White House adviser Omarosa Manigault said she has a “good relationship” with Minister Louis Farrakhan, adding that she’d be open to meeting with him in an official capacity. (Images courtesy of Getty Images and Eurweb)
Trump White House adviser Omarosa Manigault just did something no one in President Obama’s administration would’ve ever dared do.
During an interview with Chicago’s WVON 1690 Thursday, May 4, Manigault expressed her willingness to sit down and meet with Nation of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan. She was responding to a question from morning show hosts Maze Jackson and Charles Thomas, who asked if the White House would be open to meeting with Farrakhan after Manigault stressed the importance of Black leaders being willing to have a dialogue with President Donald Trump.
“I think that any in your audience would know that I have never shied away from having an open and, I believe, a good relationship with Louis Farrakhan and so I would look forward to receiving that invitation and sitting down with him,” she said.
Thomas called Manigault’s statement “revolutionary,” to which she responded, “My history reflects that I’ve marched, walked, advocated and fought, even before I got into this office, for the rights of those who don’t have a voice and for those who can’t fight for themselves. I have a spiritual obligation to fight for those who Christ described as the least of these.”
The declaration left many stunned, especially since the nation’s first Black president was pressured to denounce Farrakhan and his endorsement of Obama. Even members of the former POTUS’ administration likely would have denounced Farrakhan, despite his good standing with Black Americans.
However, moves by the previous administration and Black leaders like Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) to distance themselves from the minister didn’t stop Manigault from declaring her willingness to sit down with him.
Such a proposal from the White House director of communications sent leaders of the Anti-Defamation League into a tizzy.
“Louis Farrakhan should not be made to feel welcome by anyone in the White House,” ADL director Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “Such an overture would only serve to legitimize his long record of conspiratorial and hateful views toward Jews. We hope that the administration will make it clear that Farrakhan and his anti-Semitic organization will find no supporters in the White House.”
The ADL went on to describe the minister as a “virulently anti-Semitic and racist leader.”
In its digital publication, “The Final Call,” the Nation of Islam fired back at the human rights organization, arguing that the interview wasn’t about Farrakhan supporters like Manigault in the White House but rather about pertinent issues facing the Black community and what’s best for it.
“If the topic is Black issues, Black people and the White House, where does the ADL fit in? Nowhere,” the NOI wrote. “Except the paternalistic, Zionist group continues to act as though today’s Blacks are the same as our ancestors bought and sold by Jewish slavers during the darkest times of our history. We don’t belong to you anymore.”
With the proposition now out there, it’s unclear whether Manigault will follow through or rescind her proposal before it becomes a larger issue.
Minister Farrakhan responded kindly to Omarosa’s openness to a meeting on the Cliff Kelley radio show Tuesday, May 9, saying he was proud of the sister. As far as meeting with Trump, Farrakhan spoke in both religious and nationalist terms, stating, “God gives a directive both to Moses and Aaron … go you both to Pharaoh, I have given you both an authority.”
“You don’t need to send people to talk to Mr. Trump who don’t know what time it is,” he said, “but if there should come a time that I should talk to the modern pharaoh, I know exactly what to ask for. I am not asking for Negro tidbits, I’m asking for what God wants: [a] land of our own and a good send off after we have given you 400 years of our sweat, blood and tears.”
