The Biden White House was caught in a lie on Thursday as it tried to deny that it had tried to meet with the radical Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Chicago as part of an outreach to Arab-, Muslim-, and Palestinian-Americans.
As Breitbart news has noted:
In 2007-8, CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the terror financing trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. That case, in turn, led the FBI to discontinue its work with the organization. In 2009, a federal judge ruled that the government “produced ample evidence to establish” the ties of CAIR with Hamas, the Palestinian terror organization. The United Arab Emirates labeled CAIR a terrorist organization in 2014 (a decision that the Obama administration opposed).
CAIR executive director Nihad Awad declared that he was “happy” with the October 7 terror attack by Hamas, a claim that led the White House to distance itself from the group, with which it had consulted on its “antisemitism strategy.”
But the White House sought a meeting with CAIR on Thursday as part of its effort to appease anti-Israel voters who are unhappy with President Joe Biden’s support (however tepid) for Israel’s war effort against Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
Politico reported that CAIR was among several local leaders who boycotted the Biden meetings (original emphasis):
BREAKING: Illinois leaders in the Palestinian communities angry over how President Joe Biden has handled the Middle East war have turned down a request by the White House to meet in Chicago today.
…
A big concern is that the White House is trying to improve optics at home instead of taking action abroad. “We believe a thousand percent in civic engagement. We preach it,” CAIR-Chicago Director Ahmed Rehab told Playbook about why he declined to attend.
“But this is an unusual moment and requires an unusual response. We have made clear that a ceasefire is needed,” Rehab said, adding, the “trickle of humanitarian aid” from the U.S., which is also sending weapons to Israel “is akin to offering band-aids with one hand while wielding an ax with the other.”
The White House denied ever having reached out to CAIR — but went further. White House Spokesman Andrew Bates claimed that CAIR is “never” invited to White House meetings, a claim that was easily and immediately refuted.
White House spox just told journalists that CAIR is never invited to White House meetings.
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) March 14, 2024
He's lying. Pretty brazenly, actually.
Of course CAIR gets invited to their meetings. Here's a picture from May 2023. I found it by Googling "cair white house meeting." Came right up. https://t.co/tBAcgYdIjk pic.twitter.com/U1somSpAoL
Bates has a history of misleading the press, including lying about a meeting between then-Vice President Joe Biden and Burisma board adviser Vadym Pozharskyi in 2015, which was proven by Hunter Biden’s laptop and later testimony.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
