The Daily Signal - #413: A Jewish Conservative on Rep. Omar’s Anti-Semitic Remarks

Episode Date: March 6, 2019

As the left fights over how to handle the latest use of an anti-Semitic trope by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., we discuss what's going on with The Heritage Foundation's Joel Griffith, who also chairs a Washington, D.C. Jewish group. Plus: Daniel speaks to Nigel Farage about Brexit.We also cover these stories:•President Trump says he hasn't broken any campaign laws.•An Alabama judge is allowing a 19-year-old man to sue an abortion clinic for taking the life of his unborn child against his wishes. •Philadelphia has become the first city in the nation to say no to cashless stores. The Daily Signal podcast is available on Ricochet, iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play, or Stitcher. All of our podcasts can be found at DailySignal.com/podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave a review. You can also leave us a message at 202-608-6205 or write us at [e-mail]. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Friday, March 8th. I'm Kate Trinco. And I'm Daniel Davis. Well, just two months into their new majority, House Democrats are now bickering over how to respond to anti-Semitic comments from Ilhan Omar, the freshman from Minnesota. Today, we'll talk to Joel Griffith of the Heritage Foundation. He's also the D.C. chair of young Jewish conservatives, and he has thoughts on this issue. Plus, we'll bring you a separate interview from Mr. Brexit himself, Nigel Farage.

He'll unpack why Parliament is. dragging its feet and leaving the EU. By the way, if you're enjoying this podcast, please consider leaving a review or a five-star rating on iTunes and encouraging others to subscribe. Now on to our news. Well, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took questions from reporters on Thursday. Here's what she had to say about Congresswoman Ilan Omar's comments.

I don't think that the Congresswoman is perhaps appreciate the full date of how it's heard by other people, although I don't believe it was intended in any anti-Semitic way. But the fact is that that's how it was interpreted, we have to remove all down. As we have done over and over again, we're

working now on the resolution when we're coming to the floor that will again speak out against anti-Semitism, anti-Islamophobia, anti-white supremacy in all the forms that it

takes that our country has no place for this. Omar had suggested just days prior that supporters of Israel have a dual allegiance. She tweeted, quote, I should not be expected to have allegiance slash pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country in Congress or serve on committee, end quote. President Trump tweeted Thursday that he hadn't broken any campaign laws, writing it was not a campaign contribution and there were no violations of the campaign finance laws. by me, fake news. Presumably, Trump was referring to the allegations that his indirect payments to two women

he allegedly had affairs with was about influencing the election. However, Trump could certainly make the case that he paid them not to influence the election, but to say, avoid his wife finding out about them. Well, President Trump has secured funding for more than half of the border wall. That's according to a new analysis from the Daily caller. The caller cited an administration official who said funding had now been secured for 444 miles out of the 722 miles desired by the president. But that number only holds if federal courts uphold the president's national emergency declaration, which he used to secure billions of dollars in unappropriated funds.

The administration is now being sued over that policy by 16 states. Senator Martha McSally, Republican of Arizona, says she was raped during her time serving in the state. Air Force. McSally, who was the first female fighter pilot to serve in combat, made the comments during a Senate hearing this week. Like you, I am also a military sexual assault survivor. But unlike so many brave survivors, I didn't report being sexually assaulted. Like so many women and men, I didn't trust the system at the time. I blamed myself. I was ashamed and confused. I thought I was strong, but felt powerless. The perpetrators abused their position to power in profound ways.

And in one case, I was preyed upon and then raped by a superior officer. I stayed silent for many years, but later in my career, as the military grappled with scandals and their wholly inadequate responses, I felt the need to let some people know I, too, was a survivor. I was horrified at how my attempt to share generally my experiences were handled. Well, in a lawsuit that could become a major case, an Alabama judge is allowing a 19-year-old man to sue an abortion clinic for taking the life of his unborn child against his wishes. The county judge recognized the child, Baby Row, as a plaintiff in the case under a new personhood law in the state of Alabama. Ryan Magers, the young man, is suing on behalf of himself and the abortion.

child. He claims his girlfriend obtained a medicated abortion back in February 2017, even though he urged her not to. His attorney, Brent Helms, said in a statement, quote, Baby Row's innocent life was taken by the profiteering of the Alabama Women's Center, and while no court will be able to bring Baby Row back to life, we will seek the fullest extent of justice on behalf of Baby Row and Baby Row's father. Representative Iyana Presley, Democrat of Massachusetts, Once teen's sweet 16s to include the right to vote, she made the case in a hearing this week. I'm here tonight, however, because across this nation, young people are leading the way, which has been the case for every social movement throughout our history.

They are organizing and mobilizing and calling us to action, making plain the high stakes the next generation faces, from gun violence to climate change, to the future of work, to the solvency of social security. activist leaders like 17-year-old Vickiana, a constituent of mine and a student at Boston Latin, who has been at the forefront of the March for Our Lives movement to stem the tide of gun violence. It is young people like Vickiana who march, organize, and remind us daily in the halls of this institution what's at stake and just how high those stakes are. Representative Grace Meng of New York and Representative Rashida Talib of Michigan, both Democrats tweeted their support for Presley's push.

Well, Philadelphia has become the first city in the U.S. to ban cashless stores. Lawmakers in New York City are also considering a similar measure in an effort to get ahead of technology being pushed in some stores by companies like Amazon. Lawmakers who support these bans say they're necessary to make sure low-income people can retain access to the marketplace, but businesses that have gone cashless say it makes the work more efficient and secure. You know, it's funny. I thought this Wall Street Journal article was really interesting because the first time I went to a cashless store, I was really thrown. But then I realized I never pay with cash for anything. And I don't know. I mean, I'm sure that Dave Ramsey people are going to really hate this if this becomes mainstream. But I don't know. I don't have strong feelings. Yeah, I was in line a few weeks ago. And I was behind someone who wanted to pay in cash. And I was not planning to use cash anyway. But I was a little miffed, actually. I thought, you know, I don't really, personally. as a customer.

Okay, that's going really far. As a customer in the marketplace, I actually think that I would want to, I wouldn't want a store that doesn't let you pay in cash. Also, you know, cash means, as I remember from Burger King, you have to make change. That's right. A lot of hard math, not fun.

All right. Next up, we're going to talk to Jill Griffith on a much more serious topic, anti-Semitism. Do conversations about the Supreme Court leave you scratching your head? Then subscribe to SCOTUS 101. a podcast breaking down the cases, personalities, and gossip at the Supreme Court. In this country that says it is okay for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country,

I want to ask why is it okay for me to talk about the influence of the NRA of fossil fuel industries or big pharma and not talk about a powerful lobbying group that is. influencing policy. So that was Representative Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, late last month, speaking at an event in the Washington, D.C. area. Joining us today to talk about the less problem with anti-Semitism in light of these latest remarks and the controversy is Joel Griffith, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation

and the D.C. chair of Jewish Young Conservatives. Joel, first of all, let's talk about this original comment. Why is it offensive? Well, she repeated not just any trope. She repeated one of the most offensive of all Jewish tropes, and that's that there is a dual allegiance. She actually used the word allegiance, and this is something that Jews of all nationalities have been accused of going back not just centuries, but going back millennia. And in many cases, such an accusation of Jewish people holding a dual allegiance, has been accused of. caused them to be considered either second-class citizens or otherwise ostracized from society.

Yeah, and she also then repeated that, of course, on Twitter, that word allegiance. And I want to ask you about that you recently published a piece with The Daily Signal, talking about how this trend goes back, millennia, to the story of Esther in the Bible. And it was really striking, just reading it when you wrote it because it could almost, you know, her words could be taken right out of that story. Explain that for us. It's a bit chilling for those listening who aren't familiar with the story in the book of Esther in the Bible. It recounts the story of the Jewish people who were living across the Persian Empire 2400 years ago under, we believe it was probably Emperor Xerxes or in the Bible called King Ahazueris.

And during that time, the king of the empire happened to have a prime minister. if you will, Prime Minister Haman. And this prime minister had a particular disdain for the hundreds of thousands of Jews that lived across the empire. And in order to turn the heart of the king against the people, he just happened to drop a note in the king's ear saying there's a certain people scattered abroad, dispersed across all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different and diverse from all the people.

and they don't keep the king's laws. It's not for the king's prophet to suffer them. And if you put that in modern English, really what the prime minister of ancient Persia was saying is this group of people, the Jews, they have a dual allegiance. Yeah, incredible that it's coming back. So I wanted to talk to you about Representative James Clyburn.

He, of course, is the number three in Democratic leadership in the House. And he made some, let's call it amazing, remarks to the Hill this week. So he noted that Omar personally had fled Somalia and lived in a refugee camp. And then Clyburn said, quote, I'm serious about that. There are people who tell me, well, my parents are Holocaust survivors. My parents did this. It's more personal with her. I've talked to her and I can tell you she is living through a lot of pain. What did you think about this? I was a bit shocked. There's no doubt the Congresswoman has a lifestyle. story that in some ways is tragic and also full of hope.

She left her country of Somalia, which is war-torn and afflicted and has been for years, and she was able to come to this country at the age, I believe, of just 10 years old and make something of herself. In many ways, she's been very successful thanks to hard work and thanks also to the opportunities that this nation provides people that are born here and people who are immigrants. but for the congressperson, I believe it was Clyburn, to use her life story, one of overcoming difficulties and taking advantage of our freedoms, to use that as an excuse for her to be engaged in these repeated comments that are indicative of something within her that is full of animosity

towards the Jewish people. I'm having a hard time understanding the connection there. Not only is her past not an excuse, her past of being persecuted and escaping that should really give her a special bond with the Jewish people, including Holocaust survivors and their descendants who have been through so much. This is the second time in less than a month

that she's had comments like this. the House already had to previously pass a resolution condemning anti-Semitism. Now they're looking at doing it again, not just from an ethical perspective, but also politically, it seems really horrible for the Democrats. Like, how do you respond to someone in your caucus that keeps saying stuff like this? Well, I think that there was a resolution that was proposed that would really point out what is the matter of hand, and that is anti-Semitism. I believe there was a resolution proposed by Representative Ted Deutsch from Florida,

specifically pointing out the matter of suggesting the Jews have dual allegiance and the problem of anti-Semitism. And what we've seen with other leaders in the Democratic Party is that they want to broaden this condemnation beyond just mentioning anti-Semitism. And they want to broaden this to other evils that are president's society. But the matter at hand is someone in Congress who has repeatedly engaged in anti-Semitic remarks. And this battle over watering down that resolution to call out all other forms of evil is really an intent to avert attention from the person in their caucus that has actually been engaged in this extremely offensive behavior. So senators Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders have all weighed in with statements that, you know, I'm characterizing them broadly. And I don't remember which statements said which thing. But essentially, you know, oh, well, she kind of has a point that we have to be.

be able to criticize Israel and sort of brushes away any suggestion. I think one of the statements went so far is to suggest that Omar was kind of the real victim and we have to protect her from all these accusations. How do you think about how the Democrats are handling this? Well, this is a straw man argument on the part of Senator Harris, Senator Sanders, and others. Number one, her remarks as of late have been actually suggestive, as we've just talked about, Jews having a dual allegiance or these organizations trying to buy off representatives in order to get them to support a foreign country. That's in and of itself wrong.

But if you go back and look to her past statements going back six, seven, eight, nine years, these aren't not just critiques of the Israeli government during the war that Israel engaged in with Hamas back in 2012. And Hamas is a foreign terror organization, according to our own State Department, and based on the evidence of them engaged, engaged in slaughter and killings and bombings of innocent civilians and others. During that war, she did not just make a criticism of an Israeli government policy. She actually claimed that Israel is hypnotizing the world.

That's not a criticism of a particular Israeli governmental party or policy. that goes to the very existence of the Jewish state of Israel. I also want to ask you about just the argument that she seemed to make, which is that the pro-Israel lobby A-PAC is basically responsible in and of itself for America having pro-Israel policy. It seems a bit simplistic. It's very simplistic. Polling overall across its country shows Americans overwhelmingly supportive of Israel.

I would reckon that many of those Americans have actually never heard of APEC. They're not getting checks in the mail from APEC. I mean, one of the biggest base of support of APEC is across the Midwest where I grew up in Ohio. If you ask the typical person, they've actually not heard of APEC. Second of all, APEC itself is comprised of not of Israelis. This is comprised of Americans and also not just Jews, Jews and others. that are Americans, that understand the importance of that bond between Israel and the United States, both in terms of the shared moral foundation that we have and our values, but also the shared

national security interests that we have, and also for the world as a whole, the important role that Israel has in showing how a democracy can be established and how that freeing up an economy can bring forth so much innovation. Politicians, most of them, are supporting Israel, not because of intense lobbying, but because they actually understand it in their hearts and their constituents understand it. So you're Jewish yourself. How have you felt hearing Omar's statements and watching what is and isn't happening? Well, as somebody who's Jewish, I find this very troubling because this really denigrates the

important role that I believe Jewish Americans have played as being loyal Americans and people that understand the value of our Constitution. As an American, I find it doubly unfortunate because we are home to a diverse number of creeds and ethnic backgrounds and religions. And I think there's a place for all of us here to thrive. And with her repeating these caricatures and repeating these misnomer's and spreading this type of bigotry, I don't think it serves us as a nation well either. And are you concerned that it could contribute to a rise of anti-Semitism in the U.S.? I think it certainly inflames those passions. And I think in some way it is normalizing some of these sentiments by engaging in this extreme rhetoric.

What we are doing is really moving or widening that overton window. And what once was considered just a year or two was considered wildly inappropriate or wildly conspiratorial, now some of those statements don't seem so extreme. because she has moved the goalposts. And that's very problematic. And if you look at what's happening on college campuses across this country, with groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine and others, not just the rhetoric they're engaged in,

but also the larger, some of the physical threats or the infringence on free speech and the ways in which students are beginning to feel threatened just for speaking an alternative opinion on these matters related to Israel, this is very troubling and it is a growing threat. Joel Griffith, thank you so much for coming in and thanks for writing that piece. I really encourage our listeners to check it out. Thanks for having me. Are you looking for quick conservative policy solutions to current issues?

Sign up for Heritage's weekly newsletter, The Agenda. Each Tuesday in the Agenda, you will learn what issues Heritage Scholars on Capitol Hill are working on, what position conservatives are taking, and links to our in-depth research. The agenda also provides information on important events happening here at Heritage that you can watch online as well as media interviews from our experts. Sign up for the agenda on heritage.org today. And I'm joined now here at the Daily Signal podcast by Nigel Farage in from the UK. Nigel, welcome back to the US.

Good to be here, I have to say, interesting, isn't it? Your president walked away from the table in Vietnam. He said it was a bad deal, so he walked away because no deal is better than a bad deal. If only the British Prime Minister had taken the same attitude with the EU negotiations. Well, that is exactly what I want to ask you about. So this has been this long, you know, drawn out saga. We're witnessing it here from the United States. We thought Brexit was a reality before Donald Trump was elected.

Can you give us just an update? What is happening in Parliament? 29 days to go. 29 days to go until we are due to leave the European Union and to become an independent, self-governing nation once again. That's what the Brexit vote was all about. we were promised, it would be delivered, and now we find ourselves in the oddest of positions.

One of three things can happen. One, we get a clean Brexit, we leave on WTO rules, and even if there were a few short-term bumps in the road, we're out, we're free, it's done. I don't believe that'll happen. I don't believe the Prime Minister, despite the fact that legislation is there to do it. I just do not believe this Prime Minister is firm enough to do it.

So let's take that option off the table. We then left, I'm afraid, with her deal, her withdrawal agreement, which is more like a surrender document, which unless it gets seriously amended in my next couple of weeks, is unacceptable. The other option is delay, where the can gets kicked down the road and Article 50 gets extended. Of those options, you know, I want us to leave now on WTO terms, but I fear I genuinely, I mean, I've got everything crossed, I've got to be hopeful, but I genuinely fear they will kick the can down the road and that Brexit won't happen on March 29th. They'll say we'll do it

in a year's time or two years' time. I think if they do do that, they'll be very surprised by the level of political backlash. Yeah, I mean, what does that do to the British people's confidence in their own government? Well, I think it's deeper than that. It isn't just about confidence in the government. It's about confidence in the entire democratic system. So these are big stakes. This is big stuff the next few weeks. Really, really big stuff. I would say right now, it's 50-50. 50% can down the road and 50% a bad deal. So whichever way you look at it, these are disappointing times. Well, some who are calling for a new referendum are a bit alarmist about a no-deal. How do you reckon with a no-deal and what would be the path forward for the UK?

I mean, these are the same people who were alarmist, if we didn't join the Euro, who were alarmist, if we voted Brexit, you know, half a million jobs would go, plagues of black locusts would descend on our land. They've been wrong about everything. When you make a fundamental change, you move house to change relationships. Big change in life often leads to a couple of bumps until you settle things down. But hey, so what? What price freedom is my answer to that? It took United States a while to rebuild itself after the revolution. Well, you did a pretty good job with the looks of it. So there you are. And at least you've got a president who, you know, resolutely tries to put the interest of his country first, and I totally agree with that. Well, we certainly hope to see

Independence Day restored in the United Kingdom. So do I. Thank you. I tell you what, all I will finish with is we will get Brexit, whether it's now, whether there are more battles to fight, we will get Brexit. Well, and on that, Nigel, I'll have to ask you, are you considering re-entering politics if the stakes end up being higher? If they kick the can down the road, and we're faced with fighting another European election, I will be there, and they won't like it. This could be a Trump 2.0, an unexpected wave election. Nigel, thanks for being on the Daily Signal. Very good.

Well, that's going to do it for this episode. Thanks for listening to the Daily Signal podcast, brought to you from the Robert H. Bruce Radio Studio at the Heritage Foundation. Please be sure to subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, or SoundCloud. And please leave us a review or a five-star rating on iTunes to give us feedback. Thanks to listener, That Jack Sky. I'm not sure. I'm guessing that's not his real name.

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