Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabrti, cheered Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) on Thursday for her recent antisemitic remarks about pro-Israel Americans, crediting her for encouraging Democrats to boycott the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
Last month, Omar angered Jews and Democratic Party leaders by claiming AIPAC bribed members of Congress to support Israel. AIPAC does not endorse, or donate to, politicians. She was forced to apologize for that remark — but refused to apologize for subsequent antisemitic statements suggesting that pro-Israel Americans owed “allegiance to a foreign country.”
Chakrabarti, who accompanied Ocasio-Cortez to Capitol Hill after running a political funding scheme that critics say may have violated campaign finance rules, retweeted a tweet by the radical anti-Israel organization, IfNotNow, a fringe Jewish organization that has supported Omar throughout the controversy over her bigoted remarks.
IfNotNow had tweeted its delight that no Democratic candidate for president in 2020 is attending AIPAC’s annual conference next week:
In response, Chakrabarti tweeted that the Democrats’ apparent boycott of AIPAC was the “direct result” of Omar’s “leadership” and “courage.” He did not mention that her attacks on AIPAC were antisemitic, and that she had been forced to apologize for them.
Omar retweeted Chakrabarti’s tweet, indicating a lack of remorse.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.