Amid mounting pressure from the left, Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert produced a public apology for the comments she made about Rep. Ilhan Omar that were seen as “islamophobic” or offensive to Muslims.
Amid mounting pressure from the left, Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert produced a public apology for the comments she made about Rep. Ilhan Omar that were seen as "islamophobic" or offensive to Muslims.
A video circulated on Thursday showing Boebert at an event calling Ilhan Omar a part of the "jihad squad," where she expressed being thankful Omar "didn’t have a backpack."
The Representative from Colorado said these things as she recalled the story of a Capitol police cop urgently coming towards their elevator and trying to find out what the matter was.
Boebert at this initial moment finished off by saying Ilhan Omar "isn’t as tough as she looks" seeing as how her staffers run her Twitter account for her.
Rashida Tlaib, also of The Squad, tweeted out her support of Omar.
"I apologize to anyone in the Muslim community I offended with my comment about Rep. Omar. I have reached out to her office to speak with her directly. There are plenty of policy differences to focus on without this unnecessary distraction."
The apology wasn’t enough for Newsweek, as many opponents of Boebert’s decision pointed out. Instead, the paper wrote that the Colorado Rep. must apologize for what she said weeks earlier, about Pete Buttgieg.
Rep. Omar had earlier commented on the video by calling it an act of "anti-Muslim bigotry." At the start of the month, Boebert made headlines with her "Let’s go Brandon" shirt parodying a previous outfit of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at a fancy gala.
In NBC’s coverage of this story they insinuate a connection between a situation like this as like what got Rep. Paul Gosar censured.
Rep. Omar has previously referred to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on New York City by jihadists as "some people did something." She later defended the comments when confronted, refusing to apologize when confronted.
The Somali-American representative from Minneapolis also courted controversy when she produced anti-Semitic statements about Israel, comparing the country's defense of its civilian population to terrorist groups like Hamas and the Taliban earlier this year.
When confronted by Jewish colleagues in Congress over her anti-Semitism, Omar said that their complaints were "islamophobic," and that anyone who criticized her for anti-Semitism was engaging in "harassment," which she said was "unbearable."
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