(CNN) President Donald Trump on Thursday endorsed a Republican Senate candidate in Minnesota who once said members of the Republican Party had "dual loyalties" to Israel and the "Jewish lobby" controlled the party.

Those 2013 comments from Jason Lewis , a former one-term US congressman, drew criticism from several Jewish groups after CNN's KFile first reported on them in September. The Anti-Defamation League said in a tweeted statement that Lewis had "a disturbing history of making charges of dual loyalty, an #antiSemitic trope that's been used to ostracize Jews for centuries," and called on him to apologize immediately.

At a campaign rally in Minnesota, Trump announced his endorsement of Lewis, calling him "tough and smart." The endorsement comes as Trump and his allies have repeatedly attacked Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar for comments she made on Israel and Jewish Americans earlier this year that drew widespread condemnation.

The freshman Democrat had tweeted that politicians' support for Israel is "all about the Benjamins," and said at an event , "I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is O.K. for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country." Omar apologized for some of those comments.

Trump at the Thursday rally denounced Omar for what he called her "virulent, anti-Semitic screeds."

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