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Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) joined CNN’s “State of the Union” with Dana Bash to discuss recent moves by House Republicans to remove her from her committee assignment on the House Foreign Affairs Committee for previous antisemitic remarks while in Congress.
“What Republicans are saying about you is that there is a pattern of antisemitic and other controversial statements that make you unfit to sit on, in your case, the House Foreign Affairs Committee,” Bash said. “I’m told that Republicans presented a list in their meeting, in their private meeting this past week.”
“Included in that list, you said that Israel hypnotized the world. You said Israel is an apartheid regime. You said that politicians with pro-Israel stances were all about the Benjamins, which you very notably apologized for, that you support the BDS movement, which a lot of people think is rooted in antisemitism, compared the U.S. and Israel to Hamas and the Taliban,” the CNN host explained, as reported by Breitbart. ‘I want to give you a chance to respond to all of that.”
“I might have used words at the time that I didn’t were trafficking in antisemitism. When that was brought to my attention, I apologized. I owned up to it. That’s the kind of person that I am. I continue to work with my colleagues and my community to fight against antisemitism,” she claimed. “Now, I’ve never compared or made any comparisons. What I was referencing was a case that was in front of the [International Criminal Court] and if they want to debate political differences, that’s something we should all have the opportunity to do so.”
“But to smear someone, their character, their love for their country, and the work that they get to do on a committee, is wrong,” the congresswoman argued. “It is politically motivated and in some cases is motivated that many of these members don’t believe that a Muslim, a refugee, an African should even be in Congress let alone have the opportunity to serve on the Foreign Affairs Committee.”
WHITE HOUSE STEPS IN TO SAVE ILHAN OMAR WHO’S DESPARATE TO KEEP HER COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENT AS MCCARTHY CONTEMPLATES REMOVAL
Bash then pushed Omar to ask if she was calling McCarthy racist to which she responded: “I mean, I’m not making any accusations, I’m just laying out the facts.”
This is even though Omar, just this past week, sent a tweet that called her removal from the House Foreign Affairs Committee to be “racist, xenophobic and discriminatory.”
When asked about what she learned about antisemitic tropes after she previously apologized for some of her comments, Omar claimed she learned “a lot.”
“I certainly did not or was not aware that the word hypnotized was a trope. I wasn’t aware of the fact that there are tropes about Jews and money,” the Minnesota congresswoman said. “That has been a very enlightening part of this journey. To insinuate that I knowingly said these things when people have read into my comments to make it sound as if I have something against the Jewish community is so wrong.”
Omar is grasping at straws in an attempt to defend her previous statements. Anyone can see through her charade and House Republicans have every right to remove her from her committee.
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Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) joined CNN’s “State of the Union” with Dana Bash to discuss recent moves by House Republicans to remove her from her committee assignment on the House Foreign Affairs Committee for previous antisemitic remarks while in Congress.
“What Republicans are saying about you is that there is a pattern of antisemitic and other controversial statements that make you unfit to sit on, in your case, the House Foreign Affairs Committee,” Bash said. “I’m told that Republicans presented a list in their meeting, in their private meeting this past week.”
“Included in that list, you said that Israel hypnotized the world. You said Israel is an apartheid regime. You said that politicians with pro-Israel stances were all about the Benjamins, which you very notably apologized for, that you support the BDS movement, which a lot of people think is rooted in antisemitism, compared the U.S. and Israel to Hamas and the Taliban,” the CNN host explained, as reported by Breitbart. ‘I want to give you a chance to respond to all of that.”
“I might have used words at the time that I didn’t were trafficking in antisemitism. When that was brought to my attention, I apologized. I owned up to it. That’s the kind of person that I am. I continue to work with my colleagues and my community to fight against antisemitism,” she claimed. “Now, I’ve never compared or made any comparisons. What I was referencing was a case that was in front of the [International Criminal Court] and if they want to debate political differences, that’s something we should all have the opportunity to do so.”
“But to smear someone, their character, their love for their country, and the work that they get to do on a committee, is wrong,” the congresswoman argued. “It is politically motivated and in some cases is motivated that many of these members don’t believe that a Muslim, a refugee, an African should even be in Congress let alone have the opportunity to serve on the Foreign Affairs Committee.”
WHITE HOUSE STEPS IN TO SAVE ILHAN OMAR WHO’S DESPARATE TO KEEP HER COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENT AS MCCARTHY CONTEMPLATES REMOVAL
Bash then pushed Omar to ask if she was calling McCarthy racist to which she responded: “I mean, I’m not making any accusations, I’m just laying out the facts.”
This is even though Omar, just this past week, sent a tweet that called her removal from the House Foreign Affairs Committee to be “racist, xenophobic and discriminatory.”
When asked about what she learned about antisemitic tropes after she previously apologized for some of her comments, Omar claimed she learned “a lot.”
“I certainly did not or was not aware that the word hypnotized was a trope. I wasn’t aware of the fact that there are tropes about Jews and money,” the Minnesota congresswoman said. “That has been a very enlightening part of this journey. To insinuate that I knowingly said these things when people have read into my comments to make it sound as if I have something against the Jewish community is so wrong.”
Omar is grasping at straws in an attempt to defend her previous statements. Anyone can see through her charade and House Republicans have every right to remove her from her committee.
You Can Follow Sterling on Twitter Here