Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) appeared to freak out when confronted by a Fox News reporter on Wednesday about an Islamic Al-Quds Day rally in the district she represents.
Tlaib, who is a Palestinian-American known for her strongly anti-Israel views, refused to comment on the rally where attendees were heard chanting “Death to America” and comparing the U.S. to Nazi Germany.
At International Al-Quds Day Rally in Dearborn, Michigan Protesters Chant “Death to America!”; Speakers at the Rally: America Is One of the “Rottenest Countries” on Earth; Israel Is ISIS, Nazis, a Cancer pic.twitter.com/B6hMlaKfi5
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) April 7, 2024
Fox News reporter Hillary Vaughn attempted to get Tlaib’s view on such chanting, pushing the Congresswoman to act angrily and accuse Fox News of being “Islamaphobic.”
Here is a transcript of the exchange:
VAUGHN: Congresswoman Tlaib?
TLAIB: I don’t talk to Fox News! I don’t talk to Fox News!
VAUGHN: At a rally in your district people were chanting ‘Death to America’, do you condemn…
TLAIB: I do not talk to Fox News!
VAUGHN: But do you condemn chants of ‘Death to America’?
TLAIB: I don’t talk to people that use racist tropes.
VAUGHN: Why can’t you just say whether or not you condemn people chanting ‘Death to Amer…’ Why are you afraid to talk to Fox News?
TLAIB: Fox News is not, not, listen to me, using racist tropes towards my community is what Fox News is about and I don’t talk to Fox News.
VAUGHN: Is ‘Death to America’ racist?
TLAIB I don’t talk to Fox News.
VAUGHN: Is chanting ‘Death to America’ racist?
TLAIB: Talk about your guys’ racist tropes. You know, you guys know exactly what you do. And I know you’re ‘Islamophobic’, but you guys gotta go deal with it on your own self, you’re not gonna use me.
Rashida Tlaib REALLY doesn’t want to talk to Fox News! pic.twitter.com/7HAXXn7SKR
— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) April 11, 2024
Last November, the Hosue of Representatives voted to censure Tlaib over a statement she released in the wake of the October 7th attacks in which she accused Israel of being an apartheid state:
I grieve the Palestinian and Israeli lives lost yesterday, today, and every day. I am determined as ever to fight for a just future where everyone can live in peace, without fear and with true freedom, equal rights, and human dignity. The path to that future must include lifting the blockade, ending the occupation, and dismantling the apartheid system that creates the suffocating, dehumanizing conditions that can lead to resistance.
The failure to recognize the violent reality of living under siege, occupation and apartheid makes no one safer. No person, no child anywhere should have to suffer or live in fear of violence. We cannot ignore the humanity in each other. As long as our country provides billions in unconditional funding to support the apartheid government, this heartbreaking cycle of violence will continue.
Since then, Tlaib has doubled down on her position by displaying a Palestinian flag outside her office and refusing to answer questions about atrocities carried out by Hamas.
In February, Tlaib also urged her constituents to vote against Joe Biden in the Michigan Democratic primary over his lukewarm support for Israel, advice which they followed in surprisingly large numbers.
“It is also important to create a voting bloc, something that is a bullhorn, to say, ‘Enough is enough,'” she said at the time. “We don’t want a country that supports wars and bombs and destruction. We want to support life. We want to support life. We want to stand up for every single life killed in Gaza.”
