Rep. Charlie Crist (D), the former Republican governor of Florida, is expected to face a strong general election contest from either Republicans Anna Paulina Luna or Amanda Makki, and with the discovering that Crist received campaign donations from a national board member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Crist will now have to defend his voting record and the donations made by Manal Fakhoury.
According to OpenSecrets.org and the FEC, Fakhour, who has donated twice to Crist since 2010, has also been donating Democratic Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar.
In 1995, CAIR, who is said to have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, was listed as an “unindicted co-conspirator in a federal case in Dallas where it was discovered that the group was helping finance the terror group Hamas.
CAIR Florida has also allowed Rep. Omar a platform to espouse her controversial views and has been at the forefront of condemning President Donald Trump, and has gone as far as to call Trump a bigot.
“President Trump’s bigoted attempt to use American Muslims as a political football just before the holy month of Ramadan was as divisive as it was insulting.
“Mosques across our nation have already announced plans to remain closed indefinitely because the American Muslim community, unlike President Trump, recognizes the ongoing threat of the coronavirus.
“Furthermore, President Trump’s claim that American mosques — many of which have been protested, threatened, vandalized and even bombed in the years since he launched his first presidential campaign — receive preferential treatment compared to other faiths is an Islamophobic fantasy.
“Instead of fanning the flames of bigotry to distract the public from his own failures, the President should focus on combating the continued spread of the coronavirus.”-CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad
Another Florida Democratic member of Congress has also received donations from CAIR board members and controversial figures.
