CNN anchor John King claimed Monday that Republicans twisted the comments Democratic Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib recently made about the Holocaust.
He nevertheless criticized Tlaib for not providing accurate “context” for Israel’s founding.
Tlaib’s comments, which sparked outrage, came from a weekend appearance on Yahoo News’ “Skullduggery” podcast. (RELATED: Rashida Tlaib Uses Inaccuracy To Explain Why ‘The Tragedy Of the Holocaust’ Gives Her ‘A Calming Feeling’)
She stated:
There’s always kind of a calming feeling I tell folks when I think of the Holocaust, and the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the fact that it was my ancestors, Palestinians — who lost their land, and some lost their lives their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence in many ways — have been wiped out, and some people’s passports. And just all of it was in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews, post-the Holocaust, post-the tragedy and the horrific persecution of Jews across the world at that time. I love the fact that it was my ancestors that provided that, right? In many ways. But they did it in a way that took their human dignity away and it was forced on them.
WATCH:
King began the segment, which featured Aaron David Miller and Sunlen Serfaty, by airing Tlaib’s comments, then by reading President Donald Trump’s Monday morning tweet about her aloud, and her response to the growing outrage.
“Now, calming is, at best, an awkward word choice in any sentence referencing the Holocaust and one readily made for Republican critics, including the president of the United States,” King began. “Tlaib did call the Holocaust horrific and a tragedy, so the Republican focus on the word ‘calming’ does twist the congresswoman’s words out of context, but she also fails a critical fact ‘in-context test.’ Yes, as she said, Palestinians lost land in the creation of Israel, but she ignored the fact that Palestinian leaders at the time allied themselves with Hitler and the total war was how the Arab world reacted to the declaration of Israeli independence.”
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), speaks to reporters, after U.S. President Donald Trump’s second State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. (Photo by Cheriss May/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Democratic leadership has defended Tlaib, demanding that the GOP apologize to her.
