DJOP: Trump’s calling the Jan. 6, 2021 convicts ‘hostages’ belittles the plight of those truly held in captivity

Former President Donald Trump’s description of people convicted of assaulting police at
the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 as “hostages” disgracefully “belittles the plight of
innocent captives being held by Gaza terrorists and authoritarian governments around
the world,” Democratic Jewish Outreach Pennsylvania said today.
In a statement by Jill Zipin, Chair of the state-wide political action committee, DJOP said
Trump’s comment Saturday while campaigning in Iowa, echoed by U.S. Rep. Elise
Stefanik (R-NY) yesterday on NBC’s Meet the Press, demonstrates that both Trump
and Stefanik are “unfit to hold public office.”
Zipin said that Trump and Stefanik calling the Jan. 6, 2021 convicts “hostages” showed
“no understanding or empathy for actual hostages, such as the civilians being held and
mistreated by Gaza terrorists and news reporters and political activists imprisoned by
the Soviet Union and China.”
Zipin asked:
“How can you claim to be the party of law and order when you describe people
convicted of assaulting police officers as ‘hostages?
“How can you claim to be for the rule of law when you promise to pardon rioters who
attacked the U.S. Capitol?
“And how can you claim the right to hold public office when you ignore the reality of the
serious assault against democracy that you instigated on January. 6, 2021?”