What to Know
- Anabelle Lima-Taub posted a petition calling for the removal of Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib – saying she proudly signed it.
A South Florida commissioner has come under fire – with some groups calling for her resignation – after posting comments on social media alleging that one of two Muslim congresswomen elected this year might “blow up Capitol Hill."
Anabelle Lima-Taub, who was elected to the Hallandale Beach commission in 2016, posted a petition calling for the removal of Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib – saying she proudly signed it and called Tlaib an anti-Semite with “no place in government."
"She is a danger and (I) would not put it past her to become a martyr and blow up Capitol Hill,” Lima-Taub added in the post, which was removed sometime Monday.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that several members of the city’s commission condemned the post, but did not ask for an apology or for Lima-Taub, who is Jewish, to be disciplined. The Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations is calling for an apology and the commissioner to resign.
"Holding a public office comes with great responsibilities. Xenophobic stereotypes shall not be embraced by any elected official," communications director Wilfredo Ruiz wrote in a statement. "Her un-American, xenophobic statements establish that she is unfit to hold the Commissioner’s seat."
In a phone interview with NBC 6 on Tuesday, Lima-Taub said she was standing by her words.
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"I urge anyone that was offended by it, especially some of the self-righteous colleagues that I have, to research and Google BDS, Google Hamas, Google Hezbollah, Look up CAIR and look up Rashida Tlaib’s affiliations with these groups," Lima-Taub said.
Tlaib has been a lightning rod for conservatives after the Democrat made a comment the night of her inauguration in which she said she would help the party "impeach the motherf---er" in referring to President Donald Trump.
Lima-Taub was in the spotlight earlier this year for a heated argument with former Hallandale Beach Mayor Keith London involving her family’s business – with London later apologizing for comments about "sphincter bleaching” directed toward Lima-Taub.
