Democrat congressional candidate Ammar Campa-Najjar deleted a tweet Tuesday in which he had complained about pork projects in the stimulus bill proposed Monday by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
Campa-Najjar recently qualified for the November general election in the heavily Republican 50th congressional district against retired Rep. Darrell Issa (R), who is running for the seat recently vacated by Rep. Duncan Hunter.
Hunter defeated Campa-Najjar in 2018, even while under federal indictment for corruption, after it emerged that Campa-Najjar is the grandson of a notorious Palestinian terrorist behind the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympic Games in Munich.
Campa-Najjar dissociated himself from his grandfather’s terrorist actions in 2018, but Breitbart News found that he had praised his grandfather in 2015 as a “legend.”
In the 2020 race, Campa-Najjar is attempting to pitch himself to the district’s conservative electorate. He praised President Donald Trump on Tuesday, for example, for supporting a ban on stock buybacks for companies receiving emergency relief funds currently under consideration in Congress.
But after Campa-Najjar singled out a $35 million grant in Pelosi’s proposal to assist the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., he took the tweet down without explanation. And Issa called him out:
.@ACampaNajjar almost had the courage to stand up to his own party, but then deleted this tweet. Must have received a call from @SpeakerPelosi. pic.twitter.com/SFAuSxkiO8
— Darrell Issa (@DarrellIssa) March 24, 2020
Campa-Najjar later posted a toned-down version of the same criticism, adding a suggestion about “gig workers”:
Instead of itemizing $35 million to the Kennedy Center when it’s closed until May 10th, the House bill should be helping provide relief to gig workers (like drivers) who have zero protections.
Let’s give Kennedy Center employees the same aid we’re giving every worker. pic.twitter.com/LvAgVGZCBI
— Ammar Campa-Najjar (@ACampaNajjar) March 24, 2020
He also appeared to respond on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon, accusing Issa of downplaying the coronavirus in past fundraising appeals:
You said “the left is manufacturing crisis“ over “outbreak of viruses” @DarrellIssa. You should apologize to the victims.
Now you want taxpayers to write a $500B check to big companies instead of putting #FamiliesFirst?
I’ll never turn my back on #CA50 like you did on #CA49. https://t.co/MSkij4JWJW pic.twitter.com/BEetefZOuW
— Ammar Campa-Najjar (@ACampaNajjar) March 24, 2020
Republicans combined for a majority of the vote in the 50th district in the primary.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
.
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.