Louis Farrakhan Gives Chuck Hagel The Endorsement He Never Asked For Or Wanted
This latest endorsement may not be too much a help to Chuck Hagel. Conservative magazine The National Review is reporting that Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan singled out Hagel for praise during his annual address at the Saviours’ Day convention Sunday in Chicago, Illinois.
Farrakhan discussed Hagel’s controversial “Jewish lobby” comments that Republican senators have been using to demonstrate why their former colleague is unfit to be Defense Secretary. Farrakhan even went so far as to compare himself to Hagel, showing empathy for the criticism he has been receiving. His comments follow below:
“Now look, Senator Hagel is hated by the Jews because he wrote in his book that the United States Senate, quote, is an institution that does not inherently bring out a great deal of courage. Most of the time members play it safe and adopt an ‘I’ll support Israel’ attitude. AIPAC comes knocking with a pro-Israel letter and then you’ll get 80 to 90 senators signing on it. I don’t think I’ve ever signed one of the letters. Hagel said, if he’s ever asked why, he would respond, ‘I didn’t sign the letter because it was a stupid letter. The Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here, but I’m a United States Senator, I’m not an Israeli senator.’
“Now wait. He said this to Aaron David Miller in the book The Much-Too-Promised Land. And guess what? I said the same thing 30 years ago at the National Press Club in Washington, and they have not left me alone since. Special interests along with Zionist AIPAC are robbing America of the principle of democracy and representative government. The record is there. Now, 30 years later, after beating the heck out of me for all those years, they’re finally getting up enough courage to tell it like it is.
“Senator Hagel is in trouble. But America needs a man in Congress like that, who’s not a rubber stamp for others. You need a man like Senator Hagel as your secretary of defense because a man with a mind like that will keep you out of fighting somebody else’s wars. You need a man in government that has another opinion that is not controlled, and if the Senate does not confirm him as defense secretary because of his opinion on Israel, that only proves that the Senate in the U.S. Congress is controlled by the Israeli lobby. And it also sentences America to war with Iran for the state of Israel.”
If Farrakhan was really trying to help Hagel’s confirmation chances, his best bet would probably been to have said nothing at all.
—
