U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) meets supporters after a town hall meeting at the Church of the New Covenant-Baptist on December 22, 2016 in Detroit, Michigan. Ellison, a candidate to lead the Democratic National Committee, spoke at the church where his brother Brian is a pastor. Image by Getty Images

An interview between CNN’s Jake Tapper and Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison about the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold President Trump’s travel ban grew test after Tapper confronted the congressman over his past support for the anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

“You’ve been decrying President Trump’s bigotry,” Tapper began. “Obviously you used to follow somebody who continually expressed sexist, anti-LGBTQ, and anti-Semitic bigotry.”

“I would disagree with that,” Ellison said. “I agree that [Farrakhan is a bigot]… I don’t have any support for what the individual you just mentioned stands for, nor do I agree with Trump’s bigotry either.”

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Ellison guessed that Tapper’s accusation was from when he “sort of said something one time” that may have sounds like support for Farrakhan, to which Tapper replied, “You were a follower of Farrakhan, sir.”

Ellison reiterated that it’s not true, and Tapper pointed out that The Washington Post‘s fact-checkers gave Ellison “four Pinocchios” back in March for claiming that he had no relationship with Farrakhan.

Ellison then accused Tapper of bringing him on the show to prove a relationship to Farrakhan and assert that Ellison has “no moral standing to decry bigotry,” an accusation Tapper denied several times between defensive remarks from Ellison.

“Farrakhan said in 2016 that you met with him in his hotel suite in Washington, D.C.,” Tapper persisted.

“I have denied this because it is not true,” Ellison responded. “But here I am on your show having to talk about this when the Supreme Court just upheld what the president said was a Muslim ban from the very beginning. And so now I have to defend myself when that is not what the context of this discussion is about at all, Jake.”

Ellison wrote several articles in support of Farrakhan in the 1990s, but denounced the preacher and his group when Ellison first ran for Congress in 2006. Ellison, the deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is now running for Minnesota Attorney General.

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount