Republican attorney general candidate Doug Wardlow is calling on Democratic opponent Keith Ellison to condemn the recent comments made by known anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan.
“I’m not anti-Semite. I’m anti-termite,” Farrakhan said during a recent speech. His comments quickly spread on social media after Twitter announced that Farrakhan was not in violation of the company’s policies, which will soon bar “dehumanizing” language.
Ellison, who is currently in a tight race for Minnesota attorney general, has never quite been able to escape his past support of Farrakhan, whom the Minnesota Democrat once called a “model for black youth.” Ellison also participated in the Million Man March and was a member of Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam, but disavowed the group when he first ran for Congress in 2006.
“I have long since distanced myself and rejected the Nation of Islam due to its propagation of bigoted and anti-Semitic statements and action,” he wrote in a 2006 letter, characterizing his affiliation with the group as a youthful mistake.
Ellison, however, has been spotted with Farrakhan several times since then, including as recently as 2016 when he met with Farrakhan privately.
As a result, Wardlow is now calling on Ellison to condemn Farrakhan’s most recent remarks, saying that “Ellison’s silence on the issue of prejudice and bigotry should be eye-opening for everyone.”
“His association with Louis Farrakhan, a known anti-Semite who has called homosexuality ‘filth’ and interracial marriage ‘evil,’ shows an appalling lack of judgment,” Wardlow said in a recent press release. “These facts, along with Keith Ellison’s radical views and the credible domestic-violence allegations against him, demonstrate that he is unfit to be Minnesota’s top law-enforcement officer.”
Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz said Thursday that Ellison has a “special obligation” to condemn Farrakhan’s comments.
“People like Barack Obama participated in the March and proudly defended it. People like Keith Ellison, who worked closely with Farrakhan, these folks have a special obligation to condemn,” Dershowitz said in a Fox News interview.
The Ellison campaign has yet to acknowledge Wardlow’s press release, and didn’t immediately respond to The Minnesota Sun.
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of The Minnesota Sun. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
