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President Donald Trump beat back criticism of his comments accusing American Jews who vote for Democrats of “great disloyalty” and went a step further on Wednesday, saying any vote for a Democrat is a vote against Israel.

“I think that if you vote for a Democrat you are very, very disloyal to Israel and to the Jewish people,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House.

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The Republican president drew outrage on Tuesday from Democratic presidential candidates and U.S. Jewish groups after accusing American Jews who vote for Democrats of “great disloyalty.”

Critics said Trump‘s comments echoed an anti-Semitic trope accusing American Jews of dual loyalties to the United States and Israel.

Trump initially responded on Twitter on Wednesday by quoting a conservative columnist as saying American Jews “don’t know what they’re doing.” The Republican president thanked the commentator, Wayne Allyn Root, who likened Trump to the “king of Israel” and said Israelis “love him like he is the second coming of God.”

The comments about Israel followed Trump‘s attacks on a group of first-term Democrats in Congress, U.S. Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, who were denied entry to Israel last week after Trump pressured the government.

“Where has the Democratic Party gone? Where have they gone where they’re defending these two people over the state of Israel? And I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty,” Trump said on Tuesday, without specifying what or who they were being disloyal to.

Those remarks sparked a swift backlash.

“My message to Trump: I am a proud Jewish person and I have no concerns about voting Democratic,” Senator Bernie Sanders, a leader in the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination and an independent, wrote in a Twitter post late on Tuesday.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the current front-runner to challenge Trump in November 2020, called the president’s comments “insulting and inexcusable” and urged him to stop dividing Americans.

“The Jewish people don’t need to prove their loyalty to you, @realDonaldTrump – or to anyone else,” said Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke, a former U.S. congressman from Texas who has called Trump a racist over his immigration rhetoric.