President Biden is meeting Tuesday with the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), which includes several members with strong ties to outspoken anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan, on the same day he attended a memorial service for the Capitol Police officer who was killed by a 25-year-old Farrakhan supporter.
Noah Green, who identified himself as a “Follower of Farrakhan” and likened Farrakhan to “Jesus” on his Facebook profile, rammed his car into two police officers near the Capitol’s North Barricade earlier this month, killing U.S. Capitol Police Officer William “Billy” Evans, according to official accounts.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced last week that Evans would lie in honor Tuesday in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. Biden and several members of Congress attended the ceremony earlier Tuesday.
Also on Tuesday, Biden will be meeting with members of the Congressional Black Caucus, several of whom have ties to the Nation of Islam leader.
Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-Texas, attended a Farrakhan sermon at Houston’s Muhammad’s Mosque No. 45 in 2006, where she praised Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam and said it has “always been on the forefront of leadership without embarrassment, shyness or apology.”
Farrakhan acknowledged her and said she “knows the struggle that the Black and Brown members of Congress have to influence that process.”
House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., who received backlash for sharing a stage with Farrakhan in 2011, told the Final Call, the Nation of Islam’s media arm, that he was “not bothered in the least bit” by the criticism and thanked Farrakhan for “offering up a number of precepts that we ought to adhere to.”
In 2000, Clyburn invited Farrakhan to attend a private gathering of Congressional Black Caucus members when he was the chairman of the caucus days before the Million Family March.
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Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock has also praised Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam. The Nation of Islam’s “voice has been important for the development of Black theology,” he said in a 2013 speech.
Jackson-Lee, Warnock and Clyburn are among the Democratic lawmakers confirmed to be attending Tuesday’s meeting. Other CBC members have ties to Farrakhan as well.
In 2006, Reps. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., Barbara Lee, D-Calif., and Al Green, D-Texas, all met with Farrakhan at a church in Louisiana. In a video that resurfaced in 2018 of the meeting, all three Democrats hugged Farrakhan and patted him on the back.
Farrakhan has a long history of espousing anti-Semitic rhetoric. He has described Adolf Hitler as a “very great man” and has repeatedly described Jewish people as “satanic.” He also led a “Death to America” chant during a solidarity trip to Iran in 2018.
In addition to the 2006 meeting with Farrakhan, Waters also attended the 2002 Saviours’ Day speech. Farrakhan gave her a shoutout, saying, “We have Maxine Waters here,” and told the crowd she was “Our great congresswoman from this area.”
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Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., also has long-standing ties to Farrakhan. While he has mildly distanced himself from Farrakhan recently amid backlash from Jewish groups, he called Farrakhan an “outstanding human being” in 2018 and said, “I personally know [Farrakhan], I’ve been to his home, done meetings, participated in events with him.”
The White House did not return a request for comment by press time.