Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), the nation’s first Palestinian American congresswoman, stands accused of falsifying her address to run for a seat in the state legislature in 2008, and now more than 324,000 concerned citizens have signed a petition calling for “an investigation into her background” to “end her political career.”
“She lied,” Tlaib’s own father admitted in a recently unearthed local news article. “She lied big-time to get elected.”
Bye, Rashida!
The change.org petition calling for the freshman congresswoman’s ouster was initiated by a Florida-based activist using the name Mrs American Citizen. She accused Tlaib of lying “about living in Detroit using her fathers (sic) house address… using profanity and hate filled rhetoric against our country our citizens and our president,” and taking campaign contributions from “extremist organizations.”
“[S]he is unfit to serve in any capacity within our government because of her extreme bias,” the petition states.
Earlier this month, a Detroit News article from 2010 resurfaced, which makes the claim that Tlaib committed election fraud when she purposefully misrepresented her home address. She signed an election affidavit in 2008 with the Wayne County Clerk claiming to be a resident of Detroit, living on 9123 Rathbone Street.
Tlaib’s father, Harbi Elabed, is listed as the owner of the house on that property, however, and he told the newspaper that his daughter deceived Michigan voters.
“She lied,” Elabed told the newspaper “She lied big-time to get elected. I never teach her that way. I teach her the right way. It’s my house. She didn’t live there. She lived in Dearborn in her house with her husband and boy.”
Here’s the March 11, 2010, report in The Detroit News pic.twitter.com/rFe5lH0iLt
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) May 3, 2019
“Dearborn is not a part of the 12th House District that Tlaib was elected to represent,” the newspaper explained. “Residency issues are very difficult to prove. To become a candidate, you must be a “registered and qualified elector” of that district, according to state law. That means you must have your primary residence — the address on your driver’s license and where you’re registered to vote — in that district,” wrote journalist Charlie LeDuff.
Paper trail
Tax records indicate that Ms. Tlaib actually lived on Tireman Avenue in Dearborn, MI, a town of 100,000 residents considered by some to be “the Muslim capital of the U.S.” According to the Detroit News, however, “There is no law … saying that a person must spend any particular number of days, weeks or months at a certain location.”
Tlaib claimed that she separated from her husband in 2008 and moved in with her father and two brothers on Rathbone. However, after she was safely elected to Detroit’s 12th District in 2009, tax records indicate the Michigan politician moved back into her husband’s east side Dearborn home.
If Ms. Tlaib is convicted of perjury for falsifying an affidavit, she could could face up to 5 years in prison and be forced to pay up to $1,000 in fines. Her colleagues in the House may also decide to expel the congresswoman for committing a “criminal statutory offense which involved abuse of one’s official position.”
Back in 2010, Tlaib promised reporters that she could produce bills verifying her Detroit residence. However, as time passed “it does not appear that she ever provided those bills to the newspaper to validate her claims,” wrote Ryan Saavedra of Daily Wire.
Family feud
Elabed told the Detroit News that he came forward to tell the truth about his daughter because it was part of a “growing litany of transgressions that his daughter committed upon him — culminating in a dispute about care of his aged mother, who suffers from dementia.” Additionally, the congresswoman’s father said that Tlaib “sided against him and in favor of his nephew in a battle of custody, a complete breach of family values.”
“My sons told me blood is thicker than water and I should keep my mouth shut, so okay, I did,” Elabed said. “Then she crossed the line with her father. When she interferes in the father’s business, when she shows him no respect. This life in politics has changed her.”
Apparently, there are 325,000 Americans who feel the same way. It’s time to take a closer look at these allegations and hold Tlaib’s feet to the fire for what amounts to a very serious crime.
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