On Monday, Women’s March co-founder Tamika Mallory appeared on ABC’s “The View,” and was confronted by co-host Meghan McCain, who blasted her for lionizing racist and anti-Semitic Minister Louis Farrakhan.
Mallory was defending her support of Farrakhan when she stated, “And just because you go into a space with someone does not mean that you agree with everything that they say.” In the past, Mallory referred to Farrakhan as the GOAT (greatest of all time).
Host Sunny Hostin asked, “But let me push back a little bit. Why call him the greatest of all time?”
Mallory responded, “I didn’t call him the greatest of all time because of his rhetoric; I called him the greatest of all time because of what he’s done in black communities. (applause) I think that —“
McCain jumped in:
Let me just interject very quickly. I would never be comfortable supporting someone who called, “I’m not anti-Semite; I’m anti-termite.” “It’s the wicked Jews, the false Jews, that are promoting lesbianism, homosexuality …” I actually spoke with the journalist from Tablet Magazine who released a investigation report on your organization, and in part they allege that there’s a lot of anti-Semitism surrounding this march. Specifically this report alleged that you, Tamika, and co-founder Carmen Perez asserted that “Jewish people had a history of exploiting black people and were proven to be leaders of the American slave trade.”
Now a lot of people, and by a lot of people I include me in this, think you’re using your organization as anti-Semitism masked in activism, and that you’re using identity politics to shield yourself from critiques. You’re talking about all women being invited to that march? I’m pro-life; we were not invited; we were not allowed at that march right there. I’m a conservative woman; I also represent — you’re talking about women? You’re talking about all women, including Jewish women as well and conservative women.
In 2017, Mallory issued a tweet for Farrakhan’s birthday in which she wrote, “Thank God this man is still alive and doing well. He is definitely the GOAT. Happy Birthday…”
According to Tablet Magazine, the first time the leadership of the Women’s March met, Mallory and Perez allegedly promulgated anti-Semitism. Sources who attended the meeting on November 12, 2016, said Perez and Mallory allegedly stated that Jews had a special collective responsibility as exploiters of black and brown people and allegedly added that Jews were leaders of the American slave trade.
Leah McSweeney and Jacob Siegel wrote in Tablet:
These are canards popularized by The Secret Relationship between Blacks and Jews, a book published by Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam—”the bible of the new anti-Semitism,” according to Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who noted in 1992: “Among significant sectors of the black community, this brief has become a credo of a new philosophy of black self-affirmation.”
McSweeney and Siegel noted that Mallory and co-leader Bob Bland had denied such rhetoric was used; Mallory said to Tablet, “Carmen and I were very clear at that [first] meeting that we would not take on roles as workers or staff, but that we had to be in a leadership position in order for us to engage in the march. … Other than that, there was no particular conversation about Jewish women, or any particular group of people.”
Tablet Magazine asked Mercy Morganfield, a former spokesperson for the Women’s March, if she thought the co-chairs were anti-Semitic. She responded, “There are no Jewish women on the board. They refused to put any on. Most of the Jewish people resigned and left. They refused to even put anti-Semitism in the unity principles.”
Video of McCain below: