Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders came to the defense of Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib Monday after President Trump accused her of having ‘tremendous hatred’ of Jews and Israel.
Sanders, who is Jewish, weighed in after Trump used Twitter to call out ‘horrible’ comments by the first-term lawmakers, who is leading an effort to impeach him. Tlaid is of Palestinian ancestry and has come under repeated fire for her comments.
She recently said in a podcast she got a ‘calming feeling’ when reflecting on the Holocaust because the Palestinian people lost there land in what would become a ‘safe haven’ for the Jewish people after World War II.
‘Mr. President: Stop dividing the American people up by their religion, their race or their country of origin –and stop your ugly attacks against Muslim women in Congress. You are taking Rep. @RashidaTlaib’s comments out of context and should apologize,’ wrote Sanders, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination and has been mocked by Trump as ‘Crazy Bernie.’
In an interview published Friday, Tlaib said Palestinians lost their land, lives and dignity when they attempted to ‘create a safe haven for Jews’ after the Holocaust. Republicans attacked the progressive congresswoman for saying she had a ‘calming feeling’ when thinking about the Holocaust
Sanders retweeted a statement by Tlaib, who wrote: ‘Policing my words, twisting & turning them to ignite vile attacks on me will not work. All of you who are trying to silence me will fail miserably. I will never allow you to take my words out of context to push your racist and hateful agenda. The truth will always win.’
President Donald Trump berated Tlaib – who was caught on tape the night she was sworn into Congress telling supporters ‘we’re going to impeach the mother******’ in a blast at Trump – for her ‘tremendous hatred’ of Jews and Israel, claiming her statements regarding the Holocaust were ‘insensitive.’
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders defended Rep. Tlaib after Trump’s attack
The president also claimed he was the victim of a double standard in treatment between the parties, and said he would be treated much worse if he were to make similar comments as Tlaib.
‘Democrat Rep. Tlaib is being slammed for her horrible and highly insensitive statement on the Holocaust. She obviously has tremendous hatred of Israel and the Jewish people,’ Trump posted to Twitter Monday morning. ‘Can you imagine what would happen if I ever said what she said, and says?’
Tlaib, the first Palestinian-American woman to be elected to Congress, said her people lost their land and lives when they tried to ‘create a safe haven for Jews’ after the Holocaust.
‘There’s always kind of a calming feeling, I tell folks, when I think of the Holocaust, and the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the fact that it was my ancestors – Palestinians – who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence in many ways, have been wiped out, and some people’s passports,’ the Michigan representative told Yahoo! News podcast Skullduggery in an interviews posted Friday.
President Donald Trump tweeted Monday that Palestinian-American Representative Rashida Tlaib ‘obviously has tremendous hate’ for Jews and Israel after the congresswoman’s comment on the Holocaust last week
Trump implied a double standard in his tweet, claiming he would be treated much more harshly than Tlaib if he were to make similar remarks
‘And, just all of it was in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews, post-the Holocaust, post-the tragedy and the horrific persecution of Jews across the world at that time,’ Tlaib continued. ‘And, I love the fact that it was my ancestors that provided that, right, in many ways, but they did it in a way that took their human dignity away and it was forced on them.’
Republican lawmakers attacked the progressive lawmaker for her comments on Friday, specifically calling out the portion where she said thinking about the Holocaust gave her a ‘calming feeling.’
Wisconsin Republican and the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney claimed the remarks from Tlaib must have crossed the line even for her Democrat colleagues.
‘Surely now @SpeakerPelosi & @LeaderHoyer will finally take action against vile anti-Semitism in their ranks,’ Republican Rep. Liz Cheney tweeted. ‘This must cross the line, even for them. Rashida Tlaib says thinking of the Holocaust provides her a ‘calming feeling’.’
‘There is no justification for the twisted and disgusting comments made by Rashida Tlaib just days after the annual Day of Holocaust Remembrance,’ House Minority Whip Steve Scalise said in a statement.
‘More than six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust; there is nothing ‘calming’ about that fact.’
While some seized on the ‘calming feeling’ quote, others criticized Tlaib for suggesting that the Arabs of Palestine provided safe haven to Europe’s Jews during the Nazi period.
Liz Cheney (left), the congresswoman from Wisconsin and daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, and Steve Scalise (right), the Republican congressman from Louisiana and House Minority Whip, condemned Tlaib’s remarks
Cheney tweeted, ‘Surely now @SpeakerPelosi & @LeaderHoyer will finally take action against vile anti-Semitism in their ranks. This must cross the line, even for them.’
Tlaib claimed that Democrats were twisting her words by claiming she said she had a ‘calming feeling’
After the Republican backlash, Tlaib tweeted Sunday she would not allow them to police, and twist her words to silence her. ‘I will never allow you to take my words out of context to push your racist and hateful agenda,’ she tweeted.
‘I understand Rashida Tlaib giving voice to Palestinians’ sense of loss,’ former U.S. ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro tweeted.
‘It’s her people and heritage. But she’s wrong about replacing Israel with 1 state, or the lack of legitimate Jewish historical ties&claims, or the strange idea that Pals welcomed Jews fleeing Europe for a haven.’
Journalist Seth Mandel said Tlaib was spreading ‘revisionism’ and that Palestinian consensus by the mid-1930s was to stop Jews feeling from Europe to Palestine.
‘When millions of dead Jews is your goal, don’t pat yourself on the back,’ Mandel tweeted.
In response to the backlash, Tlaib said she would not let Republicans twist her words and turn it into something to drive their agenda.
‘All of you who are trying to silence me will fail miserably,’ Tlaib tweeted Sunday. ‘I will never allow you to take my words out of context to push your racist and hateful agenda. The truth will always win.’
Tlaib’s comments brought up the sensitive issue of Holocaust-era immigration policies in British Mandatory Palestine.
Journalist Seth Mandel tweeted: ‘Re: Tlaib’s revisionism, spent Shabbos reading a book on the era that’s *entirely* from the Palestinian perspective, and by the mid-1930s the consensus priority was stopping Jews fleeing Europe to Palestine. ‘When millions of dead Jews is your goal, don’t pat yourself on the back’
Tlaib’s critics point out that the most senior Palestinian leader at the time, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem, famously met with Adolf Hitler and supported Nazi Germany
As the British Mandate was winding down, Israel’s creation in 1948 resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs. The event is known as the ‘naqba,’ or catastrophe, in Arabic. Palestinian refugees are seen above during the 1948 war
During the late 1930s and early 1940s, as the Jews of Europe were looking to flee, the British authorities limited Jewish immigration to pre-state Israel after pressure from local Arabs.
The Palestinian leadership at the time was opposed to Jewish immigration for fear that it would weaken their standing once the British authorities left, and the most senior Palestinian leader at the time, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem, famously met with Adolf Hitler and supported Nazi Germany.
The mufti backed the Germans because he viewed the British, who endorsed the idea of a Jewish national home in Palestine by way of the Balfour Declaration, as his main enemy.
As the British Mandate was winding down, Israel’s creation in 1948 resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs.
The event is known as the ‘naqba,’ or catastrophe, in Arabic.
Palestinians say they want an independent state on land controlled by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War.
Muslim Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has also come under fire from Republican circles, and even those within her own party, for pushing anti-Semitic tropes.
She insinuated the Jewish money was buying the support of U.S. lawmakers. Omar, a Democratic representative from Minnesota, tweeted, ‘It’s all about the Benjamins baby,’ in reference to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy criticism of her support of an Israeli boycott movement.
She later apologized for the tweet
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