A couple of weeks ago I posted on a meeting that was kept secret for twelve years. The meeting was between Barrack Obama and Louis Farrakhan in the company of the Congressional Black Caucus. The photographer kept the image secret for over a decade because of the reasonable belief that cavorting with an avowed racist and Antisemite would be fatal to a future Obama run for office.
Now another such meeting has come to light.
When Rep. Keith Ellison ran for Democratic National Committee chairman, he faced questions about past associations with the Nation of Islam and Louis Farrakhan. On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” in December 2016, Mr. Ellison angrily accused his critics of a “smear campaign” for “talking about something that happened in 1995,” when Mr. Ellison was 32. It turns out Mr. Ellison—who lost his bid but is now the DNC’s deputy chairman—wasn’t telling the full story.
In 2006, during his first run for Congress from Minnesota, Mr. Ellison conceded he had worked with the Nation of Islam for 18 months before the October 1995 Million Man March. In a letter, he assured Jewish groups: “I reject and condemn the anti-Semitic statements and actions of the Nation of Islam [and] Louis Farrakhan. ”
A decade later, during the DNC leadership contest, he accused Mr. Farrakhan and his organization of sowing “hatred and division, including, anti-Semitism, homophobia and a chauvinistic model of manhood. I disavowed them long ago, condemned their views, and apologized.”
In September 2013, however, Messrs. Ellison and Farrakhan dined together. The occasion was a visit by Iran’s newly elected President Hassan Rouhani to the United Nations. Mr. Rouhani invited Muslim leaders from around the U.S. to dinner after addressing the U.N. General Assembly. Contemporaneous news reports placed Mr. Farrakhan at the dinner. Unreported by mainstream outlets was the presence of Mr. Ellison, along with Reps. Gregory Meeks of New York and Andre Carson of Indiana. (All three are Democrats; Messrs. Ellison and Carson are Muslim.)
This is a curious blind spot for most of the media, including…or especially…those on the alleged right. While only too ready to label as “alt-right” and “racist” anyone who utters the words “chain migration” (it is real) or “anchor baby” (there are businesses based on ensuring women give birth in the United States) or who might make the mistake of appreciating the tactical mastery of Lee and Jackson and think their statues look fine exactly where they are, there is an overwhelming willingness to totally ignore grotesque behavior by Democrats.
Once again, no feeding frenzy by the media. Don't let anyone tell you the press is neutral. They're not. Their silence is deafening.
Ellison Attended Private Dinner With Iranian President and Louis Farrakhan in 2013 via @freebeacon https://t.co/TZZdpcFcbF— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) February 12, 2018
Nation of Islam is an ugly and virulently racist and Antisemitic gathering that calls itself a religion. Louis Farrakhan is one of the most hate-filled men in the public life of this nation over the past forty years. Keith Ellison is a long time adherent of Farrakhan but somehow his decades spent wearing a “kill-the-white-man” hat and selling Brother Howard’s Bean Pies on the street corner are, like Robert Byrd’s KKK hood, simply ignored as a “youthful indiscretion.” Him meeting with Hassan Rouhani, in the company of Farrakhan, and keeping the meeting secret is a sign both of Ellison’s continuing affiliation with Farrakhan and the beliefs he holds.
And yet, Ellison is deputy DNC chair and many on the right will join him this year in labeling Republicans guilty of wrong-think as racists.
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