GOP Senate candidate says Palestinians are 'acting like animals'

Josh Mandel, a Republican candidate for an Ohio seat in the U.S. Senate, said on Friday that the Palestinian people were “acting like animals” and that they were “from a fictional land.”

Mandel also called for Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) to be deported and described Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) as “the spokesman for Hamas.”

Mandel made the comments during an appearance on “War Room,” an online show hosted by former Donald Trump campaign manager Steve Bannon during a discussion about recent violence in the Middle East.

“They’re acting like animals in the Middle East, they’re acting like animals in the streets of L.A.,” said Mandel. “Make no mistake, the ‘Palestinian people,’ this is a people from a fictional land, there’s no such thing as Palestine, it’s made up, it doesn’t even exist.”

Mandel also said, “Ilhan Omar hates America, I think she should be deported,” regurgitating an old conservative slander that she married her brother. Rep. Omar has called the allegation “absolutely false and ridiculous.”

The candidate also falsely claimed that Omar is in a leadership position on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. While Omar is on the committee, she is not its chair.

Mandel said Tlaib has “essentially become the spokesman for Hamas.”

Mandel’s attack on Omar echoes Donald Trump, who in 2019 said that Omar, along with other Democratic congresswomen of color, should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came.”

Omar is an American citizen and has been for more than half of her life. She emigrated to the United States from Somalia, escaping the civil war there, and obtained citizenship in 2000.

Mandel previously served as Ohio’s treasurer from 2011 to 2019. In 2012, he lost a challenge to incumbent Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.

Mandel has a long history of connections to bigotry and extremism.

In his failed Senate campaign, he refused to return a contribution from would-be Ohio politician Rich Iott, who enjoys dressing up as a Nazi to reenact World War II battles, calling the financial transaction a “nonissue.” In 2017 he criticized the Anti-Defamation League for a report naming conservative activists who had links to white nationalists.

From the May 21 edition of “War Room: Pandemic”:

STEVE BANNON, host: I believe that the radical left, the people that support, the cultural Marxists that support critical race theory, trying to jam it into our military, jam it into our schools, I think this is now spinning out of control, and it’s getting to be very, very dangerous.

 

What say you, sir?

 

JOSH MANDEL: Well, it is spinning out of control and the main reason is the Democrat Party has legitimized and normalized them.

 

Ilhan Omar hates America, I think she should be deported, I think she cheated and lied on her immigration forms, she lied about marrying her brother, get her out of the United States.

 

Rashida Tlaib, she’s essentially become the spokesman for Hamas.

 

Hamas is a terrorist organization, it’s not some legitimate organization, it’s not a governmental organization, it’s a terrorist organization. But the Democratic Party, instead of pushing these people out, they empower them, they make Omar, put her in a leadership position on Foreign Relations and so – what message does that send to these Palestinians throughout the country, who are acting like animals? It gives them encouragement.

 

And they’re acting like animals in the Middle East, they’re acting like animals in the streets of L.A. Make no mistake, the quote-unquote Palestinian people, this is a people from a fictional land, there’s no such thing as Palestine, it’s made up, it doesn’t even exist.

 

And all these folks are doing is terrorizing innocent Christians and Jews throughout the Middle East, and now they’re terrorizing people on the streets of America as well.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.