Rep. Rashida Tlaib on Monday addressed her Holocaust remarks that many deemed as anti-Semitic in her first television interview since the scandal broke.
“It was unfortunate, you know? I got a text message from a friend who’s like, ’Hey, next time, you know, really clarify. Maybe talk like a fourth grader. Because maybe the racist idiots would understand you better,’” the Michigan Democrat said on NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers” show, which was met with applause.
Republicans said Ms. Tlaib crossed a lie when she said on the “Skullduggery” podcast Friday she got a “calming feeling” from how Palestinians handled the Holocaust. Others denounced both the one-state concept as the end of Israel as a Jewish state and the comments themselves as false historical revisionism.
Ms. Tlaib, who is Palestinian American and Muslim, said during her interview with Mr. Meyers that her family still lives in the occupied territories of the West Bank.
“The reason why Israel was created was to create a safe haven for Jews around the world and there is something, in many ways, beautiful about that. My ancestors, many had died or had to give up their livelihood, their human dignity to provide a safe haven for Jews in our world,” she said.
“I want the Palestinian people also to find some sort of, you know, light in this kind of what’s happening. But also, you know, in the end, I said I want all of us to feel safe all of us deserve human dignity, no matter our backgrounds, no matter ethnicity no matter even our political opinions we all deserve that kind of equality and justice. I wanted to uplift that and bring that to light,” the congresswoman said.
Ms. Tlaib’s fellow Muslim woman in Congress, Rep. Ilhan Omar, has also faced backlash for comments people have deemed as anti-Semitic.
Ms. Omar has faced accusations of anti-Semitism since criticizing pro-Israel lobbyist groups and questioning the loyalty of Jewish lawmakers who pushed back against her criticisms of the Israeli government.
• Gabriella Muñoz contributed to this article.
• Bailey Vogt can be reached at bvogt@washingtontimes.com.
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