Re: Your Attack on the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan
Date: April 21, 2010
On April 13 you went on the Senate floor ostensibly to pay tribute to Officer Billy Evans, a policeman who gave his life protecting federal lawmakers and visitors to Capitol Hill. Instead, you used such a solemn occasion to attempt to degrade the character of one of the most beloved leaders in the Black community, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, the National Representative of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
You also disparaged the Nation of Islam, an institution in America for over 90 years dedicated to freedom, justice and equality for Black and Brown and oppressed people all over the world.Your language was inflammatory and derogatory. Your fallacious diatribe was insulting and pointedly untrue.
›You said, “Investigators are still assessing what drove the perpetrator to attempt this attack on the Capitol and whether domestic violent extremism played a role. He appears to have been captivated by the Nation of Islam, a racist, anti-Semitic, extreme group under the openly hateful leader Louis Farrakhan”.
As you are well aware Minister Farrakhan has gathered over four million people in the nation’s Capitol from 1995’s Million Man March to the 20th anniversary of that march in 2015. Within the span of that 20 year period and 4 major marches, not one incident has ever been reported or recorded.
The Nation of Islam has no history of violence against the federal, state or local governments. Law enforcement agencies are well aware of our history. Some of America’s leading politicians, entrepreneurs, entertainers, and athletes have lauded Minister Farrakhan for his unmatched leadership, and the discipline of his followers.
However, on April 13 you went before the world and insidiously sought to lay the unfortunate death of Capitol Hill policeman at the doorstep of Minister Farrakhan and the faithful members of the Nation of Islam.
However, when you came under a vicious attack from former-President Donald Trump you couldn’t find your voice. Mr. Trump called you a “dumb son of a b……” and, “a stone cold loser”. Over a period of the last three months he has excoriated you publicly and privately. You did not respond once to Mr. Trump demeaning you before the world.
Not only that, he has also insulted your wife, former Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, and her family, prominent Chinese business leaders. Even Senator Ted Cruz defended his wife when Mr. Trump hurled a barrage of insults against the senator’s wife, insulting her physical attributes. However, you chose to remain silent and allowed your wife and her family to be abused.
You couldn’t find your voice when Mr. Trump insulted you, but instead you engaged in an unprovoked attack against Minister Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam.
What makes your actions so despicable is the potential harm your words can cause the Nation of Islam and Minister Farrakhan, or was that your intention?
For over 65 years Minister Farrakhan has worked tirelessly to improve the quality of life of the most downtrodden community in America and throughout the world. He has visited over 110 countries and has been received as a head of state in many of the nations he visited, he has had streets named after him. I am not aware of any other independent Black man who has done more than Minister Farrakhan has done to uplift the spirit of foreign leaders as well as the citizens of those nations around the world to uplift humanity as Minister Farrakhan has done. He has succeeded where any combination of social service agencies, politicians and their media stooges have failed. Min. Farrakhan’s preeminence and success among the Black and Brown masses has created a firestorm of resentment. Hence your concerted efforts to attempt to degrade him.
Your hatred of Minister Farrakhan is not just limited to him. You made a pact with your Republican colleagues in the House and the Senate, upon Barak Obama’s rise to become the 44th President of the United States of America, to make him a one-term president. So Minister Farrakhan is not the only Black man that you have hated, he’s only the latest.
Some of your fellow Republicans have not been as venomous as yourself. In fact, just the opposite has occurred. Not only have they defended him, some have befriended him. Among them are the late Jude Wanniski, and Jack Kemp, in addition to leaders in the Orthodox Jewish community, the Neturei Karta, under the leadership of Rabbi Dovid Weiss, and Rabbi Shlomo Mordechai Hager who presented the Minister with a silver plate identifying him as the Messiah, and Christian scholars like Michael Hoffman who have vigorously defended Minister Farrakhan.
Let’s begin with Jude Wanniski. Mr. Wanniski was a brilliant economist, former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, and Ronald Reagan, Steve Forbes and Jack Kemp’s chief economic advisor. He coined the phrase “supply-side economics,” a phrase that became the mantra of the Republican Party.
His book, “The Way The World Works,” was named one of the 100 most influential books of the 20th century by National Review magazine. However, one of the most distinguishing aspects of Mr. Wanniski’s life was his personal friendship with the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. Mr. Wanniski leveraged that relationship to introduce members of the Republican brain trust to the Minister.
In March of 1997 Mr. Wanniski fostered a dialogue between the Minister and those who had labeled him an anti-Semite. At his 13th annual gathering of Republican executives and investors, sponsored by the supply-side consultant at his Polyconomics Conference in Boca Raton, Florida, Mr. Wanniski had Minister Farrakhan address his gathering of Republican leaders that included Senator John Ashcroft, then-Representative John Kasich, Vice-Presidential nominee Jack Kemp and conservative syndicated columnist, television personality and author Robert Novak. Among the noted Democrats at the Boca Raton gathering was Senator Chris Dodd, UN ambassador, and former Governor of New Mexico Bill Richardson, and Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Li Daoyu.
According to Mr. Wanniski, Minister Farrakhan addressed the audience for 50 minutes on a Saturday morning, and answered questions for another 45 minutes. He said, on his website, Polyconomics, “The applause he (Farrakhan) received was the most sustained in the history of these events.
Of the several Jewish couples in attendance there was uniform agreement on what I have been advising for the last several months—that he seems a more complex and likeable man than they expected.” After the large group meeting Minister Farrakhan held small one-on-one meetings with the assembled leaders.
Congressman Jack Kemp, for his part, had been impressed with Farrakhan for some time. In a private meeting I had with Mr. Kemp in New York City in 1995 following the Million Man March, Kemp said of Minister Farrakhan’s speech, “I could have given that speech.”
On September 6, 1996 Mr. Kemp told the New York Times he wished he had been invited to speak at the Million Man March. According to the New York Times, “Jack Kemp has praised the Nation of Islam leader, Louis Farrakhan, for emphasizing black self-reliance and family values.”
In an article published in the Washington Post on March 6, 1997 titled, “Farrakhan and the GOP,” Robert Novak spoke of the respect then-Representative John Kasich had for Minister Farrakhan. Mr. Novak informed Mr. Kasich of Minister Farrakhan’s positive reaction to the speech Rep. Kasich had given at the conference.
He wrote, “Kasich was startled when his speech to a closed door audience was interrupted several times by standing applause from the Nation of Islam leader. As they shook hands afterward, the congressman was floored by Farrakhan’s kind words.” Novak ended his article by saying, “But if they ever got together, the political landscape would be transformed.” That speech was followed by Novak interviewing Minister Farrakhan on his CNN television program, Evans and Novak.
In light of the accolades that have been bestowed on him by your Republican predecessors, by Jewish religious readers and Christian scholars, your description of Minister Farrakhan is disingenuous, insulting, and fallacious. Your words insult the intelligence of his millions of followers, supporters and Believers around the globe. Your desire to demean and demonize him is beneath the dignity of the office you occupy.
I would respectfully request that you may want to reevaluate your position and study the actions taken by Jack Kemp, Jude Wanniski and other prominent Republicans who are sincerely interested in stemming the downward spiral this nation is experiencing and her lost of worldwide acclaim and prestige.
Maybe Minister Farrakhan can offer words of wisdom that could stem this downward spiral and global decline. I would advise you to listen to his Saviours’ Day message on February 25, 2020 called “The Unraveling of A Great Nation,” and especially his July 4, 2020 speech titled, “The Criterion.”
