Ex-House Democrat: Tlaib and Omar Posting Cartoon From Holocaust Denier Plays Right Into Trump’s Hands

Former Congressman Steve Israel (D- NY) said Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar shouldn’t be playing into the president’s hands when he criticizes them on Israel.

Andrea Mitchell brought up the press conference the two congresswomen are set to hold today, bringing up President Donald Trump‘s tweets and asking Israel, “Does this divide the caucus or does this rally the caucus around them?”

{It’s clear that this entire thing say tactic by President Trump,” Israel said. “He wants to make three or four people the face of the Democratic Party, despite the fact that the vast majority, maybe 95 percent of Democrats in the caucus fundamentally disagree with them on things like BDS and condemn their anti-Semitic comments.”

He added, “When they do the stuff that they’ve done, you know, calling for a boycott of Bill Maher, as they did this weekend, and retweeting an anti-Semitic Holocaust cartoon, they play right into Donald Trump’s hands and they give him a victory that he should not have.”

Maher went on a rant against the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement and called it a “bullshit purity test.” Tlaib responded and remarked, “Maybe folks should boycott his show.” Omar retweeted criticisms of Maher, including Tlaib’s tweet.

The cartoon Tlaib and Omar shared was by an artist who came in second in the 2006 Iran Holocaust Cartoon Contest:

Oof. Looks like both Rep. Omar and Rep. Tlaib shared this awful Carlos Latuff cartoon in Instagram stories yesterday. In 2006, Latuff came in second in Iran's International Holocaust Cartoon Contest, which is a thing that exists, in case you thought the TL couldn't get any worse. pic.twitter.com/uwyBPAsz7T

— Batya Ungar-Sargon (@bungarsargon) August 18, 2019

You can watch above, via MSNBC.