WashPost calls out Keith Ellison’s lies about his ties to Farrakhan

Pamela Geller: It’s not surprising that Ellison would lie about his ties to Farrakhan. He is aware that there might be some political cost in those ties, even though for the most part the left has yawned at the Democrat leaders’ admiration for that notorious racist and Jew-hater. What is surprising is that the Washington Post, of all people, would be calling Ellison out. The WaPo is usually a reliable propaganda organ for the Democrats, purveying Trump-Russia hysteria in large quantities while covering for or ignoring altogether real issues such as the Democrat leadership coddling this anti-Semite. What has gotten into the Post? Have they decided to actually try to practice some journalism? It would be a first.

“DNC vice chair Keith Ellison and Louis Farrakhan: ‘No relationship’?,” by Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, March 9, 2018:

“We’re talking about something that happened in 1995. This was the year that the Million Man March took off. People were attacking the march at the time. . . . Man, I’m telling you back in 2006 and before, I disavowed them. That’s the ridiculous thing about this, that we keep on having to answer this kind of stuff.”
— Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Dec. 14, 2016

“Ellison’s spokesperson noted to CNN that ‘President Obama, Stevie Wonder, Maya Angelou, and many others also attended the March’ and said he ‘had no additional involvement with March organizer Louis Farrakhan or his organizations, has long since denounced him, and rejects all forms of anti-Semitism.’”
— CNN news report, Dec. 1, 2016

Ellison, vice chair of the Democratic National Committee and one of two Muslim members of Congress, faced questions about his association with Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, when he sought the chairmanship of the DNC in 2017.

Ellison, who had defended Farrakhan against charges of anti-Semitism as a law student, publicly renounced the Nation of Islam in 2006 when he first ran for Congress, but the issue re-emerged after a CNN exploration about his decade-long involvement in the group.

 After the CNN report, Ellison wrote an article for The Washington Post, saying he had failed to scrutinize the words of people such as Farrakhan when he defended him for his role in the Million Man March. “These men organize by sowing hatred and division, including anti-Semitism, homophobia and a chauvinistic model of manhood. I disavowed them long ago, condemned their views and apologized,” he said.

Farrakhan has been back in the news with a fiery, anti-Semitic speech on Feb. 25 that included a knock on Ellison for having distanced himself from the group when he ran for Congress. “Let me tell you something, when you want something in this world, the Jew holds the door,” Farrakhan said. During his speech, he displayed a photo of Ellison selling the Nation of Islam newspaper in 1998 during a march against police brutality.

Ellison, in his “Morning Joe” interview, implied he had had no association with Farrakhan since 2006. His spokesman flatly said he had “no additional involvement.” But new evidence suggests these statements are false.

The Facts

There are at least three recent cases in which Ellison and Farrakhan have crossed paths and may have even spoken. MORE