The Democratic National Committee (DNC) renewed its push for Syrian refugees to be admitted to the United States on Thursday morning, less than 24 hours after the San Bernadino shooting. The two main suspects are Muslims, one originally from Pakistan. In a statement published Thursday, DNC chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)reports on a conference call held Wednesday, in which she and other Democrats bashed Republicans over the refugee issue, which they compared to Jews fleeing Nazi Europe.
The comparison has been debunked thoroughly, but Wasserman Shultz insisted on sticking to it.
“We have seen this movie before. In May 1939, the SS St. Louis left Hamburg, Germany carrying more than 900 passengers, nearly all of them Jewish and seeking refuge in the United States. Our country turned them away, and many who were sent back to mainland Europe were killed in the Holocaust. Instead of learning from that mistake – Republican candidates and politicians were eager to repeat it,” she said.
In addition, Wasserman Schultz blasted Republicans for criticizing radical Islam–for “demonizing an entire religion,” in her words.
“The sort of rhetoric we saw from candidates, whether it was Donald Trump calling for a database of Muslim-Americans, or Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) saying we need to shut down “not only mosques” but “cafes and diners,” where Muslims congregate in response to terror, was shameful, embarrassing, and dangerous,” she said. (Trump did not, in fact, call for a Muslim database.)
The DNC release was timed to upstage with a Republican Jewish Coalition forum for presidential candidates in Washington, DC.
Democrat strategist Jim Gerstein told the call: “The RJC attempts to drive a wedge between the parties on Israel, using Israel as a partisan issue, because it is all they’ve got. It is very clear that attempting to make Israel a partisan issue is bad for US/Israel relations, it is bad for Israel and it is bad for the American Jewish Community. Support for Israel is, and must remain, bipartisan.”
