Washington – Dems Defend Omar After Trump Retweets Video Against Her

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    Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., sits with fellow Democrats on the House Education and Labor Committee during a bill markup, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)Washington – Top Democrats on Saturday rushed to defend Rep. Ilhan Omar after President Donald Trump retweeted video that was edited to suggest she was being dismissive of the significance of the worst terrorist assault on U.S. soil.

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    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi scolded Trump for using the “painful images of 9/11 for a political attack” against the first-term Minnesota Democrat.

    And presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, campaigning in New Hampshire, accused Trump of “trying to incite violence and to divide us, and every political leader should speak out against that.”

    The video Trump retweeted Friday pulls a snippet of Omar’s recent speech to the Council on American-Islamic Relations in which she described the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center as “some people did something,” and includes news footage of the hijacked planes hitting the Twin Towers. Trump also tweeted, “WE WILL NEVER FORGET!”

    Omar’s remark has drawn criticism largely from political opponents and conservatives who say the lawmaker, one of the first Muslim women to serve in Congress, offered a flippant description of the assailants and the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

    Neither Trump’s tweet nor the video included her full quote or the context of her comments.

    Omar told CAIR in Los Angeles that many Muslims saw their civil liberties eroded after the attacks, and she advocated for activism.

    “For far too long we have lived with the discomfort of being a second-class citizen and, frankly, I’m tired of it, and every single Muslim in this country should be tired of it,” she said in the March 23 speech, according to video posted online. “CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.”

    CAIR was founded in 1994, according to its website, but its membership skyrocketed after the attacks.

    Many Republicans and conservative outlets expressed outrage at Omar’s remarks. Fellow Democrats, including some who have disagreed with Omar in the past, defended her.

    “First Member of Congress to ever describe terrorists who killed thousands of Americans on 9/11 as ‘some people who did something,'” tweeted Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas. The retired Navy SEAL lost his right eye in 2012 in an explosion in Afghanistan.

    “Here’s your something,” the New York Post blared on its cover beneath a photograph of the flaming towers.

    Pelosi, who was in Germany visiting U.S. troops Saturday, said in a statement that “the memory of 9/11 is sacred ground” and should always be discussed “with reverence.” The California Democrat said it is wrong for Trump to “fan the flames to make anyone less safe.”

    Omar didn’t appear to be backing down.

    She tweeted a quote from President George W. Bush, who said days after the attacks: “The people — and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!”

    “Was Bush downplaying the terrorist attack?” Omar tweeted. “What if he was a Muslim.”

    Several of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates condemned Trump’s tweet.

    Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, said the Republican president’s tweet was an “incitement to violence” against Omar, who is Muslim-American, and others like her. O’Rourke, campaigning in South Carolina, likened the tweet to Trump’s rhetoric about Mexicans, described in the past by Trump as murderers and rapists. O’Rourke said “there is a cost and there is a consequence” to Trump’s comments.

    Warren, a Massachusetts senator, said Republican leaders in Congress “cannot take a pass on this, cannot look the other way and pretend it isn’t happening. It is happening. And those who don’t speak out in the Republican leadership are complicit in what he is doing. It’s wrong.”

    Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar noted that a New York man recently was charged with threatening Omar’s life.

    “The video the president chose to send out today will only incite more hate,” Klobuchar said. “You can disagree with her words — as I have done before — but this video is wrong. Enough.”

    Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said Omar “won’t back down to Trump’s racism and hate, and neither will we.”

    Omar repeatedly has pushed fellow Democrats into uncomfortable territory over Israel and the strength of the Jewish state’s influence in Washington. She apologized for suggesting that lawmakers support Israel for pay and said she isn’t criticizing Jews. But she refused to take back a tweet in which she suggested American supporters of Israel “pledge allegiance” to a foreign country.

    Her comments sparked an ugly episode among House Democrats after they responded with a resolution condemning anti-Semitism and the measure became a broader declaration against all forms of bigotry.


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    15 Comments
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    PaulinSaudi
    PaulinSaudi
    4 years ago

    People are being silly. Our political debate is coarsened.

    triumphinwhitehouse
    triumphinwhitehouse
    4 years ago

    She is Obama’s Talmud muvhak and hives mach nachas to her prime supporter soros

    4 years ago

    Trump’s angry that she didn’t honor “7/11”, more like KKKrump the orange yutz!

    4 years ago

    Hate speech directed at Omar is far more deserved that the floods of hate speech against Trump. So far, Omar has accomplished zero for America. No one can honestly say that for Trump, even if disagreeing with some of his policies. The narrative that Trump has any part of racism is a myth and is unsupported by any evidence whatsoever. Omar has displayed nothing but hate until now. The Dems make a huge mistake by defending her or attacking Trump’s reaction. I hope the voters will speak at the ballot box and give these Dems the thrashing they deserve. Vote them all out of office.

    puppydogs
    puppydogs
    4 years ago

    I don’t understand stand why this anti semite is so upset? so some people said some nasty things about her.

    Frumsanity
    Frumsanity
    4 years ago

    She doesn’t sound too bright….a matter of time until she becomes a liability even to those extreme dems

    Mark Levin
    Mark Levin
    4 years ago

    More awesomeness by POTUS!!

    Of course the Democrats are defending her. They’re happy about 9/11.

    zelmo
    zelmo
    4 years ago

    Omar or any other Government official for that matter, should never minimize the deaths of US civilians at the hand of terrorists. She should apologize for her remarks and not claim she is being singled out for being black or Muslim or female.
    The NY Post got it right and so did Trump! Anyone defending Ms. Omar should have to answer if they agree with her categorization of 9/11.

    Yitzi1
    Yitzi1
    4 years ago

    This is absurd. This crazy lady has some nerve. She sits in Congress and says anti American and anti semitic rhetoric. All that President Trump did was to retweet her remarks. He is not to blame here. Shame on the Democrats for defending her on something like this.

    puppydogs
    puppydogs
    4 years ago

    The party of slavery and the KKK is showing their true colors. Sad