Radio host Diane Rehm apologized Wednesday for accusing Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., of holding dual-citizenship with Israel, telling the Washington Examiner’s media desk Wednesday that it was just something that she read on Facebook.
“On today’s show I made a mistake. Rather than asking senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders whether he had dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship, as I had read in a comment on Facebook, I stated it as fact,” the nationally syndicated radio host told the Examiner. “He corrected me, saying he did not know where the question came from. I apologized immediately.”
Rehm also said that she does not maintain a list of which members of Congress hold dual citizenship with Israel, contrary to what she said earlier on her radio program.
“I want to apologize as well to all our listeners for having made an erroneous statement. I am sorry for the mistake. However, I am glad to play a role in putting this rumor to rest,” she said.
The radio host’s comments to the Examiner were a response to questions about her statement in an interview with the Democratic presidential candidate that she has a “list” showing he holds dual citizenship with Israel.
“Senator, you have dual citizenship with Israel,” she said in a radio interview Wednesday morning.
“Well, no, I do not have dual citizenship with Israel,” said Sanders, who is Jewish. “I’m an American. I don’t know where that question came from. I am an American citizen, and I have visited Israel on a couple of occasions. No, I’m an American citizen, period.”
Rehm maintained that she had a “list” that showed the Vermont senator does indeed have dual citizenship.
“That’s some of the nonsense that goes on in the Internet. But that is absolutely not true,” Sanders said.
She then asked him if he knows of anyone else in Congress who hold dual-citizenship with Israel.
“I honestly don’t know, but I have read that on the Internet,” Sanders said. “You know, my dad came to this country from Poland at the age of 17 without a nickel in his pocket. He loved this country,” Sanders said.
“I am, you know, I got offended a little bit by that comment, and I know it’s been on the Internet. I am obviously an American citizen and I do not have any dual citizenship.”
A spokesperson for the senator’s office downplayed the issue, complimenting the host’s years of work in radio.
“Diane Rehm is an excellent radio host. There’s a great big Internet out there with lots of good and bad information. I’ve never heard the question come up before,” Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs told Politico.
The chair of the National Jewish Democratic Council was not at all pleased with her apology, saying in a statement that he found her line of questioning “appalling.”
“[T]his anti-Semitic canard of dual loyalty has persisted for decades, particularly about American Jews in public service. To directly ask, as Diane Rehm did, if there are members of Congress who hold dual citizenship with Israel is unbelievably offensive and completely indefensible,” said Greg Rosenbaum, adding that the host, “implied that had she simply asked the senator if he held Israeli citizenship rather than stating it as fact, it would have somehow been acceptable. This ‘rumor’ is one that she has helped perpetuate and advance.”
Rehm has weathered criticism in the past for previous remarks on Israel, including the time she suggested that the Israelis were possibly responsible for a string of assassinations in Damascus in 2012.
Her program, “The Diane Rehm Show,” is a live call-in radio show produced by WAMU. It is carried on several NPR-affiliated radio stations. The radio host
