Pressed to condemn Louis Farrakhan’s anti-Semitic remarks during a Monday appearance on “The View,” Women’s March co-president Tamika Mallory refused.
After cohost Meghan McCain listed several of Farrakhan’s anti-Semitic statements, Mallory said, “I don’t agree with many of Minister Farrakhan’s statements.”
“Do you condemn them?” McCain asked.
“I don’t agree with these statements,” said Mallory.
After McCain noted she “[wouldn’t] condemn it,” Mallory replied, “No, no, no, no.”
“To be very clear,” she said, “it’s not my language, it’s not the way that I speak, it is not how I organize. And I think it’s very clear after 20 years of my own personal activism, my own personal track record, who I am, and that I should never be judged through the lens of a man. That is actually not what this women’s movement is supposed to be about.”
The contentious exchange began when Sunny Hostin gave Mallory an opportunity to explain why she posted a photo with Farrakhan and captioned it by calling him “the GOAT” (short for “greatest of all time”).
Women's March's @TamikaDMallory defends calling @LouisFarrakhan the "greatest of all time"
"I didn’t call him the greatest of all time because of his rhetoric I called him the greatest of all time because of what he’s done in black communities."
Clip: https://t.co/EVqlZ61it8 pic.twitter.com/OJGHdBbQUb
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) January 14, 2019
“I didn’t call him the greatest of all time because of his rhetoric. I called him the greatest of all time because of what he’s done in black communities,” Mallory claimed, after patting herself on the back for “go[ing] into difficult spaces” as an activist.
“That work is not easy for everyone to understand, but it’s certainly work that I’m committed to,” she contended.
Confronted by McCain with allegations from a recent Tablet Magazine report about rampant anti-Semitism in their organization, Mallory and co-president Bob Bland insisted the story was false. “The people that the journalist spoke to did not tell the truth,” Bland said.
“The Women’s March unequivocally condemns anti-Semitism, bigotry,” she added.
“Do you condemn Farrakhan’s remarks about Jewish people?” McCain asked.
“Yes, and we have repeatedly in statement after statement this year, which are available directly on our website for people to read,” Bland asserted, right before Mallory declined to condemn Farrakhan’s statements when pressed by McCain to do exactly that.
Watch the full video here.
