The barrage of anti-Semitic attacks on Ioffe has been well documented in the media over the last week with countless articles and coverage on cable news channels. When Blitzer asked Trump about the backlash, Trump ignored the specific question and instead attacked the article. Although Trump claimed he hadn’t read the article, he still dubbed it “very inaccurate” and “nasty,” adding, “they shouldn’t be doing that with wives.” (I guess Trump already forgot his attacks on the looks of Ted Cruz’s wife Heidi).

Yet Blitzer pressed Trump, “But the anti-Semitic death threats that have followed...” Trump interrupted, “Oh, I don't know about that. I don't know anything about that. You mean fans of mine?”

Blitzer responded, “Supposed fans of posting these very angry—but your message to these fans is?”

This is the moment at which Trump should’ve clearly condemned the anti-Semitic comments. And if Trump were a true leader, he would’ve encouraged his “fans” to stop spewing such hate.

But he didn’t. Instead Trump responded: “I don’t have a message to the fans.” And then, astoundingly, he attacked Ioffe again. “A woman wrote an article that’s inaccurate.”

In Trump’s first day after effectively wrapping up the GOP nomination, he has again failed to make it clear that there’s no place for bigotry and hate on his behalf.

When Ronald Reagan was endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan in 1984, he made it clear in a letter to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights that he despised the Klan and absolutely did not want its support. Reagan wrote in part, “The politics of racial hatred and religious bigotry practiced by the Klan and others have no place in this country, and are destructive of the values for which America has always stood.”

In February, when Jake Tapper asked Bernie Sanders about the supporters who had been making sexist comments online in support of his candidacy, he denounced them unequivocally. The Vermont senator told Tapper, “I have heard about it. It’s disgusting.” Not only did he pledge that his campaign would try to stop these sexist attacks, he declared, “We don’t want them. I don’t want them. That is not what this campaign is about.”

That should’ve been Trump’s response, too. Instead Trump’s comments will very likely embolden the anti-Semites who support him. And while that’s probably a small number of people, this is far from the first time they have spewed hateful remarks about Jews in defense of Trump. In December, The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank penned an article titled, “Donald Trump is a bigot and a racist.” The result was a tsunami of anti-Semitic comments hurled at Milbank by Trump supporters.

In March, Bethany Mandel criticized Trump’s “legions of anti-Semitic fans.” Mandel was called a “slimy Jewess” and told that she “deserved the oven.” Trump supporters soon found her personal information and began making death threats to her Facebook account. Mandel was so concerned that she not only filed a police report, she bought a gun to protect herself from Trump’s fans.