Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee and good pals with vehement anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan, has been justifiably accused of anti-Semitism for years. Now he’s acting offended by charges over his ties with Farrakhan, complaining that the accusations of anti-Semitism are a “smear.”
As The Washington Examiner reported, speaking at Harvard University at a Harvard Institute of Politics forum, Ellison first tried to minimize his meetings with Farrakhan. He stated:
Look, I gotta be honest with you and tell you this thing about Farrakhan being absolutely radioactive and then trying to connect anyone possible to him and then make them radioactive is – look, Farrakhan’s organization is tiny. They don’t have any influence. Nobody listens to them. They don’t have any answers for anyone. Nobody’s paying any attention to them. I’m telling you, they’re not. I mean, give me credit for leading my life. Farrakhan is irrelevant to any politics. Nobody cares.
When he was pressed further on the issue, Ellison pontificated:
What I’m telling you is the only way Farrakhan gets in the news is if somebody tries to say, “Oh this black person whose whole life is dedicated to human rights met him or saw him or was in a room with him.” It’s a smear, man. I’m sorry. It is a smear. And I got to tell you it is frustrating to be pulled out and be in and it’s like it’s your daily moment to denounce anti-Semitism. We denounce it. We absolutely denounce it. We think it is reprehensible, murderous, and genocidal. And it offends me that anyone would insist that I do it one more time.
Ellison defended the Congressional Black Caucus for its meetings with Farrakhan: “The Black Caucus in particular has been targeted with this smear. The Black Caucus has fought for justice more than any other caucus in the United States Congress, period, and that’s who is being questioned about whether we really stand against hatred. It’s offensive.”
As Accuracy in Media (AIM) reported, “CNN’s Jake Tapper has been one of the few mainstream journalists to call out Rep. Ellison over his lies that he severed ties with Farrakhan. Even the Washington Post’s Fact Checker gave Ellison’s claims of severed ties a ‘Four Pinocchios’ rating.”