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September 24, 2015 3:01 pm
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Democratic Iran-Deal Supporter Rails Over Rubio Fundraiser at Nazi Memorabilia Collector’s Library

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avatar by Eliezer Sherman

Senator Marco Rubio. Photo: Gage Skidmore.

Presidential hopeful Marco Rubio. Photo: Gage Skidmore.

After facing a backlash from pro-Israel supporters for standing behind President Obama’s Iran deal, Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) took GOP presidential hopeful Marco Rubio to task on Wednesday for a fundraiser he held at the Texas home of a collector of Nazi memorabilia.

To make matters worse for Rubio, the event at the home library of Harlan Crow — complete with signed paintings of Adolf Hitler and a copy of Mein Kampf — took place on the eve of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement.

Schultz castigated her state’s junior senator and 2016 presidential candidate, saying the timing of his fundraiser, (tickets for which cost $1,000-$10,800) marked “the height of insensitivity and indifference.”

Among Crow’s other historical artifacts are busts of communist leaders, such as Che Guevara and Vladimir Lenin, sketches by Abraham Lincoln and George Washington’s 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation.

Some took offense at the linking of Rubio’s fundraiser in any way to Nazis, other than as a point of interest, and several came to the defense of the host. Michael Ledeen, of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said, “Harlan Crow is about as pro-Hitler as [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu.”

In fact, Crow’s own mother was nearly killed when a Nazi U-boat torpedoed and sank the SS Athenia, the first British vessel sunk by the Germans in World War II.

Not surprisingly, the Republican National Committee rebuffed Schultz in a sharply worded statement to the Washington Free Beacon, deriding her support of the Obama administration’s widely unpopular nuclear agreement with the leaders in Tehran:

Rather than manufacture a false controversy over a collection of historic memorabilia that includes a statue of Margaret Thatcher and effects belonging to Abraham Lincoln, Debbie Wasserman Schultz should have opposed the weak Clinton-Obama Iran deal that puts Israel’s safety in jeopardy.

In spite of saying she “was never afraid to stand alone if necessary, to stand on principle,” when it came to backing the nuclear deal with Iran, Schultz ultimately threw her weight behind President Obama — a move that caused Democratic fundraiser Mike Moskowitz to say he was “sorely disappointed.” Florida, the state of both Wasserman Schultz and Rubio, is a battleground for the 600,000-plus Jewish population. Another Florida Congressman, U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, opposed the deal.

As for Rubio, he’s seen a slight bump in his standing at the polls over the past few weeks, reaching a RealClearPolitics average of about 9%, but still trailing far behind Donald Trump (24%) and Ben Carson (16.3%), and being about neck-and-neck with Carly Fiorina (11%).

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, even came to Rubio’s defense. In a statement to The Algemeiner from Jerusalem, he said, “Senator Rubio is a proven friend of Israel and a long time ally of the Jewish community … At this point hard to draw the conclusion that [Rubio’s] host is anything more than a memorabilia collector. Unless there is more information that indicates an ideological affinity to these genocidal tyrants available it is a non-issue.”

 

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