Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) justified former President Donald Trump’s remarks blaming Jewish voters ahead of a potential election loss.

“Donald Trump has been saying things like this for at least 11 months, since the Oct. 7 attacks,” Cotton told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday on “State of the Union.” “The point he’s been making all along is that any Jewish voter, Christian voter, any other kind of voter who cares about Israel, who cares about a relationship with Israel, should not vote for Kamala Harris and Joe Biden.”

Cotton’s remarks come days after Trump claimed at an event against antisemitism on Thursday that Jewish voters didn’t treat him “properly” and that those who vote for Harris in the upcoming election need to get their “head examined.”

In Sunday’s show, Tapper pushed back against Cotton’s justification, insisting that this was the first time Trump preemptively blamed Jewish voters in the case that he loses the 2024 presidential election.

“This is the first time he has ever said, ‘If I lose, it will be the fault of Jews,’” Tapper said. “I happen to have a pretty good ear for when people say things like this. And that’s the first time he’s ever said that.”

Still, Cotton called Trump “the most pro-Israel president we’ve ever had.” He also repeatedly deflected in an effort to bash Vice President Kamala Harris, who he baselessly claimed is anti-Israel.

In the three months that followed Hamas militants’ Oct. 7 attack in Israel, in which they killed roughly 1,200 people and took about 250 others hostage, antisemitic incidents in the U.S. surged by 361%, according to the Anti-Defamation League. Ahead of the attack, antisemitism was also already on the rise in 2023 compared to the year prior.

According to a Pew Research Center poll, Jewish voters prefer Harris to Trump 65% to 34%.