With the Democratic National Committee voting on its new chair tomorrow, Alan Dershowitz today reiterated his declaration that he will leave the party if Keith Ellison wins the race.

Dershowitz wrote a piece for The Hill that said he will not only leave, but he will also “urge other like-minded people — centrist liberals — to follow my lead and quit the Democratic Party if Ellison is elected chairman.”

Ellison, along with former Labor Secretary Tom Perez, is one of the top contenders for the position. Dershowitz says one of his chief points of opposition is Ellison’s “long history of sordid association with anti-Semitism.”

During this week’s DNC leadership debate on CNN, Ellison––who condemned President Trump for not doing enough to address anti-Semitism––dismissed these charges against him as “smears.”

Dershowitz slams Ellison for his past associations with Louis Farrakhan and writes, “Ellison himself has made anti-Semitic statements. A prominent lawyer, with significant credibility, told me that while he was a law student, Ellison approached her and said he could not respect her, because she was a Jew and because she was a woman who should not be at a law school.”

He doesn’t believe Ellison’s “apology tour” to be sincere, saying, “I do not trust him. I do not believe him. And neither should centrist liberal supporters of Israel and opponents of anti-Semitism.”

Many on the left have argued that Ellison is a much better alternative to an establishment figure like Perez, while Dershowitz said today he thinks “the self-destructive election of Keith Ellison will be hard to undo for many years.”

[image via screengrab]

— —

Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]