Tapper: It's been "a real eye-opening period" about anti-Semitism on the Left

TAPPER: “You have a Democratic colleague from Michigan, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib. She’s the first Palestinian American woman to ever serve in Congress and she released a statement that said: ‘I grieve the Palestinian and Israeli lives lost. The path to peace must include lifting the blockade and ending the occupation and dismantling the apartheid system that creates the suffocating dehumanizing conditions that can lead to resistance. As long as our country provides billions in unconditional funding to support the apartheid government, this heartbreaking cycle of violence will continue.’ What was your reaction when you read Congresswoman’s Tlaib’s statement?”

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SLOTKIN: “Well, first of all, I handle my issues with other members of Congress privately. I have lots of private conversations. But I think for me, it shouldn’t be hard to condemn terrorists and terrorism. Right? And that doesn’t mean you don’t have beef with the Israeli government, right? Lots of people, we saw a fifth of the Israeli population had beef with the Israeli government, but it should be easy, especially with the details coming out, to condemn terrorism and terrorists, and Hamas is a terrorist organization, they do not represent all Palestinians. We shouldn’t connect those two. So, to me, I think that was the hardest part. Not just about that statement but a number of statements that have come out from organizations and individuals. I don’t question whether someone has the right to be angry at the Israeli government, I question their inability to condemn grievous, grievous violence and that’s what I think has been difficult.”

TAPPER: “There does seem to be — look, we spent a lot of time in — during the Trump years looking at anti-Semitism on the right. This does — these last few days have been a real eye-opening period for a lot of people. A lot of Democrats, a lot progressives, in terms of anti-Semitism on the left. A lot of people who seem more shocked at ‘dehumanizing language’ used by leaders to describe Hamas than what Hamas actually perpetrated on Saturday.”

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SLOTKIN: “Yeah, I mean, look, anti-Semitism should be stamped out wherever it is. On the right, or on the left. And we shouldn’t look more glowingly on it if it comes from our side. Right? So Republicans need to strongly condemn the grievous anti-Semitism that I’ve seen on their side and we need to absolutely go after anti-Semitism on the left. And that should just be a — it should just be a standard thing and not a political thing, whether you condemn it or not.”

TAPPER: “Democratic congresswoman Elissa Slotkin, thank you so much.”

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