The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) kicked Daily Caller News Foundation reporter Jennie Taer out of a media event at its Washington, D.C. office on Friday morning.
CAIR, a Muslim advocacy group, on Friday hosted a “coalition of interfaith groups” to “appeal to President Biden for immediate action to stop the ongoing violence and threats against civilians in Palestine and Israel and pursue negotiations for a lasting peace in the Middle East.” Taer, who is Jewish, reports on immigration issues for the DCNF and received a media invitation from CAIR on Thursday notifying her of the event; Taer informed CAIR by email that she would be attending the event that day.
While Taer was initially allowed into the building where the event was being held, a man then attempted to usher her out after she mentioned she reported for the DCNF. The man then threatened to call the police. (RELATED: Israeli Soldiers Found Babies Beheaded By Hamas, IDF Says)
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“I literally RSVP’d,” Taer can be heard saying on the video. “Wait, I’m not going to be allowed in? I’m with the Daily Caller.”
A man tried to usher Taer out of the main entrance, and another man in a suit with a red tie came out of the building and ordered her to leave. An attendee squeezed by the two men and Taer as she asked to be allowed into the conference.
“Wait. I can’t come in? I’m media!” Taer said in the video, as the two men closed the main entrance and ignored her request to be let in. “I’m a Jewish reporter, you won’t let me in to cover this?”
Taer approached the main door with her camera, and the man in the suit and red tie re-entered the passageway where she was standing.
“Please, leave,” the man said, repeating the phrase an additional four times while Taer demanded to know why she would not be allowed to enter the media conference as a reporter.
“It’s only for legitimate media,” the man replied.
“I am legitimate media!” Taer replied.
“Can you please leave, or I will call the police,” the man replied, while holding open the exterior door and motioning for Taer to exit.
“Ok, well then let me ask my question to you here,” Taer answered. “Is Hamas a terrorist organization?”
The man in the suit and red tie then turned around and re-entered the building without answering the question, closing the door in Taer’s face. Taer re-asked the question as he struggled to open the locked door, but he did not answer the DCNF reporter or make eye contact with her.
“Is Hamas a terrorist organization?” Taer demanded. “You can call the police on me, fine!”
When the DCNF asked CAIR to comment on how it had treated Taer, the organization confirmed it had kicked Taer out of its building.
“Your employee did not receive pre-approval to attend the press conference, and upon revealing that she is an employee of The Daily Caller, she was asked to leave our property solely because of The Daily Caller’s long history of bias, anti-Muslim rhetoric, and anti-Palestinian extremism,” CAIR told the DCNF.
“We do condemn and have repeatedly condemned all actors, organizations and governments that engage in terrorism, including Hamas, we condemn the horrific violence against civilians in Israel last weekend, and we condemn the Israeli government’s long-lasting human rights abuses against Palestinian civilians, including its ongoing medieval siege and mass bombing of apartment buildings schools, mosques, churches, ambulances, and UN-run shelters in Gaza,” CAIR added.
CAIR also barred a Daily Caller reporter from attending the group’s press conference in 2012.
“The Daily Caller is not a news outlet, it is a hate group. You cannot come in,” CAIR communications director Ibrahim Hooper previously told The Daily Caller reporter.
CAIR declined to apologize for how it had treated Taer.
Update: In a letter from CAIR’s Deputy Executive Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, sent to the DCNF after publication, he reiterated CAIR’s claim that “your employee was asked to leave after identifying herself as an employee of the Daily Caller because she is an employee of the Daily Caller” and denied that Taer’s religion was the cause of her ejection.
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