A spokesman for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s campaign condemned former Women’s March, Inc. chair Linda Sarsour in an Aug. 18 statement, saying Sarsour doesn’t have a part in the Biden campaign.
Jewish Insider reported that earlier in the day, Sarsour was featured on the Muslim Delegates and Allies Assembly’s virtual panel at the Democratic National Convention (DNC). Sarsour said during the panel that the Democrat Party is “our party,” prompting President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign to claim on Twitter that Sarsour’s “extreme bigotry is welcomed by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.”
Anti-Semite Linda Sarsour, who supports the Israel-hating BDS movement which boycotts Jewish-owned businesses, says the Democrat Party “is absolutely our party.”
Her extreme bigotry is welcomed by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. pic.twitter.com/fWWbcztI3B
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) August 18, 2020
Andrew Bates, director of Rapid Response for the Biden campaign, said in a statement to CNN’s Jake Tapper, “Joe Biden has been a strong supporter of Israel and a vehement opponent of anti-Semitism his entire life, and he obviously condemns her views and opposes BDS [boycott, divestment and sanctions], as does the Democratic platform … she has no role in the Biden campaign whatsoever.”
Bates also noted the Democrat Party platform stance on Israel: “We oppose any effort to unfairly single out and delegitimize Israel, including at the United Nations or through the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement, while protecting the Constitutional right of our citizens to free speech.”
Additionally, a Democrat Party official told Tapper that the panel on which Sarsour was speaking “was a meeting of Muslim delegates to the convention room and not run by the DNC or the Biden campaign.”
Biden campaign spokesman @AndrewBatesNC says regarding Sarsour being on this call: “Joe Biden has been a strong supporter of Israel and a vehement opponent of anti-Semitism his entire life, and he obviously condemns her views and opposes BDS, as does the Democratic platform…. https://t.co/GR4ATJTf0p
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) August 19, 2020
“… She has no role in the Biden campaign whatsoever."
A Dem official says this was a meeting of Muslim delegates to the convention room and not run by the DNC or the Biden campaign.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) August 19, 2020
3/ Bates points to this in DNC platform: “We oppose any effort to unfairly single out and delegitimize Israel, including at the United Nations or through the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement, while protecting the Constitutional right of our citizens to free speech.”
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) August 19, 2020
A Democratic Party official also told The Daily Beast that “caucus and council chairs come up with their own programming and select their own speakers.”
Sarsour later tweeted to Bates, “Just came here to remind you that you need a coalition to defeat Donald Trump and that Muslim Americans are an important voter bloc in key states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Virginia, Texas, Pennsylvania & I know a little something about how to organize them.”
.@AndrewBatesNC, just came here to remind you that you need a coalition to defeat Donald Trump and that Muslim Americans are an important voter bloc in key states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Virginia, Texas, Pennsylvania & I know a little something about how to organize them.
— Linda Sarsour (@lsarsour) August 19, 2020
Tamika Mallory, another former Women’s March, Inc. chair, also spoke during a DNC Black caucus meeting calling for justice for Breonna Taylor, according to The Daily Beast. Mallory and Sarsour stepped down from the Women’s March, Inc. in July 2019 following “accusations of anti-Semitism, infighting and financial mismanagement,” The Washington Post reported at the time. The Democratic National Committee dropped its partnership with the Women’s March in January 2019 “over anti-Semitism concerns.”
