Progressive firebrand Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is demanding Nancy Pelosi and Kevin McCarthy “take appropriate action’ against far-right gun-toting Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) for her anti-Muslim comments.
Omar called out her fellow Congresswoman on Thursday night over a hate-laced story Boebert told in her home district during the Thanksgiving weekend that Omar says is fiction.
As Boebert told it, she was in an elevator in the Capitol building when a police officer ran in saying they were scared of Omar.
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"Well, she doesn’t have a backpack. We should be fine," Boebert recalled telling the cop—before calling her colleague a member of the “jihad squad” because she is Muslim.
After the video gained traction on Twitter, Omar responded, citing Boebert’s story as “made up.” “Fact, this buffoon looks down when she sees me at the Capitol, this whole story is made up. Sad she thinks bigotry gets her clout,” Omar wrote on Twitter. “Anti-Muslim bigotry isn’t funny & shouldn’t be normalized. Congress can’t be a place where hateful and dangerous Muslims tropes get no condemnation.”
On Friday, Omar followed up with another tweet: “Saying I am a suicide bomber is no laughing matter. @GOPLeader and @SpeakerPelosi need to take appropriate action, normalizing this bigotry not only endangers my life but the lives of all Muslims. Anti-Muslim bigotry has no place in Congress.”
Boebert didn’t return The Daily Beast’s text message request for comment on Thursday evening. On Friday morning, Boebert tweeted an apology “to anyone in the Muslim community I offended with my comment about Rep. Omar.”
On Friday evening, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) released a statement condemning Boebert’s “repeated, ongoing and targeted Islamophobic comments and actions” directed towards Omar.
“This language and behavior are far beneath the standard of integrity, dignity and decency with which the Constitution and our constituents require that we act in the House,” the Pelosi statement said. “We call upon Congresswoman Boebert to fully retract these comments and refrain from making similar ones going forward.”
