Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz, speaking with a radio station in the key swing state of Michigan, where a large community of Muslims has vitriolically condemned the state of Israel, criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while insisting “those folks who are speaking out loudly in Michigan are speaking out for all the right reasons.”
In an interview with Michigan outlet WCMU, Walz stated:
Well, I think first and foremost, what we saw on October 7 was a horrific act of violence against the people of Israel. They have certainly, and the vice president said it, I’ve said it, have the right to defend themselves, and the United States will always stand by that. But we can’t allow what’s happened in Gaza to happen. The Palestinian people have every right to life and liberty themselves. We need to continue, I think, to put the leverage on to make sure we move towards a two-state solution. I think we’re at a critical point right now. We need the Netanyahu government to start moving in that direction. But I think those folks who are speaking out loudly in Michigan are speaking out for all the right reasons.
The campaign for Republican Donald Trump called the remarks “sickening.”
SICKENING: Tampon Tim Walz says pro-Hamas radicals “are speaking out for all the right reasons” and calls to “put the leverage” on Israel to ensure Hamas terrorists live to see another day. pic.twitter.com/WYDZiX84PL
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 6, 2024
Democratic Presidential candidate Kamala Harris has already shown her contempt for the Jewish state, praising a student who cited false news reports about the Israeli war effort against Hamas, harshly criticizing Israel for not accepting an “immediate cease-fire” in March while Hamas consistently refused to accept terms, and threatening Israel not to go into the Hamas stronghold in Rafah, where Hamas later executed six hostages with bullets in the back of their heads.
In 2018, an event hosted by Minnesota’s Muslim American Society on Feb. 16, 2018, as The Washington Examiner reported, Walz praised a Hitler-promoting imam.
“I would like to first of all say thank you to Imam,” Walz said to Imam Asad Zaman, the Executive Director at the Muslim American Society of Minnesota. “I am a teacher, so when I see a master teacher, I know it. Over the time we’ve spent together, one of the things I’ve had the privilege of is seeing the things in life through the eye of a master teacher, to try and get the understanding.”
“That brings me to the second lesson that Imam taught me,” he continued. “I represent southern Minnesota in the United States Congress, and I’m not telling you anything new here, but Congress is a very broken place right now. It is a place that feeds on fear more than hope, it’s a place that feeds on division more than unity; it’s a place that feeds on trying someone to be the other than to be my brother. And I understood that, and I spent a lifetime making sure that all were welcome.”
“It was a lesson when imam told me to go speak to people,” he said. ‘I have pushed back through my whole career on the demonization of Islam, on the demonization of immigrants. … In this space, Imam Zaman is right on this, there is Islamophobia, there is a hatred that is being stirred.”
Walz has hosted Zaman at least five times, the Examiner noted. Those included May 2023 at Walz’s gubernatorial office; a May 2020 event; in April 2019, when the imam gave the invocation before Walz’s state address, and a May 2019 event that Walz hosted for Ramadan.
On October 7, as Hamas brutally massacred over 1200 Israelis, Zaman said he “stands in solidarity with Palestinians against Israeli attacks.”
“Zaman, meanwhile, has used his Facebook page over the years to share official Hamas press releases, blog posts on anti-Semitic websites slamming Jews, and, in one 2015 instance, a link to a piece on a website for a pro-Hitler film called The Greatest Story Never Told,” the Examiner pointed out.
RELATED: ‘Master Teacher’: Walz Praised Hitler-Promoting Imam, Cited ‘Time We’ve Spent Together’
