Sean Hannity Launches Islamophobic Attack Against Keith Ellison

By Igor Volsky/Think Progress

Conservative talk show host Sean Hannity launched an Islampophobic attack against Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) during his Fox News show on Thursday night, implying that the Muslim Congressman is a racist and an anti-Semite. The segment came just days after Ellison and Hannity engaged in a confrontational interview on Tuesday night. “We decided to take a closer look at the man who called me immoral and a liar,” Hannity began. “Now it didn’t take long to prove his hypocrisy, as his past reveals a host of radical connections primarily to Louis Farrakhan and The Nation of Islam.”

The Fox host dug up attacks from Ellison’s 2006 Congressional campaign, criticizing the Minnesota lawmaker for defending Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam in his law school newspaper from charges of anti-Semitism and appearing on stage with Farrakhan aide Khalid Muhammad. Watch it:

In the late 1990s, Ellison worked with the group to organize the Million Man March, but apologized for failing to “adequately scrutinize the positions and statements” of the Nation of Islam and Farrakhan six years ago in a letter to the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas.

“I wrongly dismissed concerns that they were anti-Semitic,” he wrote, adding, “They were and are anti-Semitic and I should have come to that conclusion earlier than I did.” “I have long since distanced myself from and rejected the Nation of Islam due to its propagation of bigoted and anti-Semitic ideas and statements, as well as other issues.”

After the accusations first surfaced in 2006, Ellison’s Jewish law school colleagues said that “they never got the impression that Ellison himself was anti-Semitic” and American Jewish World, the newspaper for Minnesota’s Jewish community, endorsed him.

The Jewish Community Relations Council has since defended him from anti-Muslim attacks. “Representative Ellison is a friend to the Jewish community and we have enjoyed a strong working relationship with him since he assumed office in 2007,” the group said in a statement released last year.

UPDATE

At one point during the segment, while discussing Khalid Muhammad, Hannity asked, “What is the difference, I mean, do we have somebody then in Congress that is the equivalent of one side of what the Klan is?”

UPDATE

After Ellison was sworn in on the Quran in 2006, Hannity compared it to Mein Kampf: “[Y]ou know, would you have allowed him to choose, you know, Hitler’s Mein Kampf, which is the Nazi bible? In other words, where does this stop? Is there any limitations whatsoever?”

UPDATE

Religious leaders are coming to Ellison’s defense. Here is Rabbi Marc Schneier, president and Co-founder of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding: “Congressman Ellison has been a valued friend to the American Jewish community. He has been a partner in strengthening Muslim Jewish relations. As an example, he was responsible for organizing the letter by Muslim Americans to Khaled Meshal, head of Hamas, in demanding the release of Gilad Shalit.”

Rep. Ellison explodes on Fox News, calls Sean Hannity 'worst excuse for a journalist'

By DYLAN BYERS/Politico

Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison attacked Fox News host Sean Hannity on-air tonight in what is surely one of the most explosive and contentious interviews between an anchor and a politician in recent history.

Rep. Ellison began the interview by calling Hannity "the worst excuse for a journalist I've ever seen." He went on to accuse Hannity of violating "every journalistic ethic I have ever heard of" and called him "a shill for the Republican Party."

(Also on POLITICO: The GOP, Fox political purge)

Hannity calmly endured the attacks from the Minnesota congressman and tried in vain to assure him that he was not a registered Republican, but rather a registered conservative. He finally gave up and told Rep. Ellison to "keep ranting."

The congressman's remarks came after Hannity aired footage of President Obama giving two similar interviews about the looming effects of sequestration, set against a soundtrack of "O Fortuna," from the Carmina Burana. Hannity said the President was "more concerned with fearmongering than finding a solution to the problem he created."

Rep. Ellison cited the background music as evidence of Hannity's "yellow journalism."

"For you to say the President is to blame here is ridiculous," the congressman said.

(Also on POLITICO: Daryl Hannah spars with Sean Hannity)

Roughly three minutes later, Hannity tried to ask questions and was consistently interrupted by Rep. Ellison. Finally, more than six minutes after the interview started, Hannity ended the interview.

"Congressman, you are a total waste of time. We're moving on, because our audience deserves better," he said. "I tried to give you a fair shot."

Bachmann: Rep. Ellison has ‘long record’ with Muslim Brotherhood

By David Edwards/Raw Story

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) on Thursday responded to criticism over her attacks on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, Huma Abedin, by claiming that Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) also had a “long record” of association with radical Islamists in the Muslim Brotherhood.

Last week, the St. Cloud Times reported that Bachmann and four other Republicans sent a letter to inspectors general in the State, Homeland Security, Defense and Justice departments calling on them to investigate “potential Muslim Brotherhood infiltration” of the Obama administration by Abedin, an aide to Secretary Clinton and wife of former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY). Their accusations were based on a report by Frank Gaffney’s neoconservative Center for Security Policy.

On Wednesday, Ellison, who is Muslim, told the Star Tribune that this “is one of those moments when you can’t stay silent,” adding that the attacks were “McCarthyism at its worst.”

Republicans like House Speaker John Boehner, Arizona Sen. John McCain,Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and former Bachmann campaign manager Ed Rollins also condemned the anti-Muslim accusations.

Speaking to conservative radio host Glenn Beck on Thursday, Bachmann declined to respond to her Republican critics, but attempted to smear Ellison by associating him with Islamic radicals.

“So when you wrote this letter, then Keith Ellison comes out,” Beck told Bachmann. “Keith Ellison is — he has a record of being the Mafia hitman.”

“Well, [Ellison] has a long record of being associated with CAIR and with the Muslim Brotherhood,” Bachmann agreed. “[S]o he came out and essentially wanted to shut down the inspectors general from even looking into any of the questions that we were asking. So he wanted to shut it down. In response I wrote another letter back to Keith Ellison, a 16-page letter which I would encourage all of your listeners to go and read this letter. It’s what I call a bulletproof letter.”

“And so then now what’s happened is the attack machine has been turned on myself and the other members of congress who have been asking the questions, that somehow we’re the Muslim haters, we’re the witch-hunters, we’re the new Joe McCarthyites because we’re asking these questions,” she insisted.

Later on Thursday, Ellison told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that Bachmann’s charges were “ridiculous.”

“That’s not true,” the Minnesota congressman explained. “I don’t have any Muslim Brotherhood connections that she’s talking about.”

“I’m absolutely not trying to shut down their investigation. What I’m trying to do is raise a concern about unfounded allegations of disloyalty, specifically with regard to Huma Abedin and a few other people who she mentioned.”

Ellison continued: “It’s about marginalizing and alienating a group of Americans who she does not view as all-American enough.”

Watch this video from CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, broadcast July 19, 2012.

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Fox and Friends distorts video clip to attack Rep. Keith Ellison

By Eric W. Dolan/Raw Story

The hosts of Fox and Friends lashed out at Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) on Tuesday, accusing him of having "Bachmann derangment syndrome" for claiming that Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) and conservatives lawmakers like her have a poor record on women’s issues.

"We live in an era of extremism," Ellison said July 6 at the 2011 Campus Progress National Conference in Washington, D.C.

"These same people who want to shrink government till you can drown it in a bathtub also want mom to get back in the kitchen and take her shoes off and get pregnant. You understand? They are offended by strong, powerful women. And here's the sad part -- some of them are women themselves. Michele Bachmann being an example."

Fox and Friends co-host Gretchen Carlson angrily responded to a clip of the speech, saying that as a strong woman herself, she was very offended by the comment.

"You don't know what she wants," she said. "You don't know that she thinks it's OK to be back in the kitchen and pregnant. Are you kidding me? She wouldn't be running for president unless she was a strong, powerful woman."

But Ellison was answering a question about women being consistently paid less than men, not accusing Bachmann of being a weak woman. Ellison noted that progressive Members of Congress had passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, allowing victims of pay discrimination to sue their employers. Bachmann and other conservatives voted against it.

Fox and Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade added that if Ellison was worried about extremism, "maybe he can focus on getting the burqa off" of Muslim women. Ellison is the first Muslim to be elected to the U.S. Congress.

In 2006, Bachmann reportedly urged women attending her local church "to be submissive to your husbands."

Watch video of Fox and Friends, as clipped by Media Matters, below:

Watch Rep. Keith Ellison's full speech below:

Memo To Sean Hannity: Fox News’ History Of Inciting Islamophobia And Racial And Ethnic Animosity

By Zaid Jilani

Last night, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) appeared on Fox News’s The Sean Hannity Show. While Ellison was prepared to debate a variety of issues from current affairs, Hannity used the opportunity to confront the congressman about comments he had previously made accusing the network of inciting racial and ethnic animosity and Islamophobia. Ellison at first tried to say that he didn’t want to get into an argument about Fox News, but eventually said that the station tries to always associate terrorism with Muslims, failing to appease Hannity, who said it was “offensive” to say Fox incites religious or ethnic animosity:

HANNITY: Well, you actually called out Fox News. You said in a BBC interview, you said that I think that if you listen to Fox News, the station 24/7 is trying to incite and divide Americans along religious lines, scapegoating the Muslim community, and this is a sort of a well-worn, right-wing tactic. Can you give me a specific example?
ELLISON: Well you know Sean, I tell ya, you know you do this show, you know what you guys broadcast all the time, I mean, I stand by the statement. [...]
HANNITY: This is an incredible charge, this is a charge of bigotry! [...] I’m offended by what you say, and if that’s an accusation of religious intolerance, we’re scapegoating the Muslim community, nothing is further from the truth, and I’d like one example. [...]
ELLISON: I’ll give you one example. One example is that after the King hearings, the hearings that Peter King did, you referred to, you talk about, every time you talk about terrorists and radicalization, you always attached the word Muslim to it, or Islamic.

Watch it:

In response to Hannity’s claim that it is “nothing further than the truth” to say that Fox incites religious intolerance, here’s a far from comprehensive list of some of Fox News’s worst moments of inciting racial and ethnic animosity:

- Fox Host John Gibson Said We “Need More Babies” Because The Majority Of Americans May Be Hispanic In 25 Years [5/12/06]
- Fox Host Steve Doocy Claimed Barack Obama Went To A “Madrassa” And Was Possibly A Muslim Extremist [1/19/07]
- Fox News Managing Editor Said Barack Obama Had “Fairly Controversial” Views About “The White Race” [3/28/08]
- Fox News Host Brian Kilmeade Suggested “Special Screenings” For Muslim American Soldiers After The Fort Hood Shootings [11/7/09]
- Fox News Host Blamed Desecration Of A Tennessee Mosque On The “Stubbornness” Of Muslims Building A Community Center In New York City [8/24/10]
- Fox News Immediately Hired Disgraced NPR Commentator Juan Williams, Who Was Let Go For Making Insensitive Comments About Muslims [10/21/10]
- Fox Host Glenn Beck Said The 3/5 Compromise Was A “Way To Take A Step To Abolish Slavery” [1/6/11]
- Fox Host Sean Hannity Repeatedly Suggested That Middle East Uprisings Are Signs Of “World War III” [2/8/11, 2/10/11, 2/22/11]
- Fox Host Glenn Beck Claimed That The Pro-Democracy Movement In Egypt Was Evidence Of A Muslim-Marxist Conspiracy To Establish An Islamic Caliphate [2/11/11]
- Fox News Radio Reporter Todd Starnes Published Tweets About “Blacks Rioting” At A Burger King And Asking If Muslims “Will Stop Trying To Blow Us Up?” [3/24/11, 9/11/10]

Bill O’Reilly, Jesse Watters, and others at Fox News repeatedly refer to the “Muslim problem” in the world.

All of this racially and ethnically insensitive broadcasting may have had a negative effect on the views of the station’s audience. A recent survey from the Public Religion Research Institute found that there is a “a significant correlation between trust in Fox News and negative attitudes about Muslims.”

Ellison Stumps Republican On House Floor By Asking Him When Paul Ryan’s Plan Would Balance The Budget

By Travis Waldron

This morning, the House debated the budget proposal put forth by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a response to the budget drafted by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). During the debate, CPC member Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) asked Rep. Todd Rokita (R-IN) when the Ryan budget would balance and create a surplus. After hemming and hawing for a few seconds, Rokita ultimately couldn’t come up with an answer:

ELLISON: When does the Ryan budget create a surplus?
ROKITA: The budget proposed and voted on by the committee — [...]
ROKITA: With responsible, gradual reforms to the drivers of our debt, like Medicare and Social Security, this budget will balance –
ELLISON: I asked the gentlemen when the Ryan budget created a surplus. He could have given me a year. He didn’t. That’s because he’s probably embarrassed about when that is. Let me tell you when the Progressive Caucus comes to surplus: 2021. That is known as a responsible budget.

Watch it:

The answer to the question is that the “courageous” and “innovative” Ryan budget would create a surplus for the first time in 2040, according to the Congressional Budget Office. An analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, meanwhile, determined that the CPC budget would indeed turn a $30.7 billion surplus in 2021, nearly two full decades ahead of Ryan’s “bold” plan.

After Congressional Progressives Ask ‘Where Are The Jobs?,’ GOP Rep. Biggert Says ‘Stop Talking About Jobs’

By Zaid Jilani

One of the mantras of congressional Republicans over the past two years has been to ask, “Where are the jobs?” House GOP leader John Boehner (OH) made this into atheme of the campaign last fall. As then-GOP chairman Michael Steele summarized the argument: “Americans are still asking, ‘Where are the jobs?’ … Washington Democrats still have no answers.”

This afternoon, Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) and other progressives took to the floor of the House of Representatives to turn this question back on their Republican colleagues. Ellison and the others asked where all the jobs-creation legislation was, excoriating their conservative colleagues for focusing on legislation like terminating the HAMP program, which would do nothing to create jobs:

– Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN): “The Republicans’ no-jobs agenda has been exposed, Mr. Chair. The majority has done nothing to create jobs or protect homes. All they do is criticize programs that could use some improvement. Rather, they would get rid of them altogether.”

– Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY): “[The Republicans] have no plans of their own to address the foreclosure crisis that is hurting neighborhoods and disrupting lives throughout their country. Like the jobs bills they said they would have. We have yet to see them.”

– Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX): “Your cities have been impacted positively by the HAMP program. Job growth is picking up. Investing and growing jobs should be the mindset of the American Congress for that’s what we were sent back to Washington to do.”

At one point, Rep. Judy Biggert (R-IL) took to the floor to respond to the progressives. She attacked the HAMP program, urging her colleagues to end it, and signaled that she would oppose progressive amendments to the GOP’s bill for ending the mortgage modification program. Then, she incredulously told her colleagues to stop talking about jobs and focus rather on the substance of the amendments:

BIGGERT: I would urge my colleagues to support — oppose this amendment. And stop talking about jobs, let’s focus on the substance of these amendments.

Watch it:

One would have to wonder what a certain congresswoman who asked at a hearing — on February 25, 2010 — “Where are the jobs?” would think about Biggert’s statement. That congresswoman was Biggert herself. Watch it:

House Dem: Wisconsin Gov. Walker like a ‘dictator’

By Sahil Kapur

WASHINGTON – Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), the co-chair of the House progressive caucus, said Wednesday that Wisconsin's Republican Gov. Scott Walker is behaving like a "dictator."

Walker has been "absolutely unreasonable, and is basically taking on the posture of a dictator," Ellison told reporters on a conference call organized by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

The standoff between Republicans and Democrats in Wisconsin continues for a second week as Walker refuses to back down on a budget measure curtailing the collective bargaining rights of public employee unions. Fourteen Democrats fled the state last week to protest the measure and prevent Republicans from getting the votes.

Ellison accused Walker of having "a vision of America that's similar to somewhere like Nigeria or Pakistan," saying he's "been extreme, radical, reckless… and he's going to fail."

To the Wisconsin Democrats and pro-union demonstrators, Ellison said: "You are absolute heroes to us."

Walker insists that his budget measure does not single out or target unions, arguing that across-the-board cuts are necessary to bridge the state's shortfall.

The National Journal reported that the union rights provision "wouldn't save any money this year." Critics have noted that Walker's tax cut for businesses contributed to the state's deficit.

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), also co-chair of the progressive caucus, said on the call that the clash in Wisconsin is critical to the cause of union bargaining rights across the country as the outcome could influence the direction of others states seeking ways to balance their budgets.

"It is absolutely necessary for you, for us, to win this fight," Grijalva said. "If we win this fight in Wisconsin, we will win it all across the country.