WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton’s closest aide, Huma Abedin, is catching heat for dismissing the American Israel Public Affairs Council as “that crowd” in a newly revealed email exchange.
In a 2009 email to Bill Clinton aide Doug Band, Abedin recommended that former President Clinton turn down an invitation to speak before the pro-Israel lobbying group.
“U really want to consider sending him into that crowd?” Abedin asked.
The email exchanges were unearthed by The Daily Caller, which reported various Jewish leaders have taken offense to the “that crowd” reference as open hostility to Israel and its allies.
“Appalling,” Morton Klein, national president of the Zionist Organization of America, told the conservative news website. The reference “shows hostility toward Jews and Israel in light of the fact that ‘that crowd’ gives huge ovations to White House speakers.”
It was Hillary Clinton herself who spoke at the next AIPAC conference in 2010.
She and Donald Trump both delivered major speeches to the group in March. Bill Clinton has previously addressed AIPAC as president in the 1990s.
It’s unclear from the email exchange what drove the reluctance.
The email exchange started with Band writing Abedin that Bill Clinton was hesitant to attend the AIPAC forum that year.
“Aipac begging for wjc to come speak at conference. He doesn’t think he should unless you all do,” Band wrote to Abedin and Cheryl Mills, Hillary’s former chief of staff.
Mills said it was up to Hillary and she would check with the secretary of state.
Meantime, Abedin wrote: “U really want to consider sending him into that crowd?”
Band pressed for an answer: “Go or not go?”
Abedin responded: “No go to aipac.”
Huma Abedin – AIPAC emails by Citizens United on Scribd
