This interview is part of Moment’s Jewish Political Voices Project. To learn more about the project, click here. To see our other participants, click here. To see all posts from Jeff, click here.
Age: 78
Occupation: Retired foundation director
Location: Valdosta, GA
Party Registration: Republican
Jewish Denomination: Conservative but leans Reform
Current 2024 Vote: Undecided
2020 Vote: Donald Trump
Family: Married; two adult children, two grandchildren
News Sources: Local news, ABC, Fox News
Has the October 7 attack affected how you view the 2024 presidential election?
No. It hasn’t affected my choice of candidates because I think they’re both lousy. I may not vote for president. I would not vote for Joe Biden. I also don’t think I can vote for Donald Trump. I think he is a bully, and I don’t always think he acts very presidential. Biden is too old and just doesn’t seem to be on top of things.
What is your overall assessment of the political landscape heading into 2024?
I am afraid there may be controversy over the results.
Do you expect Trump to be the GOP nominee in November?
I don’t see any way he won’t be. I’m not thrilled about it, but I expect him to be. There’s a part of me that worries his prosecutions may derail the election, but I don’t know where they’re going to go with all of this prosecution, how far it’s going to go. I don’t know.
Trump is a big talker, and I don’t know. There are things about when he was president, he got a lot done. He really did. But I don’t know how I feel about what he’d be able to do, should he become president.
Trump has said that if he were president now, Putin would not have invaded Ukraine and Hamas would not have attacked Israel October 7. Are those claims credible to you?
Maybe Putin would have attacked Ukraine anyway. I think Hamas had to have been planning this for quite some time, and I don’t know if Donald Trump could have it. I don’t think this was just a quick attack on Israel, that one day they just decided to attack. I think Israel got careless, and there was a lot of infighting going on within the country and they were weak and were attacked. I don’t know that Donald Trump could have prevented it. I don’t know that he could have prevented Ukraine either.