CNN anchor Jake Tapper said Sunday on his show “State of the Union” that “this shit” was not a game for politicians using the Israel-Hamas war “for political points.”
Tapper said, “The degree to which some folks only pretend to care about antisemitism, when they could weaponize it, never ceases to amaze. Allow me to tell you about a brand-new House Republican resolution to censure Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, the first Palestinian-American woman in Congress. Now, accusations of anti-Israel and antisemitic staples are not exactly new, and I’m talking about from her fellow House Democrats. Attention refocused after the explosion at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza a week and a half ago. The Hamas-run Palestinian Ministry of Health immediately blamed Israel for what they called a strike, while Israeli and U.S. intelligence suggested is it was more likely from a misfired Palestinian rocket. Tlaib waiting more than a week to add a clarification to her tweet that others have raised doubts about the claim. She did leave her original tweet up. She got a lot of criticism from fellow Democrats, and you might see where that might bother or outrage people. But are House Republicans really in a position to censure Tlaib?”
He continued, “I mean, the leading Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, dined with Holocaust deniers. Donald Trump posted a screed accusing liberal Jews of voting to destroy America and Israel last Rosh Hashanah to not a peep from any House Republican leaders. Let’s take, for example, Congressman Marjorie Taylor Greene. She spoke at the white supremacist conference of racist antisemite Nick Fuentes, who participated in the hateful 2017 Charlottesville rally.”
He added, “Here in Israel, Greene has got attention by belittling the Holocaust by tweeting, ‘Joe Biden is Hitler,’ with the hashtag, ‘Nazi Joe has got to go.’ And for saying that then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s mask floor mandate was an abuse just like how Jews were put in trains and taken to gas chambers in Nazi Germany.”
Tapper said, “You’re never going to believe who the Republican offering this motion to censure congresswoman Rashida Tlaib is. I want you to take a guess. Go ahead and take a guess. That is right. It is Marjorie Taylor Greene.”
Tapper concluded, “Antisemitism is not a cudgel to be used against people for political points. Nor is Islamophobia or racism anti-gay behavior, or misogyny any other kind of bigotry. Just over three weeks ago, 1400 people, mostly Jews, mostly civilians, were slaughtered here in some of the cruelest and most unmanageable ways, in the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. This shit is not a game.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
