WATCH: Rachel Maddow Follows Up on Haaretz Report of RNC 'Hate Group' Trip to Israel
Republican National Committee trip to Israel organized by the American Family Association has stirred controversy, leading to the firing of one of the group's leaders.

Haaretz's Debra Nussbaum Cohen sat down with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow to talk about the impact of her article about a controversial planned trip to Israel by Republican National Committee members paid for by the American Family Association (AFA)
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On the segment, Maddow broke the news that Bryan Fischer, the organization’s long-time director of issue analysis, has been fired.
“It does seem surprising that at this juncture, at this moment, he would be fired,” said Nussbaum Cohen on the show, noting that “he’s been around for a long time, saying essentially the same things.”
In the past, he has said that black people “rut like rabbits” that the US is “a Christian nation and not a Jewish or Muslim one” calling gay activists “jack-booted homo-fascist thugs,” and depicting Islam as “an Ebola virus that is lethal and deadly.”
Such statements have led to the AFA being described as a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center organization.