Tuesday on MSNBC, Havard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz dismissed the claim that there was proof Stephen K. Bannon, President-elect Donald Trump’s chief strategist and senior counselor appointee, was anti-Semitic, a claim critics across the media have made in recent days.
Dershowitz told network host Steve Kornacki that while he could not say definitely if Bannon was an anti-Semite, the evidence to say he was “is just not there.”
“Well first of all, a court filing – it was the testimony of his former wife,” he said. “Of course it’s in a court paper, but he disputed and contradicted it and said it never happened. From what I’ve heard, he wanted to send his kids to a Catholic school and that was a point of division between him and his former wife. Look, I don’t know if he’s an anti-Semite or not. I just don’t think you should toss that phrase around casually unless there is overwhelming evidence. There is a difference between three things. One, is he personally an anti-Semite? I have heard no evidence to support that. He has hired Joel Pollak, who worked with him for four years – who an orthodox Jew who is married to – has a mixed race marriage. He has been very positive towards Jews and toward Israel. So, that’s number one.”
“I think the evidence that he is an anti-Semite is just not there,” Dershowitz continued. “Number two, is has his paper becomes the actual vehicle for bigotry and number three, is he supported by bigots? Let’s turn to number three first. Yes, he is. But, to show you an analogy of Keith Ellison, who is a decent good person were to be appointed the head of the Democratic National Committee, Hamas would support it, would cheer and yell because he had some association with Farrakhan in the past. He’s made some statements about maybe that 9/11 was something … once he decided to run for Congress – of course, everybody knew Farrakhan was an anti-Semite. You can’t listen to him for two minutes without hearing him rail against the Jewish people. ”
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