RNC Chair: Tom Perez “Must Address” Keith Ellison’s Ties to Louis Farrakhan

In this March 3, 2016 file photo, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, then the Michigan Republican Party chair, speaks before a Republican presidential primary debate in Detroit. (Photo: AP)

Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Ronna McDaniel said Democrat National Committee (DNC) Chair Tom Perez “must address” Deputy Chair Keith Ellison’s ties to Louis Farrakhan.

The head of the RNC called on Mr. Perez to hold his number two accountable for a “long pattern of lies” surrounding his relationship with the racist and anti-Semitic leader of the Nation of Islam.

“Keith Ellison’s long pattern of lies about his ongoing relationship with Louis Farrakhan, who the Anti-Defamation League calls ‘America’s leading anti-Semite,’ has put a stain on the Democrat Party,” Chairwoman McDaniel said in a statement. “Anti-Semitism has no place in American politics, Tom Perez must address this issue.”

As People’s Pundit Daily (PPD) reported, the controversial and radical religious leader confirmed Deputy Chair Ellison, D-Minn., was in fact a member of the anti-semitic group and only left the Nation of Islam because he wanted to run for office.

“Keith Ellison… You ain’t got a picture of Keith? Well, let me talk about him. Now Keith was in the Nation in 1995,” Mr. Farrakhan said in a keynote address last weekend, which drew responses of “that’s right!” from the crowd. “He was selling the Final Call newspaper. Beautiful brother. And, being in Minnesota, he wants to help his community. He’s a lawyer, so he wants to help his community. So, he wants to be a congressman.”

The Final Call is a newspaper published in Chicago. It was founded in 1979 by Minister Farrakhan and serves as the official newspaper of the Nation of Islam. It is also the official communications, or propaganda organ of the Nation, which is used to recruit young college students.

Rep. Ellison, who ran for DNC chair and now serves as the deputy chair, has repeatedly and even recently denied having any membership in or relationship with the Nation or Mr. Farrakhan.

However, there are widespread reports to the contrary and, in the past, Mr. Ellison has defended the racist and anti-Semitic leader, whom he once called a “role model.”

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which originally backed him over Mr. Perez, bailed on his bid to be the new DNC chair after never before heard audio surfaced in which he made questionable comments about the state of Israel. However, big name Democrats in the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate did not abandon him, nor did the grassroots base.

He was initially supported by Senators Bernie Sanders, D/S/I-Vt., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and even Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., despite his Jewish heritage.

Now, new revelations have surfaced indicating Rep. Ellison continued to have a relationship with Mr. Farrakhan even after he joined the U.S. Congress. His office has attacked the media for asking questions about the meetings between the two in 2013 and 2015. The Wall Street Journal reported a dinner meeting took place in September 2013.

Mr. Farrakhan later claimed that Rep. Ellison was one of three Democratic congressmen who attended a private dinner with him and with Iranian President Hassan Rohani in 2013.

“I’m not here to bash him,” Mr. Farrakhan said. “I’m not here to bash my brother. Let me tell you something. When you want something in this world, the Jew holds the door.”

Mr. Ellison is one of the most well-known figures in the Democratic Party to come under scrutiny for holding anti-Semitic positions, but he’s certainly not the only one.

Representative Danny Davis, D-Ill., who has served in the U.S. Congress for more than 20 years, recently came under fire for making grossly anti-Semitic remarks. In an interview last month, he called Minister Farrakhan an “outstanding human being.”

“The world is so much bigger than Farrakhan and the Jewish question and his position on that and so forth,” he said just last weekend.