Congressional mic drop alert.

Rep. Lee Zeldin, a Republican who represents New York 1st District in Congress, minced no words Thursday in laying out why he voted “no” on the “anti-hate” resolution put forth by Democratic House leaders.

Zeldin, who is Jewish, pointed out the rank hypocrisy and duplicity of House Democrats on the issue of condemning freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) for her recent anti-Semitic remarks as part of an overall pattern of their double standards on hate speech.

Below is a transcript of his 3 minute speech on the House floor yesterday, which I transcribed and added links to this morning. The video follows below that.
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“Well, thank you Mr. Speaker.

Let’s all be honest with each other. We are here today right now because of anti-Semitic rhetoric from one member of this chamber said again, and again, and again. We would not be on this floor right now otherwise to discuss this topic.

If that member was a Republican, that member’s name would be in this resolution, and this resolution would be all about condemning anti-Semitism and it would be done so forcefully.

That member in January had to apologize for talking about a ‘hypnosis’ of Israel ‘that they have over the entire world.’

That member had to apologize in February by saying if you support Israel it must be because you’re bought off by Jews.

That member called it an “unequivocal apology” even though she filled it with equivocation.

And now we’re back again, this time by saying that if you support the U.S.-Israel relationship that you must have pledged your allegiance to a foreign government. Except this time that member is refusing to apologize.

Even if you gave that member every benefit of the doubt that she had no idea what she was doing, why now wouldn’t she be apologizing, why would she be more emboldened to refuse an apology altogether?

I apparently am giving Rep. Omar more credit than the Speaker is, because I don’t believe she is naive. I believe she knows exactly what she is doing.

It is an American value, by the way, to have reasonable, legitimate criticism of a government, whether it be the US government, Israel, or any other government. It is not an American value, though, to be hurling anti-Semitic rhetoric. Anti-Semitism must be condemned unequivocally and emphatically.

We have members of this chamber who associate with Louis Farrakhan who says “Hitler was a very great man.”

Let’s talk about a double standard. In January, we all came to this chamber, we condemned white supremacy, we named a Republican member. We kicked that member off his committees. He can’t serve on the Small Business Committee, but this member (Omar) will continue to serve on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

But no, now, we can’t come here and emphatically, solely, forcefully condemn anti-Semitism and name names, but if it was a Republican we would.

It’s time to call out these statements for what they are: Pointed, bigoted, unreasonable, illegitimate, anti-Semitic.

I commend my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who have been speaking out about all this anti-Semitism. A few members come to mind. Chairman Engel. Congressman Deutch. Congressman Nadler. Congresswoman Lowey. Congressman Gottheimer.

Many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, I believe, to their core know how very wrong this is and there are many other members to name as well. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t take this opportunity to say thank you to each and every one of them, because support of Israel, support of Jews, standing against anti-Semitism has been bipartisan in the past, it should be bipartisan today, and should be bipartisan for every moment in the future.”
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Watch video of the Congressman’s impassioned speech below:

H.Res.183 was spineless, watered down & filled w moral equivalency & double standards. Watch my floor speech explaining my NO vote to this resolution. Name names & remove Rep Omar from @HouseForeign. No double standards! pic.twitter.com/Rj17P6MHFI

— Lee Zeldin (@RepLeeZeldin) March 7, 2019

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—Sister Toldjah is a former liberal and a 15+ year veteran of blogging with an emphasis on media bias, social issues, and the culture wars. Read her Red State archives here. Connect with her on Twitter.–