Twenty-one members of the Congressional Black Caucus facing questions about their ties to Nation of Islam chief Louis Farrakhan have all refused to condemn the hate group leader.
The CBC, it was recently revealed, held a secret meeting with Farrakhan in 2005 but hid it from the public to avoid controversy. Twenty-one members of the caucus today were part of the caucus at the time of the secret Farrakhan meeting. All 21 declined to denounce Farrakhan when asked by The Daily Caller.
The Nation of Islam is so extreme that even the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center recognizes it as a hate group, citing the group’s “theology of innate black superiority over whites and the deeply racist, anti-Semitic and anti-gay rhetoric of its leaders.” (RELATED: John Lewis Claims Trump’s’‘DNA’ Makes Him Racist [VIDEO])
Farrakhan has praised Hitler, claimed Jews are “Satantic” and said that white people “deserve to die,” among other racist and anti-Semitic statements.
The 21 CBC members, all Democrats, include high-profile Trump critics like Maxine Waters and Al Green, who have long demanded the president’s impeachment.
Both Waters and Green are on tape hugging Farrakhan in 2006, a year after the CBC’s secret meeting with the hate group leader. The videos of Waters and Green resurfaced in a Wall Street Journal column following the publication of a photo of former President Barack Obama smiling with Farrakhan at the 2005 meeting. (RELATED: Journalist Suppressed Obama-Farrakhan Photo For 13 Years)
One veteran CBC member, Illinois Rep. Danny Davis, praised and defended Farrakhan in a phone interview with TheDC. Davis described Farrakhan as “an outstanding human being” and said “it wouldn’t be anything out of the ordinary” for him to meet with Farrakhan.
“I personally know [Farrakhan], I’ve been to his home, done meetings, participated in events with him,” Davis told TheDC.
“I don’t regard Louis Farrakhan as an aberration or anything, I regard him as an outstanding human being who commands a following of individuals who are learned and articulate and he plays a big role in the lives of thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of people,” Davis said.
The other 20 CBC members contacted by TheDC declined to comment on Farrakhan, as did a spokesperson for the CBC.
The 21 members who declined to denounce Louis Farrakhan are listed below:
- John Lewis (D-GA)
- Gregory Meeks (D-NY)
- Danny Davis (D-IL)
- Bobby Rush (D-IL)
- Maxine Waters (D-CA)
- Barbara Lee (D-CA)
- Eleanor Holmes-Norton (D-DC)
- Alcee Hastings (D-FL)
- Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX)
- Sanford Bishop (D-GA)
- Bobby Scott (D-VA)
- Bennie Thompson (D-MS)
- Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX)
- Elijah Cummings (D-MD)
- Lacy Clay Jr. (D-MO)
- David Scott (D-GA)
- Greg N.K. Butterfield (D-NC)
- Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO
- Al Green (D-TX)
- Gwen Moore (D-WI)