House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Thursday declined to condemn the anti-Semitic remarks made by his uncle, whom he had previously defended in a college op-ed that recently came to light. Instead, Jeffries simply stated that he does not hold any of the contentious opinions expressed by his relative.

In the recently unearthed college op-ed from 1992, Jeffries also defended notorious anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan, who has referred to Jews as “termites” – and that’s on of the nicer things he’s said.

“I think I’ve made clear consistently that I do not share any of the controversial views that were expressed by my uncle more than three decades ago,” Jeffries said Thursday.

In the college paper, Jeffries had defended his uncle, Leonard Jeffries, who had claimed that “rich Jews” were responsible for the slave trade and said there was “a conspiracy, planned and plotted” by Jews to portray black people in a bad light.

Jeffries had previously claimed that he had “vague” recollections of his uncle and that he never reviewed his speeches. The college op-ed strongly suggests otherwise.

In the same paper, Jeffries defended Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

“Dr. Leonard Jeffries and Minister Louis Farrakhan have come under intense fire,” Jeffries wrote. “Where do you think their interests lie?”

His uncle, Jeffries wrote, “has challenged the existing white supremist [sic] educational system and long standing distortion of history.”

“His reward has been a media lynching complete with character assassinations and inflammatory erroneous accusations,” he added.

Jeffries also wrote that condervative black people were similar to “house Negroes” – black people who work in slaveowners’ homes on plantations.

“The House Negro of the slavery era and the Black conservative of today are both opportunists interested in securing some measure of happiness for themselves within the existing social order,” he claimed.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)