White House Escalates Trump’s Attack On Ilhan Omar
As The Inquistr previously reported, Donald Trump tweeted a video montage of Ilhan Omar making a speech as the World Trade Center towers crash in the background, and he accused the Minnesota Congresswoman of downplaying the radical Islamist attacks. Now, the White House is escalating attacks on Omar, 37, who is one of the first Muslim women in Congress.
Per The Guardian, earlier today, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said that Omar was in the wrong.
“I find her comments to be absolutely disgraceful and unbefitting of a member of Congress, and I think that it’s a good thing the president is calling her out.”
She continued to dismiss Democrats’ concerns that Trump was using bullying to incite violence against Omar and other Muslim Americans.
“The president is wishing no ill will and certainly not violence toward anyone. But the president is absolutely and should be calling out the congresswoman.”
Trump’s attacks on Omar stem from a portion of a speech she made last month to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). In the speech, she described the feeling of being a “second-class citizen” that she blames on Islamophobia, and suggested that CAIR was founded post-9/11 in response to the loss of Muslim civil liberties due to the events of the terrorist attack. Neither the video of Omar or Trump’s tweet contained her full quote, and failed to provide context for her comments.
President Trump bears no “ill will” toward Ilhan Omar, says White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders https://t.co/UBKIrSk6aj
— Bloomberg (@business) April 14, 2019
Omar responded to Trump’s attacks via Twitter.
“No one person – no matter how corrupt, inept, or vicious – can threaten my unwavering love for America.”
The New York Post ran with Trump’s attack and posted a quote from Omar, which was printed over a picture of the World Trade Center burning. The Yemeni American Merchants Association responded to the page and suggested that it aimed to harm Omar, her family, and other people of Islamic faith. It also claims that the rhetoric “threatens the safety and wellbeing of Omar, Muslim leaders, and the larger Muslim American community at a time when Islamophobia is at an all-time high.”
Per Global News, Omar has received support from numerous Democrats for her comments. She has previously come under fire for her comments on Israel and Jewish influence in Washington and refuses to apologize for a tweet suggesting that Americans who support Israel are aligning themselves to a foreign country.
Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat who represents Manhattan’s financial district, a target of the September 11 attacks, said that he did not have a problem with Omar’s comments on 9/11.
