Rep. Ilhan Omar recently appeared on CNN to discuss her public feud with Rep. Lauren Boebert.
Joining Jake Tapper in studio on the Sunday morning program “State of the Union,” Omar called House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy a “liar” for saying that Boebert, a Republican from Colorado, apologized to Omar publicly and personally for her remarks.
She also smeared him as a “coward” for not holding Boebert “accountable.”
“He doesn’t have the ability to condemn the kind of bigoted Islamophobia and anti-Muslim rhetoric that are being trafficked by a member of this Congress,” she said.
When asked why he doesn’t have that ability, Omar said it’s because that’s who Republicans are.
“We have to be able to stand up to them. And we have to push them to reckon with the fact that their party right now is normalizing anti-Muslim bigotry,” she said.
The congresswoman from Minneapolis also lamented an alleged rise in “Islamophobia” and claimed that young Muslim women throughout the United States “fear for their lives.”
Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar calls House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy "a liar and a coward" for not publicly condemning GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert's anti-Muslim comments about Omar. https://t.co/bpBmBU1anQ #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/1eXkETU3Cx
— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) December 5, 2021
Reps. Boebert and Omar have been feuding since Nov. 17. On that day Boebert blasted Omar on the House floor for paying her husband — “not her brother-husband, the other one” — over $1 million in campaign funds. She also called her a member of the “jihad squad.”
Then on Nov. 20, video emerged of Boebert speaking at a private event in which she implied that a Capitol police officer mistook Omar for a terrorist.
On each occasion Omar responded with retorts of her own, first calling Boebert an “insurrectionist” and then a “buffoon” who made the story about the Capitol police officer up.
Boebert apologized on Twitter for offending “anyone in the Muslim community” and discussed the incident on the phone with Omar. Boebert said in a video message last week that Omar demanded a public apology and hung up the phone when she said Omar should publicly apologize for her “anti-American, anti-Semitic, anti-police rhetoric.”
Evan Stambaugh
Evan Stambaugh is a freelance writer who had previously been a sports blogger. He has a BA in theology and an MA in philosophy.
