A February 3 report from The Daily Beast stated that a progressive Democrat congresswoman agreed to adopt anti-Israel positions as part of a deal to avoid being challenged in a primary.
According to the report, Representative Marie Newman (D-IL), who was elected to the House of Representatives in 2020, is currently facing an ethics complaint in the House over allegedly agreeing to a contract with Columbia College Chicago Humanities Professor Iymen Chehade, a Palestinian-American. Emails from October 2018 obtained congressional investigators reportedly show that Newman and Chehade signed a contract to give Chehade a six-figure salary as a foreign policy adviser to Newman. Newman later backed off the agreement after concluding that Chehade wasn’t right for the job; Chehade then sued her. Eventually, both sides settled and signed non-disclosure agreements.
The report also states that the emails between Newman and Chehade show that Chehade laid out conditions involving Newman committing to opposing aid to Israel, refusing to accept funding from groups that support “Israel’s Zionist or colonial project” and supporting Palestinian statehood. Those conditions were not part of the final contract agreement, but The Daily Beast concluded that Newman’s “voting record and public positions have, in fact, closely mirrored Chehade’s listed anti-Israel demands. She has cosponsored multiple pro-Palestinian statehood bills, including one that would provide “congressional disapproval of the proposed direct commercial sale to Israel of certain weaponry and munitions. Newman was also one of only eight Democrats to vote against a bill in September to provide $1 billion for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.” However, Jewish Insider reported that Newman has pointed out in deposition that she did not support Chehade’s demands for a one-state solution, nor does she support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Ben Hardin, Newman’s campaign manager, told The Daily Beast, “The only people who influence Rep. Newman’s work in Congress are her constituents.” Chehade was simply one of The Daily Beast’s reporters to “go work for a better news organization.” Chehade is currently running for Congress in a separate House district.
Matt Fuller, one of the reporters on the story, tweeted that one of the defenses of Newman is that such quid pro quos are common, a claim he rejected. Another defense is that Newman adopted the right policy positions. “No, even if you agree with her positions, it is not good,” Fuller contended.
Seeing a couple common defenses of Newman, so let me address them:
– ‘This happens all the time.” No, it doesn’t.
– ‘I agree with the positions she took, therefore, it’s good.’ No, even if you agree with her positions, it is not good.
Hope this helps!https://t.co/Ngv59DjOd1
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) February 3, 2022
Rolling Stone magazine reported that the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) initial investigation concluded that there is “substantial reason” to believe that “Rep. Newman likely was motivated to enter the agreement to avoid competing against Mr. Chehade in the next Democratic primary,” though it stopped short of saying that she violated House rules. The matter will be investigated further. The Rolling Stone report also stated that Newman’s defense is that she needed Chehade’s expert opinion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, although Rolling Stone found sources close to her campaign who said that she already had connections to experts on the conflict and didn’t need Chehade’s input. The Rolling Stone report also noted that Newman flip-flopped on the conflict several times during the 2018 campaign.
Hardin defended his boss in a statement to Rolling Stone, calling the allegations that Newman bribed a potential primary opponent as being “without merit” and stemming from “a right-wing organization with a history of using this tactic against Democrats all over the country.” “As sometimes happens, Mr. Chehade and Marie had a disagreement that led to a lawsuit in 2021,” he said. “The two settled the lawsuit amicably last year and agreed to move forward together in a productive manner. Democrats should view this as exactly what it is—a tactic out of the right-wing playbook to manufacture a scandal.” Rolling Stone also quoted various progressive groups doubling down on their endorsements of her, as they were grateful that she unseated Representative David Lipinski in 2020, who was one of the last remaining pro-life House Democrats.
John Sexton wrote in the conservative blog Hot Air, “How the OCE could possibly decide there was no violation here despite the email spelling out the quid pro quo is a mystery to me, but strange things happen in Washington, DC.”
