Screenshot from Twitter. Dov Hikind, a Democrat assemblyman in New York who is retiring after this year, released a video on Twitter criticizing Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) for appearing onstage with Linda Sarsour at a rally protesting Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Hikind began the video by listing out some of Sarsour’s past statements, including her showing support for Rasmea Odeh, who was convicted by an Israeli court of a 1969 Jerusalem supermarket bombing that killed two college students, and saying that “nothing is creepier than Zionism.”
“Sen. Gillibrand, I know you,” Hikind said. “I know you stand for the principles that make America great. I know that you are a person who does not accept any kind of racism and anti-Semitism. But senator, you cannot sell out the principles that you have always lived by simply because you want to be president and you have to appeal to people on the extreme left.”
Hikind added, “When it comes to racism and anti-Semitism, there is no compromising.”
The outgoing assemblyman then gave a pointed message to the media, stating that the media is responsible for helping create “a new generation of anti-Semites and racists” on both sides of the aisle when they fail to expose and shame racism and anti-Semitism.
“A racist, an anti-Semite, needs to be ostracized, condemned,” Hikind said. “Period.”
Racism on the left = Racism on the right. You can’t tolerate racism & antisemitism from ANYONE. Period. pic.twitter.com/fSJjjIeXjz
— Dov Hikind (@HikindDov) October 10, 2018
Sarsour introduced Gillibrand at an Oct. 6 rally during Kavanaugh’s confirmation vote. Sarsour called Gillibrand “another champion, another one of our people who works for us on the inside.”
Gillibrand previously praised Sarsour and the other Women’s March leaders – Tamika Mallory, Carmen Perez and Bob Bland – in a 2017 piece in Time. Gillibrand called them “extraordinary women” who “are the suffragists of our time.”
Anti-Defamation League (ADL) CEO Jonathan Greenblatt criticized Sarsour, Mallory and Perez for their associations with Louis Farrakhan in March 2018.
Gillibrand’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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