Ellison claims he didn’t know the true nature of Farrakhan. Seriously.

Keith Ellison, Democratic Congressman from Minnesota, is the favorite to become Chair of the Democratic National Committee.

He has the support of big names like Chuck Schumer, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Harry Reid, among others.

Yet for years there have been questions about Ellison’s past association with Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, as well as his association with anti-Israel groups. We touched upon Ellison’s background in two recent posts:

Scott Johnson of Power Line, who is based in Minnesota, has been following the career of Ellison for a decade. Scott talked about some of what he has learned about Ellison in a recent radio interview, Ten Years On The Ellison Case:

I talked about Keith Ellison with Seth Leibsohn and Chris Buskirk on the aptly named Seth & Chris Show for two segments this afternoon. Seth has kindly forwarded the audio hot off the air (posted here and enbedded below). I’m celebrating ten years on Ellison’s case, trying to warn Democrats off the guy. It turns out I must be Ellison’s good luck charm. If past experience is a guide to future performance, the chairmanship of the Democratic Party has his name on it. In the course of the interview I cite my Weekly Standard articles “Louis Farrakhan’s first congressman” (2006) and “The Ellison elision” (2014) as well as the Power Line post “Keith Ellison for dummies” (with documents embedded). These pieces have the details to which I only allude in the interview with Seth and Chris.

Ellison once wrote under the names Keith Hakim, Keith X Ellison and Keith Ellison-Muhammad, and supported and defended the Nation of Islam. The extent and timeline of Ellison’s support is part of a whitewash, Scott argues.

Here is Scott’s interview via Sound Cloud (also here if you have a problem accessing Sound Cloud or it doesn’t load).

The Power Line Keith Ellison Archive is a must read to understand the person who may be the next Chair of the Democratic National Committee.

Keith Ellison for Dummies, in particular, has the timeline of Ellison’s career with documents, and his strategic 2006 apology to the Jewish community as he was promoting his political career in which he says he didn’t understand the nature of the Nation of Islam and Farrakhan:

What are we to make of this? Take a look at Ellison’s May 28, 2006, letter to the Jewish Community Relations Council; it served as the keystone of his 2006 campaign for election to Congress. That letter to the contrary notwithstanding, the documents posted above nevertheless by themselves establish that 1) Ellison’s involvement with the Nation of Islam exceeded any 18-month period, 2) Ellison’s involvement with the Nation of Islam extended far beyond the promotion of the Million Man March, and 3) that Ellison himself, far from being ignorant of the Nation of Islam’s anti-Semitism, actively supported it. The steadfast refusal of the local Minnesota media to examine Ellison’s public record in the course of his congressional campaign represented a striking case of nonfeasance, incompetence and willfully averted eyes that remains a story unto itself.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (which I have repeatedly criticized) is now the darling of the mainstream media and Democrats because it is attacking Steve Bannon, as well as people it labels Islamophobic, like Hirsi Ali. Consider what SPLC says about the Nation of Islam:

Since its founding in 1930, the Nation of Islam (NOI) has grown into one of the wealthiest and best-known organizations in black America, offering numerous programs and events designed to uplift African Americans. Nonetheless, its bizarre theology of innate black superiority over whites — a belief system vehemently and consistently rejected by mainstream Muslims — and the deeply racist, anti-Semitic and anti-gay rhetoric of its leaders, including top minister Louis Farrakhan, have earned the NOI a prominent position in the ranks of organized hate.

The notion that Ellison did not know the nature of Louis Farrakhan or the Nation of Islam is preposterous. Everyone knew. It was all over the media.

This speech was delivered at a highly publicized Madison Square Garden rally in 1985:

This CBS News profile was in 1990.

This Time Magazine Cover story was on February 28, 1994:

This Sermon was delivered at Mosque Maryam, Chicago, March 19, 1995, and generated huge controversy because of the accusation that rich Jews financed the Holocaust and used soap made from the skins of poor Jews to wash:

German Jews financed Hitler right here in America…International bankers financed Hitler and poor Jews died while big Jews were at the root of what you call the Holocaust…Little Jews died while big Jews made money. Little Jews [were] being turned into soap while big Jews washed themselves with it. Jews [were] playing violin, Jews [were] playing music, while other Jews [were] marching into the gas chambers…

Unlike the rest of American, apparently Ellison was unaware that Farrakhan was antisemitic. In a November 6, 1995 Op-Ed under the name Keith X Ellison, he wrote that Farrakhan was a “role model for Black youth; however he is not an anti-semite.”

Ellison’s defenders will claim he has changed. And maybe he has. That he has become the go-to congressman for pro-boycott anti-Israel groups raises doubts as to whether the change is complete.

Regardless, why should the potential leader of the Democratic National Committee escape full and open scrutiny? Ellison will be the face of the Democratic Party at least until the next presidential election cycle.

Will Ellison’s past and present receive a tiny fraction of the scrutiny paid to Steve Bannon? Next question, we already know the answer is No:

Television networks have devoted almost 42 minutes, most of it negative, to covering President-Elect Donald Trump’s choice as chief White House strategist — while ignoring the controversial history of the man who might be the next leader of the Democratic Party. The Media Research Center, a conservative watchdog, compiled the data for a study published Wednesday. Trump’s selection of Stephen Bannon has generated 41 minutes and 46 seconds of coverage on the Big Three networks. Of that, 74 percent has been negative, focusing on topics like Bannon’s alleged ties to white nationalists and other bigots. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) has gotten just two minutes and nine seconds of coverage with his bid for Democratic National Committee chairman. None has been negative, according to the Media Research Center. “They are covering his bid; they’re just not covering him negatively at all,” said Rich Noyes, the center’s research director.

For some media, the failure to cover Ellison’s background may just be laziness. But for others, it’s part of a strategy.

Ellison, after all, is part of the Soros network, huddling with groups such as Media Matters at a post-election Soros gathering. Politico reports, 2016 Soros bands with donors to resist Trump, ‘take back power’ (emphasis added):

George Soros and other rich liberals who spent tens of millions of dollars trying to elect Hillary Clinton are gathering in Washington for a three-day, closed door meeting to retool the big-money left to fight back against Donald Trump. The conference, which kicked off Sunday night at Washington’s pricey Mandarin Oriental hotel, is sponsored by the influential Democracy Alliance donor club, and will include appearances by leaders of most leading unions and liberal groups, as well as darlings of the left such as House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chairman Keith Ellison, according to an agenda and other documents obtained by POLITICO…. Since its inception in 2005, the DA has steered upward of $500 million to a range of groups, including pillars of the political left such as the watchdog group Media Matters, the policy advocacy outfit Center for American Progress and the data firm Catalist — all of which are run by Clinton allies who are expected to send representatives to the DA meeting.

Soros-backed groups, it was revealed through Wikileaks document disclosures, are leading the progressive attack on Israel, Soros-funded anti-Israel ecosystem unmasked by hack:

So understand the Soros-funded anti-Israel circle: Soros funds groups that make false claims against Israel. Those false claims are used by other groups funded by Soros.

Installing Ellison atop the DNC would fit nicely with Soros’ goal of undermining American political unity in supporting Israel, as I documented in Keith Ellison’s troubling relationship with anti-Israel groups

It is no surprise, then, that David Brock’s Soros-funded Media Matters is leading the charge to quash publicity about Ellison’s background while simultaneously leading the charge against Bannon.

Media Matters claims inquiry into Ellison’s Farrakhan days is an attack on all Muslims, Here Come The Anti-Muslim Attacks On Keith Ellison:

By conflating all Muslims with the Nation of Islam and Louis Farrakhan, Media Matters may be gaining short-term talking points, but actually causes damage to the vast majority of Muslims who never have subscribed to Farrakhan’s ideology.

A similar tactic is being carried out by Think Progress, part of John Podesta’s Center for American Progress, which receives funding through Soros-related entities. Think Progress calls it all a smear campaign, The growing smear campaign against Keith Ellison:

It also is no surprise that another Soros-funded outfit, J Street, also is rushing to Ellison’s aid. J Street was part of the Soros-funded network pushing the Iran Nuclear Deal.

Ellison was backed by J Street’s PAC and J Street published Ellison’s call for Obama to impose conditions of a settlement of the conflict on Israel and not to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution dictating the outcome:

President Obama needs to set forth parameters for a peace settlement and instruct Ambassador Samantha Power not to veto plans for peace in the United Nations Security Council.

Imposing a settlement on Israel through a UN resolution is a primary goal of the progressive left.

J Street, like its fellow Soros-funded Media Matters and Think Progress, is condemning people who raise Ellison’s Nation of Islam and Farrakhan past. It is “hateful” according to J Street:

We will see if discussion about Ellison’s past creates enough of a critical mass to make a difference as Democrats who vote on the matter assess their current situation. Moving the Democratic Party further to the left, further into anti-Israel Soros-land, may satisfy some. But Democrats will need to decide if it is good for the party.

The fact is that the vast majority of Americans support Israel.

Democrats have been eviscerated at the state level, lost the presidency, lost the House and Senate, and now want to inject divisive partisanship into an issue that still unites most Americans.

Surely some Democrats know about first law of holes.



