Tipsheet

Squadster Tlaib: Pelosi Better Watch It With Her Attitude and Rhetoric Toward Four Women of Color

Guy Benson
Guy Benson  |  July 17, 2019 1:45 PM

Now that Democrats' rocky, Veep-esque episode condemning President Trump is over, 'the Squad' is back to dumping on Nancy Pelosi.  In an interview with CBS News, Rashida Tlaib warns that the Speaker needs to 'acknowledge' her crew's status as women of color, and temper her criticisms accordingly.  Because death threats.  Why does Pelosi keep putting these minority women in grave danger by disagreeing with them and saying so publicly?  


Let's set aside the fact that Pelosi, like virtually everyone in the public eye has received numerous threats, and that she recently requested increased security measures to protect Ilhan Omar.  This is simply a replay of the "incitement" standard that is nothing more than a lazy and juvenile silencing tactic.  Allahpundit writes, "Tlaib’s suggesting that minority members of Congress should have special immunity from criticism, even from their own leadership, because some are getting death threats, as if Nancy Pelosi — and Trump, of course — don’t get threats routinely."  Meanwhile, literally just the other day, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was intoning about how Trump's weaponization of identity and loyalty is a surefire tell that his weak mind can't handle substantive policy debates:


AOC made this point -- totally unironically, it seems -- within a few days of losing a policy debate, then promptly slicing her own caucus' leader with the race card and smearing everyone involved.  She also made this point while standing beside two Squad pals who've explicitly questioned others' loyalty to our country in the process of launching bigoted attacks against supporters of Israel, knowingly trotting out anti-Semitic tropes:

Shortly after being sworn into office in January, Tlaib was arguing against a Senate bill that would provide more leeway for state and local governments to refuse to do business with entities that have a policy of boycotting, divesting, and/or sanctioning Israel. While there was a vibrant debate about the balancing act between combating the BDS movement and free speech, the bill itself did not actually require state or local governments to issue these rules. Also, existing laws prevent governments from contracting with businesses that engage in discriminatory practices, so state and local anti-BDS laws just define efforts to boycott Israeli Jews as another example of discrimination. But Tlaib took things to a different place, arguing that supporters of the bill, "forgot what country they represent." ... Then, in February, Omar was responding to criticism of her tweet that support for Israel in the U.S. Congress was "all about the Benjamins, baby!" Unapologetic, she told a group of liberals that, "I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is okay to push for allegiance to a foreign country.” Again, the most obvious interpretation of this is that she was reviving the stereotype of Jews not being loyal to their own country, and using their money and influence to pressure those in power to advance the interests of a foreign nation over their own.

If you're inclined to entertain more sympathetic interpretations of their words, don't. Omar advanced the dual loyalty smear after having been warned against it previously (she's still paying dumb and not apologizing), and after accusing Israel of "hypnotizing" the world. And a number of Tlaib's close associates are vicious anti-Jewish fanatics and terrorism apologists:

Freshman Rep. Rashida Tlaib has been condemned after hosting a private celebratory dinner on Saturday featuring anti-Israel activists who praised terror group Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorists, said Israel has no right to exist and called for Israeli “Zionist terrorist” Jews to return to Europe. Tlaib, the first-term Palestinian-American congresswoman from Michigan, first rose to national prominence after being caught on video saying she will “impeach the motherf-----,” in reference to President trump, on the same day she was sworn into Congress. Over the weekend, Tlaib came under fire for her ties to radical Palestinian activists. After the official swearing-in ceremony in her home district, Tlaib and a number of anti-Israel activists participated in the dinner. She was photographed with Abbas Hamideh, a supporter of Tlaib and a co-founder of Al-Awda, who made numerous inflammatory and hateful remarks...

For all the attention the media has focused on an offensive Facebook group in which some US Border Patrol Agents are members, have you heard virtually nothing but crickets on this?

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Tlaib is a member of the Facebook group “Palestinian American Congress,” where members often demonize Jews. The group’s founder, Palestinian activist Maher Abdel-qader, was a key fundraiser for Tlaib and organized campaign events for her around the country. In January 2018, Abdel-qader shared an anti-Semitic video that claimed Jews aren’t actually Jewish, and invented their historical claim to Israel and secretly control the media. The video, which described Jews as “satanic,” also questioned whether 6 million Jews actually died in the Holocaust...Tlaib has been a member of the Facebook group since February 2018 when Abdel-qader added her, according to Facebook...In March 2018, Tlaib presented Abdel-qader with a medal showing her appreciation for his help with the campaign, according to Voices of New York, a project of the City University of New York (CUNY). She posted multiple pictures of herself with Abdel-qader on Facebook during the campaign and emphasized how important his support was to her.

Tlaib also wrote for a publication published by radical bigot Louis Farrakhan, another despicable hater who often gets an avert-your-eyes pass from the mainstream press because his allies and footsie partners are on the media's ideological team.  Amplifying a point I made earlier, the RNC is out with a brutal new ad tying a domestic terrorist attack to the Squad's anti-ICE vitriol, which was apparently shared by the deceased assailant.  Once again, to be clear, I do not blame intense political debate for physical violence.  I reject the "incitement" game.  But the Squad does not.  This is the ladies being held to their own standard:


They absolutely should have to answer questions about "incitement."  Speaking of which, now that AOC has a prospective Republican challenger, will AOC's criticisms of her potential opponent -- an immigrant woman of color -- also be "dangerous"?  Think of the potential threats from Antifa and others:


I'll leave you with AOC spinning unconvincingly to CBS about her use of the race card against Pelosi last week:

I did not say that she was disrespectful of women of color. I found some of the comments disrespectful and that was my personal opinion....And I did feel that singling out on the basis of one vote was creating an opening. But that doesn’t mean that we, that we fundamentally disagree or fundamentally disrespect each other’s position and power and ability to be here. And that’s what makes us united as a caucus.

"United as a caucus."  Last week: "[Pelosi's] persistent singling out .?.?. it got to a point where it was just outright disrespectful .?.?. the explicit singling out of newly elected women of color.” It's hard to distance yourself from your own comment when it's both (a) on tape, and (b) being repeated again by the woman sitting right next to you.