Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., said efforts to tie him to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan are racially-motivated smears, and downplayed his past meetings with the controversial leader by arguing that Farrakhan is “irrelevant” to American politics.
“Look, I gotta be honest with you and tell you this thing about Farrakhan being absolutely radioactive and then trying to connect anyone possible to him and then make them radioactive is – look, Farrakhan’s organization is tiny,” Ellison said event hosted this week by the Harvard Institute of Politics. “They don’t have any influence. Nobody listens to them. They don’t have any answers for anyone. Nobody’s paying any attention to them. I’m telling you, they’re not. I mean, give me credit for leading my life.”
“Farrakhan is irrelevant to any politics. Nobody cares,” said Ellison, the first Muslim to be elected to Congress.
Ellison has a number of ties to the Nation of Islam leader dating back to the late 1980s and has been in the presence of Farrakhan twice dating back to 2010, including a 2016 meeting between Farrakhan, Ellison and Rep. Andre Carson, D-Ind., in Washington.
He came under fire for saying he had “no relationship” with Farrakhan after 2006. The Washington Post gave him “Four Pinocchios” for the claim.
But Ellison said attempts to tie him to Farrakhan are smears.
“What I’m telling you is the only way Farrakhan gets in the news is if somebody tries to say, ‘Oh this black person whose whole life is dedicated to human rights met him or saw him or was in a room with him.’ It’s a smear, man. I’m sorry. It is a smear,” Ellison told a Jewish student who pressed him on the issue. “And I got to tell you it is frustrating to be pulled out and be in and it’s like it’s your daily moment to denounce anti-Semitism. We denounce it. We absolutely denounce it. We think it is reprehensible, murderous, and genocidal. And it offends me that anyone would insist that I do it one more time.”
Ellison, who also chairs the House Progressive Caucus, said the Congressional Black Caucus has more than group been the subject of Farrakhan connections, and said this is unfounded.
“The Black Caucus in particular has been targeted with this smear,” Ellison said. “The Black Caucus has fought for justice more than any other caucus in the United States Congress, period, and that’s who is being questioned about whether we really stand against hatred. It’s offensive.”
Several members of the CBC have had exchanges with Farrakhan dating back to 2009, including Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and Rep. Al Green, D-Texas.
Farrakhan was back in the news in late February after he gave another anti-Semitic speech. In the speech, he criticized Ellison for distancing himself from his group when he ran for Congress in 2006.
“Let me tell you something, when you want something in this world, the Jew holds the door,” Farrakhan said. At one point, he showed a photo of Ellison selling the Nation of Islam newspaper during a 1998 march against police brutality.
