WaPo's Dana Milbank explains how MAGA and 'the Trump playbook' have fueled Rashida Tlaib's disgusting antisemitic bigotry

We’ve got good news and bad news.

The good news is that left-wing Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank is willing to do what few other left-wing columnists are willing to do and call out Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib for her blatant and disgusting antisemitism.

The bad news is that he can’t do it without attempting to draw a moral equivalency with the MAGA contingent:

Those who believe in the promise of a multicultural America must call out anti-Semitism from all sources, whether it's (as usual) from Trump and his White supremacists, or, in this case, from Rashida Tlaib. https://t.co/rrufp0pZOf

— Dana Milbank (@Milbank) August 9, 2021

The bulk of Milbank’s piece contains examples and denunciations of Tlaib’s antisemitism. That’s all his piece should’ve been. This stuff was decidedly unnecessary and actually quite pathetic.

Here’s how it begins:

It’s a classic Trump move: Blame a minority group for a sinister conspiracy, then deny responsibility when your supporters act on your baseless claim.

…

Few have been victimized by Donald Trump’s hateful tactics more than Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), who with other members of “the Squad” were told by Trump to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”

So why is Tlaib now using the Trump playbook against others?

And how it concludes:

But more than dumb, it’s repugnant. Tlaib, who is of Palestinian descent and a Muslim, knows what it’s like to be the target of bigotry. Practicing the same against Jews furthers nobody’s cause but Trump’s.

You know what else is repugnant, Dana? Trying to shoehorn “the Trump playbook” into a discussion of Rashida Tlaib’s bigotry. Claiming that Rashida Tlaib has been victimized by Donald Trump. Rashida Tlaib was a rabid antisemite before Donald Trump ever ran for president, and, barring some miracle, she’ll remain one until she takes her last breath.

Milbank had the opportunity to unequivocally condemn Rashida Tlaib’s antisemitism and he blew it.

Rashida Tlaib regularly uses age-old anti-Semitic tropes because of MAGA? This is insidious version of "GOP pounces." The progressive left had been normalizing Jew baiting long before Trump. It's repugnant that Milbank can't just say it. https://t.co/gvDIe7RB3B

— David Harsanyi (@davidharsanyi) August 11, 2021

Milbank should’ve just placed the blame for her antisemitism squarely on Tlaib. If he was going to piss off her minions like this, he might as well have gone full-throttle by doing it:

Rashida Tlaib did and said absolutely nothing wrong!

— Ms. Pinky Stanseski (@undergradwoman) August 10, 2021

For the umpteenth time, attacking Israel is not anti-Semitism.

— jeff scheiner (@joschein) August 12, 2021

Dana, equating BDS with anti-semitic violence is just crooked.

— JMTanzer (@jmtangerine) August 10, 2021

Good lord this is a load of nonsense. See here: https://t.co/ZDGNKiAUDg

— Yousef Munayyer (@YousefMunayyer) August 10, 2021

This is made-up garbage ☝🏽

If you're interested in facts, here are the facts:
https://t.co/4uVpjuBPZd

— Jamal Alsayyed (@jalsayyed) August 11, 2021

This article is more an example of Dana Milbank's racism towards the Palestinians than it is Rashida Tlaib's anti-semitism. As a Jew I can still see that the was we treat our black citizens and the way Israel treats the Palestinians is cut from the same cloth.

— Eliot Rosewater (@SteveSchindler9) August 10, 2021

Nothing wrong with provoking the ire of leftist antisemitic bigots. But invoking Donald Trump to do it is intellectually lazy at best and makes it very difficult for us to take Milbank even a little bit seriously.