ADL: Rep. Danny Davis Insists He Was Misquoted In Article Praising Farrakhan
Image by getty images
(JTA) — The Anti-Defamation League said an Illinois congressman told the group that he was misquoted in an article claimed that he had praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
An ADL official told JTA on Friday that the group had reached out to Rep. Danny Davis, a Democrat, after an article in The Daily Caller said he lauded Farrakhan on Monday as “an outstanding human being.” Farrakhan has called Jews “the enemy of God and the enemy of the righteous,” and said Jews were responsible for the 9/11 terror attacks and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the 20th century.
“The congressman was insistent that The Daily Caller misquoted him during the interview and that he didn’t subscribe to Farrakhan’s anti-Semitic statements and actions in the past,” the ADL official told JTA in a statement. “He expressed an interest in seeing some of the latest statements made by Farrakhan vis-a-vis Jews, which we promptly shared with him.”
The official said the ADL had shared information with Davis about Farrakhan’s anti-Semitic statements, and that the organization was waiting to hear back from him.
Davis’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment by JTA.
His comments follow the publication last month of a 2005 photo in which Barack Obama, then a U.S. senator from Illinois, appeared together with Farrakhan at a meeting of the Congressional Black Caucus. The photographer said he suppressed its publication at the request of a member of the Congressional Black Caucus who feared it might harm the rising political career of Obama.
Following the photo’s publication, the ADL called on Obama to denounce Farrakhan. The former president previously repudiated Farrakhan in 2008.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
