A regional director for South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg tweeted support for Nation of Islam several times from 2010-2013, Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) reports.
Deven Anderson, who was hired as Buttigieg’s regional organizing director in Columbia, S.C. on Aug. 27, tweeted in April 2010 that he attended one of Farrakhan’s sermons. During that sermon, Farrakhan said that the banks weren’t lending money because they were printing money “next to the Holocaust Museum” and accused Jews of being “crooked. You can walk with a Jew, but you can’t walk with me. I believe in Jesus, but they don’t.”
Anderson tweeted positively about Farrakhan more than 20 times in the 2010-2013 timeframe, including a couple of tweets about “watching the Honorable Louis Farrakhan speak,” according to the Washington Free Beacon, which first reported on the story.
Additionally, Anderson tweeted out an article in 2013 featuring a letter from Alice Walker to Alicia Keys attempting to dissuade the latter from performing in Israel that year, per the Free Beacon.
“It would grieve me to know you are putting yourself in danger (soul danger) by performing in an apartheid country that is being boycotted by many global conscious artists,” Walker wrote. “You were not born when we, your elders who love you, boycotted institutions in the US South to end an American apartheid less lethal than Israel’s against the Palestinian people.” She later added that “various boycotts of Israeli institutions and products” are “our only nonviolent option.”
Anderson also introduced Buttigieg at the opening of the campaign’s Columbia field office on Sept. 16:
Remember that Buttigieg staffer who repeatedly praised Farrakhan AND attended an anti-Semitic Farrakhan sermon? He actually introduced Buttigieg LAST WEEK at an event in SC.
His account is private now.https://t.co/l0Cd0w89lk
— Cameron Cawthorne (@Cam_Cawthorne) September 25, 2019
Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action Agenda at the Simon Wiesenthal Center Rabbi Abraham Cooper said in a statement to the Journal, “The American Jewish Community assumes that Presidential candidate Mayor Pete Buttigieg has zero tolerance for anti-Semitism and bigotry. As such, he should take action to deal with a regional campaign aide who expressed admiration for America’s godfather of anti-Semitism, Louis Farrakhan.”
The Buttigieg campaign did not respond to the Journal’s request for comment. Anderson’s tweets are currently protected.
Buttigieg has received the most money from Jewish donors in the Democratic presidential primary field, according to the Forward. Buttigieg has criticized the Palestinian leaders for being “the right kinds of [peace] partners” and denounced Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) for comparing Israel to Iran in January. In July, Buttigieg declared, “The [Israeli] occupation must end.” Buttigieg has faced criticism for meeting with Rev. Al Sharpton in April who was accused of “inciting or exacerbating the 1991 Crown Heights riots with anti-Semitic rhetoric,” per the Forward.
