Chuck Hagel’s Secretary of Defense nod seems to be back on track, but the Senator’s latest endorsement is one he never asked for and probably doesn’t want in the first place.
National Review reports that the controversial Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan recently praised Hagel during his annual address at the Saviours’ Day convention on Sunday in Chicago, Illinois.
Farrakhan praised Hagel for standing up to the “Jewish lobby,” something that Republican senators opposed to his nomination have been using to demonstrate why they believe he is unfit to be Defense Secretary.
Mediaite reports that Farrakhan even compared himself to Hagel, empathizing with him over all the criticism he has gotten lately.
“Senator Hagel is in trouble. But America needs a man in Congress like that, who’s not a rubber stamp for others,” Farrakhan argued.
“You need a man like Senator Hagel as your secretary of defense because a man with a mind like that will keep you out of fighting somebody else’s wars. You need a man in government that has another opinion that is not controlled, and if the Senate does not confirm him as defense secretary because of his opinion on Israel, that only proves that the Senate in the U.S. Congress is controlled by the Israeli lobby. And it also sentences America to war with Iran for the state of Israel.”
Do you think Louis Farrakhan’s comments will help Chuck Hagel snag the Secretary of Defense seat?