Tlaib's campaign paid out over $100K to a firm founded by defund the police, anti-Israel activist
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The campaign of "Squad" member Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., has paid out over $100,000 for "fundraising consulting" to a Florida-based progressive firm founded and operated by a defund the police and anti-Israel activist, campaign filings show.
Tlaib's campaign and PAC sent $96,000 in payments between March 2020 and March 2021 for "fundraising consulting" to Unbought Power LLC, a Florida-based firm that specializes in grassroots organizing and advocacy consulting. The campaign paid out another $18,000 to Unbought Power between April 2021 and June 2021, Federal Election Commission records released last Thursday show.
Rasha Mubarak, the Palestinian-American activist who founded Unbought Power in March 2020, has been involved in grassroots advocacy for over 15 years and has assisted with Tlaib's political career over the course of the last decade. In March 2019, Mubarak tweeted that she "mobilized" her first political fundraiser 9 years earlier and said it was for Tlaib, who responded that she "can't wait" to organize a political fundraiser for her.
Mubarak, who has publicly called for defunding the police multiple times, tweeted back in April that she believes the United States should "abolish the police." In two separatetweets from July 2020, Mubarak called for Orange County to "defund the police."
U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib listens to a question from a constituent during a Town Hall style meeting in Inkster, Michigan, U.S. August 15, 2019. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook (REUTERS/Rebecca Cook)
The Florida activist has also tweeted about her involvement with Dream Defenders, an activist group that was co-founded by self-described socialist and former Bernie Sanders surrogate, Phillip Agnew.
Dream Defenders has been vocal about defunding the police across their social media platforms. Last June, Mubarak tweeted a link to a Dream Defenders "Sunday School" session video about how to defund the police and encouraged her followers to donate to their bail fund amid the riots last summer. She also encouraged her followers to donate to the Dream Defenders organization.
In addition to advocating for defunding the police, she has used her Twitter account to push anti-Israel rhetoric.
TLAIB ALLY RUNS ORGANIZATION ACCUSED OF PROMOTING ANTI-SEMITISM
Tlaib received backlash in December 2020 after she retweeted a Mubarak tweet that included the anti-Israel slogan "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." The Democratic group, Democratic Majority for Israel, responded by calling this an "immoral and reprehensible position" and said the slogan means that Tlaib "sees the entire State of Israel as illegitimate and wants it eliminated."
Earlier this year, Mubarak tweeted out her support for the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and boasted about her and Palestinian activists being able to "shut down" an anti-BDS bill in 2019. She has also repeatedly called Israel an "apartheid" state, which has been echoed by Tlaib herself.
Shortly before the 2020 election, Tlaib thanked Mubarak for her help organizing voters, saying her work was "behind the scenes making things happen" and added that "coordinating this lineup with the #SquadTeams helped make it perfect," referring to one of the get-out-the-vote rallies she organized.
Mubarak has posted several pictures of her and Tlaib together on her Twitter account, including a "Happy birthday" tweet that included four different pictures of them together, and said she was "grateful" Tlaib was in her life. Two other clips show Mubarak riding in a car with Tlaib and Tlaib eating a meal with Mubarak alongside her family. Another video shows Mubarak, Tlaib, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., saying, "Brown girls can."
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Mubarak isn't the first controversial activist Tlaib's campaign has been shown to have ties to. Last month, Fox News reported about Tlaib's campaign taking $500 earlier this year from Tlaib ally Hatem Basian, who founded a controversial, advocacy organization the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) says has "provided a platform for anti-Semitism."
Tlaib's campaign did not respond to Fox News' request for comment.
