Tag: Rashida Tlaib

Rep Rashida Tlaib Calls for $20 an Hour Minimum Wage

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by Evie Fordham   Democratic Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib called for a federal minimum wage of up to $20 an hour at a “One Fair Wage” event in Detroit on Sunday. “Big fights like this one, $15. When we started it, it should have been $15. Now I think it should be $20 … It should be $20 an hour. $18-20 an hour,” Tlaib said in a video posted by America Rising on Monday. Tlaib and Michigan Democrat Debbie Dingell participated in an event called “Server for an Hour” to support the Raise the Wage Act that passed the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives Thursday. Tlaib brought up the common counter-argument that raising the minimum wage will not actually feel like more money in the wallets of workers. Fighting for our working families sometimes means walking in their shoes. It was only for an hour, but it was hard work. @HouseDemocrats passed #Fightfor15 #OneFairWage & now the Senate needs to. Thank you to @onefairwage for inviting me into your movement. pic.twitter.com/POihHhC7kE — Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) July 22, 2019 “They say all this is going to raise the cost. But I can tell you, milk has gone up. Eggs has gone up.…

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Trump Calls Tlaib a ‘Lunatic’ After Watching 2016 Video Showing Her Being Removed from His Rally

Zachery Schmidt

  President Donald Trump criticized Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13) Tuesday during a speech where he called her a “lunatic” after watching a video of her being thrown out of a 2016 Trump rally. The video showed Tlaib being removed by security guards at Detroit’s Cobo Center. While leaving, she yelled “you guys are crazy” at Trump supporters. In response, a person called her an “animal” and told her “to get a job.” “There is no way she stands for the values of the people of Michigan. But I watched her this morning. She’s vicious. She’s like a crazed lunatic,” Trump said at the Turning Point USA’s Teen Student Action Summit. “She starts screaming, and this is not a sane person, folks, when you look at that. And this is what we’re up against,” he added. Donald Trump took jabs at Freshmen Democrats Rashida Tlaib, AOC and Ilhan Omar when speaking to young conservatives at the Turning Point USA Teen Action Summit. Earlier today, he predicted Omar’s remarks would give him the edge to win Minnesota in 2020 https://t.co/XlmbeYUwbD pic.twitter.com/H0QMFQphdj — POLITICO (@politico) July 23, 2019 At the 2016 Trump rally, Tlaib and at least 14 other protesters were removed…

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Commentary: President Trump’s Tweets Were in Response to U.S. Reps’ Past Racist and Anti-American Statements

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by Robert Romano   “Go wherever they want them, or they can stay. But they should love our country. They shouldn’t hate our country. You look at what they’ve said. I have clips right here. The vilest, most horrible statements about our country, about Israel, about others. It’s up to them to do what they want. They can leave, they can stay. But they should love our country, and they should work for the good of our country.” That was President Donald Trump’s response on July 16 to the flap over his tweets blasting U.S. Representatives Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.). Trump had tweeted on July 12, “So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly… and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then…

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Rashida Tlaib Says No Person Is ‘Illegal’

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by Jason Hopkins   Michigan Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib claimed that no person in the United States in “illegal,” while testifying before a House committee hearing. “First, no one is illegal. That term is derogatory now because it dehumanizes people. You can say any other forms of maybe ‘coming in without any regulations’ or so forth, but the use of ‘illegal’ is disrespectful and I ask my colleagues to try in so many way to not dehumanize our immigrant neighbors who are trying to come in for safe haven,” Tlaib said Friday during a House Oversight committee hearing. The congresswoman, herself the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, spoke about the southern border crisis and the alleged mistreatment of illegal aliens being held in detention facilities, and claimed that a “dangerous ideology” was governing the country. In an effort to paint a grim picture of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Michigan Democrat spent a significant amount of her time describing the different people she met in their custody, recounting moments she met a young child, a father, a pregnant mother and others who were detained after illegally crossing the border. “The dehumanization is not only with those families, but also with…

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Omar and ‘the Squad’ Reportedly Isolated by Pelosi, Saddled With Work to Avoid Spotlight

Anthony Gockowski

  Tensions between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA-12) and the freshmen progressives in her party are starting to boil over. It was clear from the beginning that “the squad,” comprised of Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY-14), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13) and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA-07), wasn’t going to make things easy for Pelosi. For one thing, she’s repeatedly had to defend Omar and Tlaib against claims of anti-Semitism. The squad wants impeachment proceedings, while Pelosi would prefer to wait things out. Some members of the squad called for new leadership and would’ve liked to see Pelosi go. The Pelosi-squad schism has been the subject of several articles out of The New York Times and The Washington Post in the past few days. The squad’s vote against the House’s border-funding bill, which Pelosi called “our bill,” plus an “offensive” tweet from Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff that compared moderate Democrats to segregationists, are both factors that are threatening to bring the spat over the edge. “All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world,” Pelosi said of the squad in a recent interview with The New York Times. “But they didn’t have any following. They’re four people and that’s how…

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PJTN’s Laurie Cardoza-Moore Joins The Tennessee Star Report Live From Florida to Discuss the Insufficient ‘Reassignment’ of Holocaust Denier, Principal William Latson

Julie Carr

  On Wednesday’s Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Gill and Leahy spoke with Laurie Cardoza-Moore from Proclaiming Justice to the Nations about William Laston the principal, who at Spanish River High School in Boca Raton Florida decided to teach that the Holocaust did not exist in his school curriculum. Towards the end of the segment the Tennessee Star Report discussed her current petition which can be found online at PJTN.org. asking for the resignation of Ilhan Omar. Gill:  A Florida principal came under fire for saying he can’t say the Holocaust is factual or a historical event. He denied the Holocaust. William Latson wrote in emails last year that were published in the Palm Beach Post on Friday, a week ago. The comments came after a mother of a student inquired how the Holocaust was being taught at the school. The guy had been the principal at Spanish River High School. The curriculum included education on the Holocaust but the lessons could not be taught in a factual or historical basis according to the principal. Laurie Cardoza-Moore…

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Omar, AOC Voted Against Bill That Would Improve Standards of Immigrant Detention Centers

Anthony Gockowski

  Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) joined three House Democrats in voting against a bill Tuesday evening that would provide $4.5 billion in emergency border funding, some of it for humanitarian relief. According to NPR, the House bill “seeks to establish protocols to meet standards of care for migrants held in temporary emergency shelters, including food, water hygiene and basic medical care.” “And the legislation places caps on how long unaccompanied migrant children can stay in those facilities and places standards of care on government contractors operating detention facilities,” the outlet adds. In an exclusive interview with Fox Business, President Donald Trump said was he “not happy” with the bill “because there’s no money for protection.” “It’s like we’re running hospitals over there,” he added. The Hill reports that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA-12) urged Democrats to support the bill during a closed-door caucus meeting Tuesday afternoon. “Understand what we’re up against in the White House. The president would love for this bill to go down today,” Pelosi said, according to a Democratic aide who spoke with The Hill. “A vote against this bill is a vote for Donald Trump and his inhumane, outside-the-circle of civilized attitude toward the children,” she…

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Rashida Tlaib Gave Every Freshman Congressman an Anti-Trump Welcome Gift

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by Molly Prince   Democratic Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib revealed on Tuesday that she gave every freshman member of Congress a book on impeaching President Donald Trump when she arrived in Washington, D.C., for orientation week in November. “It was such a great gift,” Tlaib told interviewer John Nichols on The Nation’s “Next Left” podcast. The episode was titled “There’s a Real Human Impact of Doing Nothing.” “It was orientation week and all of a sudden I was getting [gifts],” she explained. “I think Speaker [of the House Nancy] Pelosi sent chocolates and every person that was in some sort of [inaudible] role was sending stuff to our hotel so we would come in and there was stuff right already in our hotel room.” The Michigan congresswoman explained that after her chief of staff confirmed that she could give presents to her fellow freshman lawmakers she sent them each a copy of “The Constitution Demands It: The Case for the Impeachment of Donald Trump” by Ron Fein, John Bonifaz and Ben Clements. Nichols, who also wrote the introduction to the book, noted that he was “amused” by the gift. Only hours after Tlaib was sworn into Congress in January, she…

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Ilhan Omar Comes to Rashida Tlaib’s Defense in Backlash Over Holocaust Comments

Anthony Gockowski

  Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) has repeatedly defended her colleague Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13) against criticisms related to comments she made about the Holocaust on a podcast over the weekend. “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,” Tlaib said on a Saturday episode of the podcast “Skullduggery.” “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,” she continued. Tlaib immediately faced backlash for the comments, and was accused of engaging in revisionist history. “She ignored the fact that Palestinian leaders at the time allied themselves with Hitler and that total war is how the Arab world reacted to the declaration of Israeli independence,” CNN anchor John King said on his Monday show. Writing for The New York Post, Lahav Harkov, contributing editor…

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Change.org Suppresses Jewish Watchdog’s Petition Questioning Loyalty of Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib

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by Peter Hasson   Change.org is suppressing an inflammatory petition from a Jewish watchdog group demanding a federal investigation into the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. Though the petition didn’t violate Change.org’s terms, the platform took steps to restrict its “discovery on our platform,” Change.org told StopAntisemitism.org, the watchdog group, in an email shared with The Daily Caller News Foundation. The petition is hidden from users who search for it on the platform. The petition, which had more than 32,000 signatures by Tuesday evening, accuses CAIR, a Muslim activist group, of being “an American front group for the Hamas terrorist organization.” The petition also challenges Omar and Tlaib’s loyalties to America. Both congresswomen previously leveled the same charge against supporters of Israel. “There’s no doubt that Tlaib and Omar have close-knit ties with Hamas affiliated CAIR and we, as concerned citizens, call on Attorney General and U.S. Special Envoy for Anti-Semitism to investigate these ties,” the petition states. Omar and Tlaib both spoke at CAIR fundraisers this year. Omar stirred controversy with remarks she made about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks while speaking at a CAIR event…

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Ilhan Omar Joins Freshmen Democrats in Calling for Impeachment

Anthony Gockowski

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) has joined the chorus of Democrats calling for the impeachment of President Donald Trump in the wake of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report being released to the public. “Impeachment is part of our constitutional responsibility,” the freshman Democrat wrote on Twitter this week. “We have an obligation to investigate whether the president committed impeachable offenses, including: obstruction of justice, violating the emoluments clause, collusion, [and] abuse of power.” Impeachment is part of our constitutional responsibility. We have an obligation to investigate whether the President committed impeachable offenses, including: -Obstruction of justice-Violating the Emoluments Clause-Collusion-Abuse of power https://t.co/Sq907gs7eF — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) April 18, 2019 Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13) has been calling for Trump’s impeachment ever since she first entered Congress, and introduced a resolution last month that urges the House Judiciary Committee to investigate whether Trump committed any impeachable offenses. “Everything outlined in the Mueller report is further proof of what I’ve been saying for a long time: it’s time to impeach. The first step? The House Judiciary Committee launching an investigation into whether Trump committed impeachable offenses,” Tlaib wrote on Twitter after Mueller’s report was released. Everything outlined in the #MuellerReport is further proof of…

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Rashida Tlaib Suggests Americans Launch A Hunger Strike To ‘Shut Down’ ICE

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by Molly Prince   Democratic Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib suggested that Americans engage in a hunger strike to “shut down” the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rather than abolishing the agency through congressional approval. “I want you not to only share things on social media, but pick up the phone because many of your Michigan delegation members need to also be loud and clear about this action,” Tlaib told a crowd of supporters on Sunday while delivering the keynote address for the Michigan Coalition for Human Rights. “You know, there’s so many movements that we’re all part of. It won’t take us getting them information from the subpoena only,” Tlaib continued. “You know what it’s going to take? Movements outside of the halls of Congress, movements outside of [the] White House.” The Michigan congresswoman has been an outspoken opponent of the agency. She claimed in June that ICE makes “our neighborhoods less safe” and that it “terrorizes” communities. “I want you all to shut [ICE] down. We can shut them down,” Tlaib said. “Don’t wait for this Congress to act. Shut ’em down.” “I know what you’re going to say though, they’re going to go ‘what do you mean…

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Rashida Tlaib Hosts Another Extreme Anti-Israel, Terror-Affiliated Activist on Capitol Hill

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by Molly Prince   Democratic Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib met with another extreme anti-Israel activist and terrorist-supporter in her Capitol Hill congressional office during American Muslims for Palestine Advocacy Day in mid-April. American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) hosted the annual advocacy and training event, which was open to all adults who “seek justice in Palestine.” Additional criteria for participation includes supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to punish Israel by economically depriving the country for its alleged mistreatment of Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) describes the BDS movement as “the most prominent effort to undermine Israel’s existence” and has further criticized AMP for promoting anti-Semitism under the guise of educating Americans. AMP hailed the ADL’s anti-Israel description of its organization. Tlaib spoke to AMP on April 8 where she told the group that she feels “more Palestinian” when she is in Congress than she does elsewhere, according to The Investigative Project On Terrorism, who first reported on the meeting. AMP’s New Jersey chapter posted a photograph of Tlaib outside of her office with some of its members during the event, including Joe Catron, an avowed supporter of multiple…

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Tim Walz Spoke at Event Sponsored by Group Accused of Terror Connections

Anthony Gockowski

Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) spoke Thursday at an event sponsored by Minnesota’s chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) at Metropolitan State University. As The Minnesota Sun has reported, CAIR was listed by the Department of Justice as an unindicted co-conspirator in funding millions of dollars to Hamas, a terrorist organization. The United Arab Emirates listed CAIR as a terrorist organization along with al-Qaeda and ISIS. A recent online petition called on Attorney General William Barr to investigative Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13) for their ties to CAIR. “There’s no doubt that Tlaib and Omar have close-knit ties with Hamas-affiliated CAIR and we, as concerned citizens, call on Attorney General and U.S. Special Envoy for Antisemitism to investigate these ties,” the petition states. After his Thursday event, Walz specifically thanked CAIR for “putting on this event” on how to “challenge Islamophobia.” Hate and Islamophobia have no place in Minnesota. When our Muslim communities thrive, Minnesota thrives. Thank you to @CAIRMN and @Choose_Metro for putting on this event yesterday to address how to challenge Islamophobia. pic.twitter.com/WCctWr9KCZ — Governor Tim Walz (@GovTimWalz) March 29, 2019 “Hate and Islamophobia have no place in Minnesota. When our Muslim communities thrive,…

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AIPAC Protester Who Called Israel Supporters ‘Progressive Nazis’ Attended Private Dinner for Rashida Tlaib

Anthony Gockowski

A protester outside of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) recent conference in Washington, D.C. called supporters of Israel “progressive Nazis” and was later identified as an acquaintance of Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13). In fact, he attended a private dinner in Detroit in January to celebrate Tlaib’s official entrance into Congress and posted a picture to Twitter of him posing with Tlaib. I was honored to be at Congresswoman @RashidaTlaib swearing in ceremony in #Detroit and private dinner afterward with the entire family, friends and activists across the country. #Palestine #TweetYourThobe #RashidaTlaib pic.twitter.com/caJPN12ODX — Abbas Hamideh (@Resistance48) January 12, 2019 He was identified as Abbas Hamideh, co-founder of the BDS organization Al-Awda and member of the Palestine Right to Return Coalition. As The Ohio Star reported, Hamideh once praised Hassan Nasrallah, secretary general of the terrorist organization Hezbollah, as a “heroic resistance leader.” In another instance, he mourned the passing of “legendary Hezbollah martyr” Samir Kuntar, who led an attack that resulted in the deaths of four Israelis. Kuntar personally murdered a four-year-old child by smashing her head in with the butt of his rifle. “Israel does not have a right to exist. The terrorist entity is illegal and…

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Rashida Tlaib Encouraging Democrats to Investigate Trump for ‘Impeachable Offenses’

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by Jason Hopkins   Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib is circulating a letter among her Democratic colleagues in the House that asks them to join a resolution seeking to investigate President Donald Trump for “impeachable offenses.” “The fact that President Trump has yet to comply with various clauses of our U.S. Constitution sets a dangerous precedent. Much of the allegations have yet to be fully investigated by this body who also took an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution,” read a portion of the letter, first sent out on Monday night and obtained by Politico. “It is critical that we protect the American people and our country from any conflicts of interests that directly erodes our democracy.” Tlaib is calling for the House Judiciary Committee to initiate an inquiry into Trump regarding several key areas. The freshman Democratic congresswoman wants to determine if Trump and his businesses violated the Foreign Emoluments Clause, which prohibits him from taking payments from foreign entities. The letter also seeks to investigate whether payments to porn star actress Stormy Daniels were made to sway the 2016 election, and she wants an inquiry on whether special counsel Robert Mueller’s evidence on obstruction of justice relating to Trump…

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Jewish Org Calls for Investigation of Reps. Omar and Tlaib’s Ties to CAIR

Anthony Gockowski

A trending online petition calls on U.S. Attorney General William Barr and Special Envoy for Antisemitism Elan Carr to investigate Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13) and their ties to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). The petition, which had more than 12,000 signatures at the time of publication, was started by Stop Antisemitism and describes CAIR’s connections to the terrorist organization Hamas. “In 2007, CAIR was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the case that found Holy Land Foundation responsible for siphoning over $12 million to Hamas,” the petition states. It goes on to describe Omar and Tlaib’s connections to CAIR, noting that it has “provided thousands of dollars directly and indirectly to support the campaigns of Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib – both of whom have received awards and recognition by the organization.” “There’s no doubt that Tlaib and Omar have close-knit ties with Hamas-affiliated CAIR and we, as concerned citizens, call on Attorney General and U.S. Special Envoy for Antisemitism to investigate these ties,” the petition concludes. Liora Rez, co-founder of Stop Antisemitism, told The Jerusalem Post that her organization is “very excited” by the traction the petition has received in just over a week.…

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Commentary: How Do You Solve a Problem Like Rashida?

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by Michael Walsh   Upon her accession to the U.S. House of Representatives last fall, practically the first words out of Rashida Tlaib’s mouth were: “We’re going to go in there and we’re going to impeach the motherf—er.” The object of the freshman Michigan Democrat’s derision was, of course, President Trump. This sentiment naturally got whoops and cheers from the guests at a MoveOn.org reception, who were there to celebrate the election of the Muslima from Dearbornistan, one of two female followers of Mohammed—the other is Ilhan Omar—now occupying chairs in the Capitol. The triumphalism was multi-layered: not only had the Democrats—thanks, Paul Ryan!—retaken the House by both hook (free stuff for everybody except old toxic-male white guys, served up piping hot by the media) and crook (ballot harvesting in California that delivered once solidly Republican Orange County over to the Democrats) but, in the guise of “diversity,” they had also put two more co-religionists of the 9/11 hijackers into the Congress. Tlaib and Omar have wasted no time in getting to work against American norms and the republic itself. Omar, born in Mogadishu, has been getting most of the attention lately; her unfiltered mouth can’t help but spout anti-Semitic…

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Ilhan Omar Says She’s Been Accused of Anti-Semitism ‘Because I’m Muslim’

Anthony Gockowski

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) is now suggesting that she’s been accused of anti-Semitism “because I’m Muslim.” As was widely reported, Omar faced significant backlash earlier this month after she suggested that Jewish money is influencing bipartisan support of Israel—a variation of a common anti-Semitic trope. She eventually issued an apology, called “lame” by the president, but is now claiming she was criticized for her comments because she’s Muslim. “But I think the theme here is because I’m Muslim. You know, there have been many members within journalism, within politics, within all kinds of aspects of our society who have spoken about the kind of influence that AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee] has on Congress and on our foreign policy. No one calls them anti-Semitic because they are Jewish but when it comes to someone like me, even the slight mention of them…,” she said before being cut off in an interview on the The Intercept’s Deconstructed podcast. She then repeated those claims during a Wednesday town hall at Busboys and Poets in Washington, D.C. with Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13) and other progressive colleagues. “What I am fearful of is that because Rashida and I are Muslim that a lot…

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America’s First Two Muslim Congresswomen Will Both be Fundraising for Hamas-Linked Organization

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by Molly Prince   The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) announced Monday that Democratic Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib will be speaking at CAIR-Michigan’s annual banquet only days after the Hamas-linked organization revealed that fellow Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota will be speaking at CAIR-LA’s annual banquet. CAIR is a notable pro-Palestinian organization with ties to Islamic terror groups. The U.S. Department of Justice listed CAIR as an unindicted co-conspirator in funding millions of dollars to the terrorist organization Hamas. Additionally, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) named CAIR a terrorist organization along with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in 2014. Tlaib will be the guest speaker at CAIR-Michigan’s 19th annual “Faith-Led, Justice Driven” banquet on March 17, according to the organization’s invitation. Single tickets start at $50 per person and a table can cost upwards of $500. Tickets for Omar’s March 23 event start at a similar price point. Omar and Tlaib became America’s first Muslim congresswomen when sworn into office in January. Their time in office has been embroiled in allegations of anti-Semitism. Tlaib invited a pro-Hezbollah, anti-Israel activist to her swearing-in ceremony and the following private dinner in January. Days later, an op-ed column she wrote in 2006…

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Omar, Tlaib and Ocasio-Cortez Turn on the Waterworks at Press Conference to Defund ICE

Anthony Gockowski

Several new progressive members of the U.S. House made emotional appeals to defund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during a Thursday morning press conference organized by MoveOn. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY-14), Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13) spoke at the press conference behind a podium with a banner of: “Defund the deportation force.” “Earlier this week we were here and we were hearing inside that Capitol the State of the Union. The president said something. He said and spoke of the idea that he likes quote-unquote legal immigration. But that is a lie. The president does not like any form of immigration,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Now he is asking for $5 billion to continue to militarize and weaponize a force that has zero accountability, whose director and whose secretary has no idea when she goes in front of a hearing how many children are dying in her own care, under her own watch, and they have the audacity to ask for more money to fund that. I don’t think so,” she continued. She went on to say that ICE “does not deserve a dime” because it “repeatedly and systematically violates human rights.” Rep. @AOC is calling on Congress to cut…

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Omar, Tlaib and Progressive Allies Call for DHS Funding Cuts: ‘Not Another Dollar’

Anthony Gockowski

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) and three fellow congresswomen are urging their Democratic colleagues to cut funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) because of its alleged abuses on the southern border. Omar was joined by Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY-14), and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA-07) in issuing the letter – addressed “Dear Colleagues.” The letter, obtained by The Daily Beast Thursday, targets congressional Democrats working on a bipartisan conference committee convened in an attempt to reach a deal on border security. “The Department of Homeland Security is tasked with critical functions. However, under the auspice of the Trump Administration, a number of agencies housed at DHS have abused their authority and the fidelity of public resources,” the letter states. “Funds are being reallocated internally not to make our nation safer, but to build desert camps to inhumanely house infants and to prosecute immigrants who are part of the fabric of our community.” The letter goes on to request that “our colleagues at the negotiating table” adhere to “the following guidelines critical to protecting families and children and restoring Americans’ faith in government.” “Cut, do not increase funding,” the January 29 letter says. “A Republican controlled Congress has already…

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Florida Commissioner Who Criticized Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib Reprimanded by Colleagues

Anthony Gockowski

A Florida commissioner who suggested that Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13) might “blow up Capitol hill” was publicly reprimanded by her colleagues during a Wednesday night meeting. According to the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Hallandale Beach Commissioner Anabelle Lima-Taub’s recent comments were the subject of a Wednesday night meeting, where her colleagues voted to issue a public reprimand. They accused Lima-Taub of promoting bigotry, fueling hatred and creating a hostile environment for Muslims, the Sun Sentinel reports. Lima-Taub, however, argued that she never once “mentioned Muslim or Islam,” and suggested that media in attendance were contributing to her “demise.” “I never ever mentioned Muslim or Islam. I repeat, I never ever mentioned Muslim or Islam. I do not hate or discriminate against any group, including Islam,” she said Wednesday, and revealed that she was receiving numerous death threats over her comments. Protesters on both sides of the debate showed up to Wednesday night’s meeting, causing multiple recesses throughout the meeting. The Sun Sentinel reports that more than 200 people gathered outside the meeting space in support of Lima-Taub. “She’s a patriot,” one protester said. “We live in a democracy and what’s happening today with her own peers is not a democracy.”…

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Bill Haslam Joins Never-Trumper Bill Kristol and Abdul El-Sayed at Liberal DC Institute

Jason M. Reynolds

Now that Bill Haslam has left office as Tennessee’s governor,  he has joined several Never-Trumpers as “spring fellows” instructors at American University’s Sine Institute of Politics in Washington, D.C. The fellowship’s website says, “As an incubator for policy innovation and convener of the best minds in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, the arts, and journalism, the Sine Institute is pleased to announce its inaugural class of Fellows and Distinguished Lecturer. These experts will lead discussions and study sessions with students, as well as convene and participate in campus-wide events throughout the year.” Haslam should fit in with a cast of Never-Trumpers at the university. He said last year that Trump should not endorse any gubernatorial candidate seeking to replace him, referring to Diane Black. Who are Haslam’s fellow “best” colleagues? Several of them are Never-Trumpers. Abdul El-Sayed, innocuously listed by AU as a former Democratic gubernatorial candidate, doctor and former executive director of the Detroit Health Department. There is more to El-Sayed’s story. According to an Aug. 3, 2018 story by The Intercept, El-Sayed is a Muslim American of Egyptian descent who has gained the adoration of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Last Saturday, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., endorsed…

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Commentary: The Left Moves From Pluralism to ‘Breaking Things’

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by Carson Holloway   The recent debate over a Congress member’s obscenity reveals something interesting and troubling not only about the style of our public discourse but also the substance of our politics: the contemporary American Left’s growing disenchantment with the traditional American politics of pluralism. The obscenity was provided by freshman House Democrat Rashida Tlaib, who made news by using a colorful 12-letter word to call for the impeachment of President Donald Trump. Although many of Tlaib’s colleagues were quick to condemn her choice of words, the Washington Post’s Molly Roberts came to her defense. Asked Roberts, “What’s so wrong with motherf—er?” Roberts was willing to defend Tlaib’s use of obscenity because she thinks it manifests the fighting spirit that will be required for “the left half of the left” to “push broader boundaries” and thus to achieve its grand political objectives. “The liberal vanguard Tlaib belongs to seeks massive change, from Medicare for all to a grand climate bargain,” she wrote. “ They see no hope for compromise now, so they look to a future of Democratic control, when ramming transformation through will require breaking things.” Roberts’s approval of this kind of politics is surely shared by many…

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Michigan’s Tlaib Blames Trump for Death Threats She’s Receiving

Anthony Gockowski

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13) recently sat down with Mehdi Hasan from The Intercept for his “Deconstructed” podcast where the Michigan representative blamed President Donald Trump for the alleged death threats she’s receiving. “Absolutely, he is the leader of our country. He sets the tone and you, even in rallies and other instances, he’s even said if impeachment continued, we’re going to see violence. We’re going to see—I mean, it’s almost like he’s sent out some sort of signal,” Tlaib responded when asked if she holds “this president’s rhetoric responsible” for the threats. During the show, Tlaib continued to build her case for impeaching Trump by invoking the emoluments clause, claiming Trump is “making decisions not in the best interest of the American people,” but “based on the profit lines.” “The Constitution demands it and I want to reiterate to people to understand that this is beyond collusion with Russia. This is beyond the Mueller investigation. Every single day that he’s president of the United States that has not divested in all of his domestic and foreign corporations, he’s making decisions not in the best interest of the American people,” she said. Tlaib went on to claim that this “causes a…

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Florida Commissioner Under Fire for Calling Michigan Congresswoman a ‘Hamas Loving Anti-Semite’ Who Might ‘Blow Up Capitol Hill’

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by Joshua Gill   Florida officials and Muslim advocacy groups have lambasted a city commissioner for calling Rep. Rashida Tlaib a “Hamas-loving anti-Semite” who might “blow up Capitol Hill.” Hallandale Beach Commissioner Annabelle Lima-Taub made the comments in a Jan. 8 Facebook post, announcing that she had signed an online petition demanding that Tlaib be removed from office. Lima-Taub, originally from Israel, argued that Tlaib should not be a part of the U.S. government given her allegiance to Palestine. The post came five days after Tlaib urged Democrats to “impeach the motherf—,” referring to President Donald Trump. “Proudly signed. A Hamas-loving anti-Semite has NO place in government! She is a danger and [I] would not put it past her to become a martyr and blow up Capitol Hill,” Lima-Taub wrote, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Lima-Taub reportedly removed her post shortly after the Sun-Sentinel reached out to her for comment, and has since faced harsh criticism from fellow Hallandale Beach commissioners and demands for an apology from Muslim advocacy groups. This sort of hateful anti-Muslim rhetoric doesn’t happen in a vacuum – this President embraced it and Republicans have happily gone along with it.https://t.co/3THoHQmRVy — Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) January…

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Hezbollah Sympathizer Attended a Private Dinner for Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib

Anthony Gockowski

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13) hosted a private dinner in Detroit after being sworn into Congress last week, and among her guests was a man who has expressed praise for the leaders and members of Hezbollah, a terrorist organization. “I was honored to be at Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib swearing in ceremony in Detroit and private dinner afterward with the entire family, friends, and activists across the country,” Abbas Hamideh wrote on Twitter Saturday. I was honored to be at Congresswoman @RashidaTlaib swearing in ceremony in #Detroit and private dinner afterward with the entire family, friends and activists across the country. #Palestine #TweetYourThobe #RashidaTlaib pic.twitter.com/caJPN12ODX — Abbas Hamideh (@Resistance48) January 12, 2019 Of note is the scarf draped around Tlaib’s neck in the painting Hamideh seemingly presented to her. The black and white checkered scarf is called a keffiyeh, and has become a symbol of Palestinian solidarity. In the painting, Tlaib’s keffiyeh is seen wrapped around the U.S. Capitol. Jewish News Syndicate and Clarion Project later unearthed several of Hamideh’s past controversial comments. In one case, he mourned the passing of “legendary Hezbollah martyr” Samir Kuntar, who led an attack that resulted in the deaths of four Israelis. During that attack, Kuntar personally murdered a…

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Ilhan Omar Calls Anti-BDS Bill ‘Unconstitutional,’ Defends Past Anti-Semitic Comments

Anthony Gockowski

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) said during a recent appearance on MSNBC that Senate efforts to combat the “discriminatory economic warfare against the Jewish state” are “unconstitutional.” Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) “Combating BDS Act” was included in a package of bills introduced in early January under a title of “Strengthening America’s Security in the Middle East Act.” Rubio’s bill in particular received significant media attention for its targeting of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement. The BDS movement is widely criticized by Republicans such as Rubio as an “anti-Israel” campaign that “pressures companies to stop doing business in Israel, and banks and funds to divest of investments in Israel,” as Rubio explained in a recent tweet. His bill would allow local and state governments to end contracts with companies that practice BDS tactics. But the package of bills was stalled in a recent Senate vote of 56-44, and Democrats attributed their opposition to the bills to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) hard-line stance against passing any bills that don’t include government funding. Rubio, however, said the “shutdown is not the reason Senate Democrats don’t want to move to Middle East security bill.” “A huge argument broke out at Senate…

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Commentary: Time to Put a Stop to Impeachment Talk

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by Stephen B. Presser   A push is underway for the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives to hold a vote on whether to impeach the Republican President Donald Trump. Of course, we have been through this before, but with a majority of Republicans voting to impeach President Bill Clinton, a Democrat. It takes only a majority in the House to bring articles of impeachment, which are similar to a grand jury indictment—they are the required first step in a two-step process. Following a grand jury indictment, a criminal trial occurs, and a unanimous jury must bring in a guilty verdict for a conviction. Similarly, following impeachment, a two-thirds vote of the United States Senate is required to remove a president. Bill Clinton survived his impeachment because only half the members of the Senate supported his removal, with not a single Democrat voting in favor of it. It is likely that the impeachment effort to remove President Trump would fail in the Senate now controlled by Republicans, but there are some other similarities and differences between the two proceedings that deserve examination and comment. First is the essential question about what the Constitution means when it provides in Article II, section 4…

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‘Justice Democrats’ PAC Sets Its Sights on First Primary Target: Democrat Rep Henry Cuellar

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by Jason Hopkins   A progressive political action committee announced its first primary target for the 2020 elections: Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar. Cuellar, a seven-term congressman representing Texas’s 28th Congressional District, stands out as one of the few remaining pro-life Democrats left on Capitol Hill. However, the committee Justice Democrats believes the Hispanic Democrat is too bipartisan on a number of other issues, as well. “The people of District 28 need bold leadership that fights for the working class and the immigrant community, and not for corporate interest,” Danny Dias, a community organizer who lives in Cuellar’s district, said in a Justice Democrats press statement Friday. “Henry Cuellar has a history of accepting corporate donations and working on their behalf, while ignoring the interest of working-class families in the district.” In Justice Democrats’s media statement, the group laid out its case against Cuellar, whom it referred to as a “fake Democrat.” The Texas lawmaker voted with President Donald Trump 69 percent of the time during the 115th Congress, received an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association, voted alongside the GOP to oppose federal funds for abortion-related services, and has received thousands of dollars in campaign donations from a…

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