House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s demand for Republicans to apologize to Rep. Rashida Tlaib after they criticized her comments regarding Palestinian response to the Holocaust has Rep. Lee Zeldin calling the speaker out for “making a selfish play call for her gavel.”
Rep. Lee Zeldin is a Republican Jewish lawmaker that is shooting back after Rep. Rashida Tlaib sparked an outrage for telling the Yahoo podcast “Skullduggery” that she get’s a “calming feeling” when she thinks of Palestinians creating a “safe haven for Jews, post-the Holocaust.”
The criticism that Rep. Tlaib’s received drew Nancy Pelosi’s apology demand from President Trump, who also condemned Rep. Tlaib, and House Republicans “for their gross misrepresentations,” as previously reported.
Jewish Congress member Lee Zeldin told The Hill that Rep. Tlaib’s comment is a “sick rewrite of what actually took place in history.” The Washington Examiner noted the misleading claims in the freshman congresswoman’s statement.
“I believe that the anti-Israel hate that’s infiltrated American politics and college campuses and the halls of Congress is wrong, that we should be doing more to identifying and crush it,” Zeldin said.
“And this tactic of promoting hate as a member of Congress, and immediately playing victim, accusing anyone who has a problem with your words and your hate and calling them racist, sexist or Islamaphobic even though they make no reference to your race, religion or gender is greatly disappointing and shocking. And the Speaker is making a play call, making a selfish play call for her gavel to not identify and confront and crush it and instead be led by the radical left because she doesn’t know how to lead it.” He continued.
The Congress member called out the Democrats alleged double standard when handling controversial remarks by members, saying Nancy Pelosi and top Democrat leaders would be “absolutely flipping out” if Rep. Tlaib were Republican.
“That’s all we would have been doing today on the floor, would have been condemning with speech after speech after speech from one Democrat after another, insane lighting their hair on fire, genuinely pissed off over what they heard. And the only reason why we’re not hearing it from them is because Tlaib happens to be a Democrat and not a Republican.” He added.
Nancy Pelosi’s spokesperson Drew Hammill swiped back at the Jewish lawmaker, telling The Hill, “With all due respect to the Congressman, he has absolutely no idea what he’s talking about.”
Lee Zeldin was a vocal critic of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s controversial remarks on Israel following the passing of a House resolution in March to condemn anti-Semitism and other hate that did not name Omar.
“It is an American value, by the way, to have reasonable, legitimate criticism of a government,” Zeldin said at the time, following his vote against the resolution. “Whether it be the U.S. government, Israel, or any other government. It is not an American value, though, to be hurling anti-Semitic rhetoric.”
