Marco Rubio said Thursday he was “outraged” that the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee criticized him for attending a fundraiser at the home of a real estate developer who has Nazi art — including two paintings by Adolf Hitler.
The Dallas Morning News reported that Rubio headlined a fundraiser at the Dallas home of Harlan Crow on Tuesday, which happened to be the start of Yom Kippur. Crow owns two paintings by Hitler and a signed copy of Hitler’s “Mein Kampf,” the Morning News reported. But Crow also owns an extensive collection of other historical items, most of which are not associated with Nazis, including first editions of books authored by Isaac Newton and Benjamin Franklin.
“There’s really no excuse for such a gross act of disrespect,” Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the head of the DNC, said in a statement Tuesday. Wasserman Schultz, who is Jewish, also called on Rubio to cancel the event, saying, “it is astounding that the presence of these items that represent horror for millions of Jews the world over would not stop Rubio or anyone on his team in their tracks when planning this event.”
But Rubio told Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly Thursday that Crow is not a Nazi sympathizer.
“I was outraged because this is a private citizen and individual who participates in the political process, (and) anyone who knows him for two seconds realizes he’s not a Nazi sympathizer,” Rubio said.
Rubio then said Wasserman Schultz’s support for the Iran nuclear deal was far worse than a collector’s holdings.
“Debbie Wasserman Schultz should be more concerned that she decided to side with her president, that she decided to side with her party and put Israel in danger,” Rubio said.