CNN anchor John King corrected Rep. Rashida Tlaib on the air Monday after comments on a podcast where she said that the memory of the Holocaust left her with a “calming feeling,” and that her Palestinian ancestors created a “safe haven” for Jewish people fleeing World War II.
“‘Calming’ is at best an awkward word choice in any sentence referencing the Holocaust,” King said. “She (Tlaib) also fails a critical fact and context test. Yes, as she said, Palestinians lost land in the creation of Israel. But, she ignored the fact that Palestinian leaders at the time allied themselves with Hitler and that total war was how the Arab world reacted to the declaration of Israeli independence.”
King also criticized Republicans for taking Tlaib’s words out of context and declining to mention her condemnations of the Holocaust in the same interview.
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Her full remarks were delivered during an interview with the Skullduggery podcast that was released on Friday. The episode was titled “From Rashida With Love.”
“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 told podcast hosts Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman.
“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. And I love the fact that it was my ancestors that provided that, right, in many ways. But they did it in a way that took their human dignity away and it was forced on them,” she added.
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In addition to her use of “calming,” critics immediately pounced on Tlaib’s inaccurate recollection of events.
“During World War II, the Palestinian leader at the time, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Muhammad Amin al-Husayni, met with Adolf Hitler and allied with the Nazis,” the Washington Examiner’s Philip Klein pointed out. “As the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum recounts, “al-Husayni collaborated with the German and Italian governments by broadcasting pro-Axis, anti-British, and anti-Jewish propaganda via radio to the Arab world; inciting violence against Jews and the British authorities in the Middle East; and recruiting young men of Islamic faith for service in German military, Waffen-SS, and auxiliary units.”
President Donald Trump also criticized Tlaib, saying it was evidence that the freshman Democratic congresswoman had “tremendous hatred of Israel and the Jewish people.”
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Reps for Tlaib’s office did not immediately respond to request for comment from TheWrap, but on Twitter, Tlaib accused critics of twisting her words and said that they would never succeed in silencing her.
“Policing my words, twisting & turning them to ignite vile attacks on me will not work. All of you who are trying to silence me will fail miserably,” Tlaib said. “I will never allow you to take my words out of context to push your racist and hateful agenda. The truth will always win.”
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