Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) fired back at Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D., Fla.) on Thursday for her insinuation that one of his donors was a secret Nazi.
"I was outraged because this is a private citizen—an individual who participates in the political process," Rubio told Fox News host Bill O’Reilly. "Anyone who knows him for two seconds knows he’s not a Nazi sympathizer."
Wasserman Schultz sent an email last week to supporters attacking Rubio for his plan to attend a fundraiser at the home of Dallas businessman and avid collector Harlan Crow.
"Today, as the sun is setting for Yom Kippur," Wasserman Schultz wrote, "Sen. Marco Rubio will hold a fundraiser in a home that features two paintings by Adolf Hitler, a signed copy of Hitler’s autobiography, Mein Kampf, and a cabinet full of place settings and linens used by the Nazi leader."
"Holding an event in a house featuring the artwork and signed autobiography of a man who dedicated his life to extinguishing the Jewish people is the height of insensitivity and indifference," Wasserman Schultz continued.
The attack backfired on Wasserman Schultz, not least because the dark insinuation at its core was ludicrous: Crow’s collection of historical artifacts is large and diverse.
Crow told the Dallas Morning News last year that his collection of items from tyrants—which include statues of communist mass murderers Josef Stalin and Mao Zedong—is "a historical nod to the facts of man’s inhumanity to man."
In a different interview, Crow said his collection was intended to "remind newer generations of the failure of the bad guys and the triumph of the good guys," who are represented in his collection by the Founding Fathers, President Ronald Reagan, and British Prime Ministers Thatcher and Churchill.
Crow’s family endowed the Trammell and Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art in the Dallas Arts District. Crow’s personal art collection contains works by modern artists considered degenerate by the Nazi regime.
Crow’s mother, Margaret, survived an attack by a Nazi U-boat during World War II.
Rubio contrasted Wasserman Schultz’s attack with her support for the Iran Deal—a policy choice, he said, that would harm the interests of Jews in the world.
"She is in favor of, and voted for, and is an enthusiastic supporter of this deal with Iran that will give the Iranian regime the opportunity to do things like wipe Israel off the face of the earth," Rubio said. "That’s what really matters, but she doesn’t care about that."
Rubio said he does not expect an apology from Wasserman Schultz.
"Don’t expect an apology," Rubio said. "They just move on and don’t feel like they’re accountable to anyone for it."