(Bloomberg) --
Joe Biden is a Roman Catholic, but he cited a Jewish proverb to condemn President Donald Trump’s comments questioning the loyalty of Jewish Democrats.“I can’t say it in Yiddish, but ‘what comes from the heart goes straight to the heart,’” Biden said, referring to an expression that means sincere words from a speaker are received that way by the listener -- and insincere words are not.Jews “understand that and Trump does not understand it at all,” Biden said Wednesday after a campaign stop in Newton, Iowa, in which he called Trump’s questioning the loyalty of Jewish people a “dog whistle.”“That’s not who the
American Jewish community is,” Biden told reporters. “The American Jewish community is extremely well informed and involved and they come from a core value set.”Trump attracted criticism on Tuesday when he said that Jews who vote for
Democrats show “either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.” On Wednesday, however, he went even further, saying that those Jews are “disloyal to Jewish people and you’re being very disloyal to Israel.”A Biden rival, Bernie Sanders, told supporters Tuesday that he was proud to be Jewish and had no concerns about voting Democratic. “And in fact, I intend to vote for a Jewish man to become the next president of the
United States,” he said.Biden Lashes Out at Trump for Attacks on FedBiden said Wednesday that Trump’s attacks on the Federal Reserve are an abuse of power that is undermining U.S. global economic leadership.“He’s trying to break down every rational barrier that’s been set up to prevent the abuse of power and the manipulation of the system and now he’s going after the Fed,” the former vice president told reporters in Newton. “Look, what it does in terms of the rest of the world looking at us for economic leadership and determining whether or not the president is going to manipulate the Fed.”Trump has repeatedly criticized the Fed and its chairman, Jay Powell. He recently took to
Twitter to urge the central bank to cut interest rates by at least 100 basis points and use quantitative easing to fuel global growth.In a tweet Wednesday morning Trump responded to reports that the U.S. may be near a downturn by calling upon the Fed to “Wake up.” He said the only problem for the U.S.
economy “is Jay Powell and the Fed.” -- Misyrlena EgkolfopoulouDemocratic Debate May Be Just One Night (7:00 P.M.)You might not have to clear two nights to watch the third
Democratic presidential debate.Ten candidates have qualified to participate in the forum, scheduled to take place Sept. 12 and 13. But if no others meet the criteria by Aug. 28, it will be limited to one night, according to ABC News, which is hosting the event in Houston.If more than 10 candidates end up qualifying, ABC will randomly assign the participants to each night. They will have one minute and 15 seconds to answer questions, and 45 seconds for rebuttals.To qualify, candidates need to have received donations from at least 130,000 unique donors and poll above 2% in at least four national polls. Pending verification by the Democratic National Committee, these contenders have qualified so far: Biden, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Julian Castro, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O’Rourke, Sanders,
Elizabeth Warren and Andrew Yang.The debate will be held at
Texas Southern University and moderated by ABC anchors George Stephanopoulos and David Muir, ABC News correspondent Linsey Davis and Univision Anchor Jorge Ramos. -- Misyrlena EgkolfopoulouBiden, Sanders Compete on Health Care (4:40 p.m.)Union members whose leaders have negotiated generous benefits heard from both Sanders about how he wants them to switch to a government plan and from Biden on how he’ll let them keep their insurance.In selling their differing views on remaking the U.S. health care system, Sanders and Biden, both seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, fueled the intraparty debate on how far that effort should go.Biden stressed that his proposal to enhance Obamacare with a government-run insurance option would allow union members to keep their employer-provided plans while expanding coverage to uninsured Americans.“You’ve negotiated really hard for your benefits with your union and employer and my plan, you get to keep it. You don’t have to give it up,” he told the Iowa AFL-CIO Conference.Sanders said his proposal to create a single-payer system that would eliminate private insurance is best for workers because it would make health care a “human right.” But he stopped short of defining whether it would require union members to give up their existing insurance.The controversy over Sanders’s Medicare for All, which some other candidates also support, is likely to continue as the 2020 contenders vie for the endorsement of organized labor, a key constituency and major source of Democratic votes, volunteers and campaign funds. -- Emma KineryTrump Says
China Might Prefer ‘Sleepy Joe’ (2:20 p.m.)Trump thinks Biden has a powerful ally rooting for him to become president: China.“Would China rather wait for more than a year and try to get Sleepy Joe Biden to negotiate with instead of President Trump? Maybe,” Trump said Wednesday.Still, Trump said his administration’s
tariffs have caused so much pain to China that its leaders probably calculate they can’t wait for the outcome of the 202O U.S. presidential election. He said his tough stance would force the country to buckle to U.S. demands much sooner.In any case, Biden could never get as good a deal as he will, Trump added.“Sleepy Joe doesn’t have a clue,” he said. “Sleepy Joe said, ‘oh, China’s wonderful.’ Well, China is wonderful for China but I’m wonderful for the USA.”Biden has also taken a tough tone toward China. Unlike Trump, however, he said he wouldn’t have the U.S. act unilaterally. “We must have the rest of the world join us to keep them in check,” he said at the Democratic presidential debate in Detroit last month. -- Max BerleyDNC Raises Far Less Cash Than GOP in July (5:30 a.m.)The Democratic National Committee raised $7.75 million in July and ended the month with $9 million in the bank, far behind its GOP counterpart, its latest filing with the Federal Election Commission shows.The
Republican National Committee earlier reported raising $20.8 million, and has $46.6 million cash on hand. The party holding the
White House usually has an advantage raising money, especially when the opposition has a contested primary contest. The DNC has raised $51.6 million so far in 2019, compared to $117.9 million for the GOP.The DNC’s July fundraising included $2.7 million from small-dollar donors, those giving $200 or less. It spent $7.9 million, and reported debts of $5.6 million, its filing shows. -- Bill AllisonComing Up:The Democratic National Committee meets Thursday through Saturday in San Francisco. Most of the top presidential candidates -- except Biden and Buttigieg -- will speak to members on Friday.\--With assistance from Bill Allison, Emma Kinery and Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou.To contact the reporter on this story: Tyler Pager in
Washington at tpager1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Max Berley, John HarneyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.