Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) listens during a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing in Washington, D.C., May 9, 2019. (Leah Millis/Reuters)

CNN’s John King corrected Representative Rashida Tlaib’s (D., Mich.) revisionist history of the Holocaust on Monday, pointing out that Palestinian leaders supported the German extermination of Jews and violently resisted the creation of a Jewish state.

“It was my ancestors — Palestinians — who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity. Their existence, in many ways, had been wiped out,” Tlaib said last week on the Yahoo News Skullduggery podcast. “I mean, just all of it was in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews, post-the Holocaust, post-the tragedy and the horrific persecution of Jews across the world at that time.”


“[Tlaib] ignored the fact that Palestinian leaders at the time allied themselves with Hitler and that total war is how the Arab world reacted to the declaration of Israeli independence,” King said Monday. “She can’t rewrite that history and you can’t project revisionist history,” he added before introducing his guest, Aaron David Miller, a former adviser to six secretaries of state, who castigated Tlaib for enflaming divisions by resorting to ahistorical Holocaust references.

“They were considering extermination of the entire Jewish community there as well,” Miller said of Palestinian leaders who believed German forces might arrive in the region after defeating allied forces in North Africa. “So this was ill-timed, ill-advised, and I think it clearly is simply going to antagonize and polarize the already polarized debate in Washington.”

CNN Fact Checks Dem Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s Comments On Israel John King: Tlaib "ignored the fact that Palestinian leaders at the time allied themselves with Hitler and that total war is how the Arab world reacted to the declaration of Israeli independence." pic.twitter.com/mvSa7gTn4P — Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) May 13, 2019

Top Republicans called on Speaker Nancy Pelosi to censure Tlaib — who previously wrote an op-ed for a virulently anti-Semitic publication of Louis Farrakhan and who has defended fellow freshman representative Ilhan Omar’s (D., Minn.) anti-Semitic remarks — after last week’s comments.



“There is no justification for the twisted and disgusting comments made by Rashida Tlaib just days after the annual Day of Holocaust Remembrance,” said House minority whip Steve Scalise (R., La.).

Representative Liz Cheney (R., Wyo.) accused Tlaib of celebrating the Holocaust in a Sunday tweet.

Surely now @SpeakerPelosi⁩ & ⁦@LeaderHoyer⁩ will finally take action against vile anti-Semitism in their ranks. This must cross the line, even for them. Rashida Tlaib says thinking of the Holocaust provides her a “calming feeling” https://t.co/opUUNEol2d — Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) May 12, 2019

In response to the wave of criticism, Tlaib accused her detractors of “policing” and misrepresenting her words in an attempt to cast her as anti-Semitic.

Policing my words, twisting & turning them to ignite vile attacks on me will not work. All of you who are trying to silence me will fail miserably. I will never allow you to take my words out of context to push your racist and hateful agenda. The truth will always win. — Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) May 13, 2019

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