During an appearance on Israel’s Channel 10 News on Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman was asked if he thought President Donald Trump’s reaction to Charlottesville was “fine.” He replied, “I think the reaction wasn’t fine.”
“I’d rather talk about Boeing today,” Friedman added, referring to the ceremony he was attending for the delivery of 16 Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes to Israel’s El Al airline.
The Hill makes much of Friedman’s status as “one of the only Trump administration officials to publicly disapprove of the president’s response to Charlottesville, where one person was killed and 19 were injured after a car allegedly driven by a man with reported ties to white supremacists plowed into a crowd of counter-protesters.”
However, in his other remarks to the Israeli news station, Friedman expressed sympathy and support for the president, saying Trump is doing a “great job” overall.
“He’s treated very unfairly in the media; people should give him a chance,” said Friedman.
He also stated that incidents such as Charlottesville “don’t reflect who he is, what the U.S. administration is.”
Friedman was attacked for comparing the left-wing Jewish J Street group to Jews who helped the Nazis during the Holocaust and for accusing President Barack Obama and his State Department of anti-Semitism when he served as Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign adviser on Israel. He was also criticized for opposing a “two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian situation.
Although nearly every Democrat in the Senate voted against him, he was ultimately confirmed as ambassador to Israel, becoming President Trump’s first confirmed foreign emissary.