Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., launched into a heated five-minute exchange on live TV Tuesday as he denied claims by controversial Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan that he and Ellison met in a hotel suite occupied by Farrakhan in D.C. in 2016.
“That is a false — that did not happen,” Ellison said during an interview on CNN’s “The Lead.”
“It did not happen, sir. So Farrakhan’s lying?” host Jake Tapper asked.
“I don’t know if he’s lying or not. I can tell you I was in no such meeting. I’ve made that clear,” Ellison shot back. “But here I am on your show having to talk about this when the Supreme Court just upheld what the president said was a Muslim ban from the very beginning. And so now I have to defend myself when that’s not what the context of this discussion is about at all, Jake.”
In the interview, Tapper referred to a Washington Post fact-check that found Ellison was at two events also attended by Farrakhan between 2010 and 2013, despite repeated denials from Ellison that the pair do not have a relationship.
Ellison, one of two Muslims in the U.S. Congress, defended Farrakhan against complaints of anti-Semitism when he was a law student in the late 1980s and was forced to publicly denounce him during his first campaign for national office in 2006.
Farrakhan is a divisive figure given statements he has made on a range of issues — including race, religion and sexual orientation — since becoming Nation of Islam’s leader in 1975.
