House members want extremist pastor’s White House media credentials revoked after rant calling Trump impeachment a 'Jew coup'
Rick Wiles, the far-right Christian fundamentalist pastor and radio host who founded TruNews, has a long history of bigotry — and that includes a lot of anti-Semitism to go with his anti-Islam, anti-gay and anti-feminist views. Regardless, Wiles has enjoyed media credentials in the Trump White House, but two Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives want those credentials revoked.
Wiles’ anti-Semitism was much in evidence in a video that was posted on TruNews’ YouTube channel on November 22. In the video, Wiles claimed that Jews are behind efforts to impeach President Donald Trump: Wiles described Trump as the victim of a “Jew coup” and claimed that Jews will “kill millions of Christians” after they succeed in removing the president from office.
YouTube banned TruNews’ channel from its video-sharing platform following Wiles’ anti-Semitic rant. And Rep. Ted Deutch of Florida and Rep. Elaine Luria of Virginia, in a letter sent to Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney on Monday, asserted that Wiles should be banned from all White House media events.
“As members of Congress,” Deutch and Luria’s letter reads, “we are committed to combating and preventing anti-Semitism and hatred of all kinds. We believe that this requires a whole-of-government approach, including public statements by our national leaders to consistently and firmly reject anti-Semitic ideas, language and violence.”
In their letter to Mulvaney, Deutch and Luria go on to say of TruNews, “An extremist website that frequently attacks Jews and other minorities has no place in the White House. President Trump and other officials in this administration should publicly condemn these anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and make clear that anti-Semitism will not be tolerated by this White House, including from its supporters.”
Founded in 1998, TruNews (formerly America Freedom News) has been promoting hate in the name of Christian fundamentalism for 21 years. Wiles described President Barack Obama as the United States’ “jihadist in chief,” and he has said that the “Jewish mafia” was behind the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
Although he considers himself a Donald Trump supporter, Wiles is highly critical of the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump — who is a convert to Judaism (her father was raised Presbyterian), and who Wiles has described as a “Kabbalah-practicing evil woman whispering evil things in the ear of her father.”
