The Trump administration is declining to comment on efforts by a senior White House adviser to host a sit-down with the controversial Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
Omarosa Manigault, the former reality television star who now serves as an adviser to President Donald Trump, said late last week in a radio interview that she has a good relationship with Farrakhan, who has been condemned widely as a bigot and anti-Semite.
"I think any of your audience would know that I've never shied away from having an open, and I believe a good, relationship with Louis Farrakhan," Manigault was quoted as saying. "I would look forward to receiving that invitation and sitting down with him."
White House officials did not respond to multiple requests by the Free Beacon for comment on Manigault's position on Farrakhan. It remains unclear if others in the White House hold similar views.
The Anti-Defamation League, or ADL, condemned Manigault's remarks in a statement, saying Farrakhan should not be welcomed into the White House.
"Louis Farrakhan should not be made to feel welcome by anyone in the White House," said Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL's CEO, in a statement. "Such an overture would only serve to legitimize his long record of conspiratorial and hateful views toward Jews. We hope that the administration will make it clear that Farrakhan and his anti-Semitic organization will find no supporters in the White House."
Farrakhan has taken aim at the Jewish community repeatedly, claiming Jews are the "wicked ones" and that they "run America, run the government, run the world, own the banks, own the means of communication."
Jews "are my enemies," Farrakhan said in the weeks leading up to his 2015 Million Man March.