In a scathing takedown of anti-Semitic Congresswomen, Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) during an appearance on Monday’s Special Report, The Federalist publisher Ben Domenech unloaded on the duo for their “disgusting display” at a press conference filled with lies.
“These were two members of Congress, of the people's House, expressing in public views that are not just abhorrent, but anti-Semitic. They are not just anti-Israel, they are not just anti-Zionist. They take on a disgusting character to them,” he told Fox News anchor Brett Baier.
Domenech reminded viewers that Omar and Tlaib had an earlier opportunity to travel to Israel with a historically large bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers and they refused. “They planned to go over there and to do everything that they could to make the case that the Jewish state as it exists in Israel is an abhorrent thing that ought to be viewed in a negative way by the American people,” he explained.
The Congresswomen instead chose to travel with the sponsorship of Miftah, a group that published Nazi blood libels against Jews and supported suicide bombers against Israel.
He said he felt his “blood pressure rising” as the anti-Semites were delivering their anti-Israel smears at the press conference. He then called out Democrats as hypocrites for bashing President Trump as an anti-Semite while being silent with their own camp:
I feel like this is a situation where for every Democrat who has come on this network and others and denounced the President in the past couple of years for what they view as racist expressions on his part, they should be called out as hypocrites if they do not denounce the kind of things that have been expressed by these two members of Congress.
USA Today D.C. bureau chief Susan Page offered up a weak defense of the Congresswomen and placed the blame for the controversy on Israel. “It's true. You could criticize them for choosing not to be a part of that larger congressional delegation, I think it is important to also look at what is with Israel did in this case.”
Page’s argument seemed to be that since Omar and Tlaib were members of Congress that they should be allowed to travel to whichever country they damn-well-pleased. “Israel denied entry to two elected members of the U.S. Congress,” she huffed. “And it seems to me that that is something that is serious and not in the tradition of what we expect our close allies to do, even when they disagree with the views that those members of Congress told.”
A few minutes later, Domenech was leaned on again to give his thoughts on the attention the media were giving to the controversial freshmen lawmakers. He argued that even though they represented a faction within the Democratic Party, they were representative of “where the thrust of their agenda is going”.
Suggesting they represented an imported Jeremy “Corbynism”, he pointed out that it was “very unhealthy”. “It is Marxist. It is anti-Semitic. It is anti-Israel, and it's not in the interests of America to have this kind of thing animating a major party,” he added.
Domenech concluded by calling on Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to exact the same punishment on Omar and Tlaib as the Republicans did with Iowa Rep. Steve King after his own racist comments: remove committee assignments.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
Fox News Channel’s Special Report
August 19, 2019
6:37:56 p.m. Eastern(…)
BRET BAIER, ANCHOR: Well, two Democrat congresswomen denied entry into Israel after a controversy press conference today in which they explained their points of view. We also had cartoon shared over the weekend on Instagram which was pointed out, and it's from Representative Tlaib. “The more they try to silence us our voices rise”. But as pointed out by one Jewish American publication, that this cartoon actually is from a cartoonist that came in second in Iran's International Holocaust Cartoon Contest, which is a thing that exists in case you thought it could get any worse.
What about this and the politics surrounding all of this. Let's bring in our panel: Chris Stirewalt is politics editor here at Fox News; Susan Page, Washington bureau chief at USA Today, and Ben Domenech, publisher of The Federalist. Ben, your thoughts?
BEN DOMENECH: What we saw today was a disgusting display. I don't think we should have any jokes about this. These were two members of Congress, of the people's House, expressing in public views that are not just abhorrent, but anti-Semitic. They are not just anti-Israel, they are not just anti-Zionist. They take on a disgusting character to them.
And they are lying to the American people. They are lying about their plans when it came to going over there. They could have easily participated in the bipartisan Congressional delegation, the largest of its kind that went over there recently. They chose not to. They planned to go over there and to do everything that they could to make the case that the Jewish state as it exists in Israel is an abhorrent thing that ought to be viewed in a negative way by the American people.
This was nothing less than a disgusting and, honestly, I felt my blood pressure rising as I was listening to the kind of things these women were saying. I feel like this is a situation where for every Democrat who has come on this network and others and denounced the President in the past couple of years for what they view as racist expressions on his part, they should be called out as hypocrites if they do not denounce the kind of things that have been expressed by these two members of Congress.
BAIER: Susan, pointed out by Congressmen Lee Zeldin and others that this delegation, and we have a picture of it, that went over with the Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, bipartisan, Democrats and Republicans made the trip, and traveling over there, that they could have been a part of this. They chose not to.
SUSAN PAGE: It's true. You could criticize them for choosing not to be a part of that larger Congressional delegation, I think it is important to also look at what is with Israel did in this case. Israel denied entry to two elected members of the U.S. Congress. And Israel is our closest ally, the only democracy in the Middle East, a nation with which we have long and bipartisan relationships. And it seems to me that that is something that is serious and not in the tradition of what we expect our close allies to do, even when they disagree with the views that those members of Congress told.
(…)
6:42:58 p.m. Eastern
BAIER: What do you say, Ben, to the people who say we, in the media, are giving these Congresswomen too much attention, that we are giving them too much oxygen on this front?
DOMENECH: You know what, the reason that the media is paying attention to this is just like the reasons that they paid attention to the Tea Party when it was rising. You don't have to take over the whole of a body of Congress or something like that in order to be representative of a thrust in which a certain part of a major party in America is going. That’s what the Tea Party was.
And I think in this case it's also representative of where these Congresswomen are and where the thrust of their agenda is going, which is very disturbing. To Chris's point I believe this as an export of Corbynism that we have seen from the U.K. into America.
BAIER: Jeremy Corbyn.
DOMENECH: Jeremy Corbyn. In a very unhealthy way. It is Marxist. It is anti-Semitic. It is anti-Israel, and it's not in the interests of America to have this kind of thing animating a major party. I view these people, view these Congresswomen as being deserving of the kind of rebuke that we saw Republicans in the House give to Steve King of Iowa. I hope that Nancy Pelosi will stand up and do the same for them.
BAIER: Last word, Susan.
PAGE: You know, the Democrats are divided when it comes to policy toward Israel and support for the current Israeli government. We are strong enough to have that debate, and so is Israel.
