the Democratic Party.

“You call them progressive, I call them repressive,” Dershowitz said. “There’s nothing progressive about that fringe. They want to stop free speech on campus, they don’t want to hear opposing ideas that are different from theirs, they create this concept of intersectionality, which is a code word for anti-Semitism.”

Asked whether he worries that one the the leaders of the “repressive” left, anti-Israel author Max Blumenthal, is the son of top Hillary Clinton adviser Sidney Blumenthal, Dershowitz said he was deeply concerned about it.

“It is worrisome to me,” he said. “What’s worrisome to me is that Sidney Blumenthal circulated his son’s [Max’s] writings, despicable writings. You know, they [the Trump campaign] wouldn’t use the words to attack David Duke. I will use those words to attack [Max] Blumenthal. He is a despicable anti-Semite and a horrible person and he should be marginalized completely. ”

“I don’t think he’s a Democrat,” Dershowitz continued. “His father is a Democrat. And I have to tell you, I have warned the Democratic Party and the Clintons, in particular, about the Blumenthal connection. And I hope they’ll keep their distance. Because you don’t blame the father for the sins of the son – and the sins here are plentiful – but you do blame the father for circulating the son’s memos and suggesting that they’re thoughtful or good when they’re not. They’re bigoted.”

The State Department’s release of Hillary Clinton’s emails revealed that the elder Blumenthal regularly forwarded his son’s anti-Israel writings to Clinton.

In 2013, Blumenthal held a book party for his son’s new book, which even one reviewer in the liberal Nation magazine said “could have been published by the Hamas Book-of-the-Month Club (if it existed) without a single word change once it’s translated into Arabic.”

When President Barack Obama nominated Clinton to be secretary of state, the White House barred Clinton from bringing Blumenthal with her to Foggy Bottom because he was believed to have been responsible for spreading the most salacious dirt and conspiracies about President Obama during the 2008 Democratic primary. A former McClatchy editor even accused Blumenthal of trying to get him to write a story suggesting Obama was actually born in Kenya. Blumenthal has denied the allegation.

Despite the White House’s ban on Blumenthal, the release of Clinton’s emails revealed that Blumenthal remained a constant presence in Clinton’s orbit, regularly sending her email advice and even apparently writing at least one speech for her.

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