The Very Liberal Views of the Leading DNC Chairman Contender
The leading candidate to be the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., has said he wants the Democratic Party to come out against the Second Amendment, compared the 9/11 attacks to the Nazi Reichstag fire, and was affiliated with the controversial Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam.
Ellison, the co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and supporter of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders during the Democratic presidential primaries, once said eventual nominee Hillary Clinton would have to prove she’s not a Republican to get his support.
Ellison has been member of Congress since 2007, and has supported other measures that could be unpopular with moderate voters, but are the norm for progressives. Ellison has advocated for a single-payer health care system, a carbon tax, hiking taxes for high earners, and cutting the defense budget.
With Republicans holding the White House along with majorities in the House and Senate, the Democratic Party chairman will be a more prominent public face for the party for at least the next two years.
Former DNC Chairman and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Jaime Harrison, and others are vying for the position.
However, Ellison is clearly the leading candidate, with 40 endorsements for the job from elected officials and state party chairmen, including Sanders, incoming Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer of New York, and outgoing Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
Here are a few things to know about the leading contender for the DNC chairmanship.
‘Sure Wish They Would’ Be Against the Second Amendment
When appearing on “Real Time with Bill Maher” in March 2014, Maher asked Ellison, “Why doesn’t your party come out against the Second Amendment? It’s the problem.”
Ellison responded, “I sure wish they would. I sure wish they would.”
Maher pressed, “Really? Because I never hear anybody in the Democratic Party say that. But they say, ‘I am also a strong supporter.’”
Ellison said, “You have got to check out the Progressive Caucus. We have come out very strong for commonsense gun safety rules.”
Maher pushed further to know what “common sense” meant.
“What it means is that if you want to have grandpa’s shotgun, have it, but get rid of those crazy military-style assault weapons,” Ellison said.
Maher said, “It’s not going to change anything.”
Ellison defended his position, saying, “You can’t solve the problem with just one little thing. You’ve got to make sure that the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] can issue reports on gun killings and handgun violence. You’ve got to make sure that we can get rid of assault weapons. You’ve got to close the loophole at gun shows. You’ve got to do a whole range of things to get us into a sane place. We’ve got 12,000 handgun murders a year.”
Ellison’s office did not provide a formal response for this story, but a prominent Democratic surrogate close to Ellison defended his stance on gun control.
“Keith has called for the reinstatement of the assault weapons ban, a law that prevented dangerous weapons from falling into the hands of violent criminals,” the Ellison associate said.
“We can avoid national tragedies by closing gun show loopholes, banning military-style assault weapons, and fully supporting the implementation of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System,” he added. “A strong national background check system will ensure that violent individuals, domestic abusers, murderers, or the criminally insane are not able to buy guns. Keith also believes in limiting the amount of deadly ammunition that guns can hold in a single magazine because there is no justifiable civilian purpose for firing dozens of rounds without stopping.”
Past Ties to Farrakhan
Going back to his time in law school at the University of Minnesota, Ellison defended the Nation of Islam and its controversial leader Louis Farrakhan.
As a third-year law students at the University of Minnesota Law School in 1989-90, Ellison reportedly wrote for the student newspaper, The Minnesota Daily, using the name Keith Hakim, where he defended Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. He further wrote about reparations for slavery and demand a separate homeland for African-Americans, The Washington Post reported when Ellison was running for the office.
In 1995, he reportedly backed up the Nation of Islam line in organizing a march at the U.S. attorney’s office in Minneapolis to accuse the FBI of conspiring to murder Farrakhan, The Weekly Standard reported.
Ellison first ran for public office in 1998, winning the Democratic nomination for state representative under the name Keith Ellison-Muhammad.
Because of Farrakhan’s anti-Semitic statements, Ellison sought to explain his association when he first ran for Congress in 2006. During the Democratic primary, he wrote a letter to the local chapter of the Jewish Community Relations Council that stated his involvement with the Nation of Islam was only 18 months and surrounded the Million Man March of 1995. He said he wasn’t familiar with the Nation of Islam’s anti-Semitic views.
Later that year, he said that he parted ways with the group when “it became clear to me that their message of empowerment intertwined with more negative messages.”
Ellison forcefully rejects anti-Semitism, the supporter close to the Minnesota congressman told The Daily Signal.
“He has strongly condemned the Nation of Islam and other groups that promote anti-Semitism, intolerance, and bigotry, hosting several briefings and panels about confronting anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial, voting to strengthen anti-hate crime legislation, and standing with Jewish government officials against anti-Semitism,” the source close to Ellison said.
9/11 and the Reichstag Fire
The conservative group America Rising PAC showcased a video last week from Ellison delivering a 2007 speech where he said that the 9/11 terrorist attacks was comparable to the Reichstag fire in Germany that helped bring Adolf Hitler to power.
“Remember 9/11. You would never have all this discrimination against religious minorities but for 9/11,” Ellison said. “We had it, but we don’t have it to the degree we have it now. 9/11 is this juggernaut you get in American history. It’s almost like the Reichstag fire. It reminds me of that. You know what I’m talking about?”
Someone in the audience asked, “Who benefited from 9/11?” Ellison responded, “Well, you and I both know. But the thing is, you know, after Reichstag was burned, they blamed the communists for it and then put the leader of that country into a position where basically he could do whatever he wanted.”
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