WASHINGTON (JTA) — The two Jewish Democrats who want to know how TruNews got into a 2018 news conference with President Donald Trump might also want to give AIPAC a call.
After the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported Tuesday that Reps. Ted Deutch of Florida and Elaine Luria of Virginia were calling on the White House to condemn and shun TruNews, its founder, Florida pastor Rick Wiles, wrote to suggest that JTA ask AIPAC why it had granted the site press credentials. Wiles last month called the impeachment inquiry against Trump a “Jew coup” and is known for his anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
JTA asked the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and sure enough, TruNews was accredited to the powerhouse pro-Israel lobby’s 2018 annual conference.
“Among the hundreds of media outlets that received credentials last year, this outlet received them,” an AIPAC official told JTA. “However, this outlet will not receive press credentials in the future.”
In a video posted to the TruNews YouTube channel on Nov. 22, Wiles made the “Jew coup” comment and said that Jews also will “kill millions of Christians” after they overthrow Trump.
At the news conference last year, TruNews asked Trump about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
A White House spokesman, responding to a JTA inquiry, said that TruNews was not permanently credentialed to the White House and would not comment as to whether it would be allowed in going forward.
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