ADL Criticizes Omarosa, Trump Aide Who Claims Good Relationship With Farrakhan

Omarosa Manigault Image by Getty Images

By Aiden Pink May 4, 2017

White House adviser and former Apprentice contestant Omarosa Manigault was criticized by the Anti-Defamation League on Thursday after she said that she had a “good relationship” with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and would “look forward to a meeting with him.”

Manigault, the communications director of the White House’s Office of Public Liaison, made her remarks in an interview with Chicago talk-radio station WVON. “I think any of your audience would know that I’ve never shied away from having an open, and I believe a good, relationship with Louis Farrakhan,” Manigault said. “I would look forward to receiving that invitation and sitting down with him.”

Farrakhan has a decades-long history of making controversial remarks about Jews. In March, he urged President Trump to “extricate” himself from “being controlled” by Jews like his son-in-law Jared Kushner.

“Louis Farrakhan should not be made to feel welcome by anyone in the White House,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “Such an overture would only serve to legitimize his long record of conspiratorial and hateful views toward Jews. We hope that the administration will make it clear that Farrakhan and his anti-Semitic organization will find no supporters in the White House.”

Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter at @aidenpink.

Aiden Pink is the Deputy News Editor for the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO