U.S. President Donald Trump attacked Rep. Rashida Tlaib on Monday morning for her previous comments on the Holocaust, saying she has “tremendous hatred of Israel.”
Tlaib, a Democratic representative, said in a recent podcast interview that she supported a one-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.
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She also described her thoughts on the Holocaust, and what it had to do with Palestine.
“There’s kind of a calming feeling I always tell folks when I think of the Holocaust, and the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the fact that it was my ancestors, Palestinians, who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence in many ways, have been wiped out, and some people’s passports,” Tlaib said Friday, according to CNN.
“I mean, just all of it was in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews, post-the Holocaust, post-the tragedy and the horrific persecution of Jews across the world at that time, and I love the fact that it was my ancestors that provided that, right, in many ways. But they did it in a way that took their human dignity away, right, and it was forced on them.”
Trump called the comments “horrible and highly insensitive” and said she “obviously had tremendous hatred of Israel and the Jewish people.”
But Tlaib defended her comments on Twitter Sunday night, saying her words were being twisted.
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Other Republicans have also criticized her comments, and the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations called them “grossly anti-Semitic” and ignorant.
In a statement, her office re-iterated that Tlaib called the Holocaust a tragedy.
“The Congresswoman did not in any way praise the Holocaust, nor did she say the Holocaust itself brought a calming feeling to her,” spokesman Denzel McCampbell said in a statement.
Other critics have called for Democratic leaders to “take action” against anti-Semitism in their ranks — referencing recent remarks from Tlaib’s colleague, Ilhan Omar.
Omar came under fire earlier this year after tweeting suggestions that members of Congress were being paid by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to support Israel.
*with files from Jane Gerster