The progressive Democrats’ coordinated attempt to take down the relatively moderate Democratic frontrunner has ratcheted up in recent days, and freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar is adding her radical left voice to the anti-Joe Biden chorus.
As a recent poll of likely Iowa Democratic caucus-goers found Biden now losing to progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren in Iowa, the more radical wing of the party held a “people’s forum” in the state Saturday put on by various far-left grassroots groups designed to serve as an “antidote,” as The Guardian put it, to the Polk County Steak Fry, a much larger event which drew 17 of the Democratic presidential candidates and some 12,000 attendees.
Among those at the Iowa People’s Presidential Forum were Warren, democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, and former housing secretary Julián Castro. Notably absent from the progressive grassroots event was Biden, who wasn’t invited by the event organizer, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement Action, after his campaign failed to fill out a questionnaire.
In comments that quickly made headlines, Rep. Omar, who has repeatedly come under fire for anti-Semitic comments and her openly hostile stance toward Israel, offered her rather blunt opinion on Biden as the potential Democratic nominee to The Guardian.
In her remarks at the event, Omar declared that the Democratic Party needs “a president who realises we are not just fighting for one election, we are fighting for the very soul of our democracy and what society we want to become.”
When The Guardian asked Omar if Biden could fill that role, she made clear she does not believe he could.
“There are few people who fit into the kind of progress that we all want to see in this country. And I would say he is not one of them,” she told the outlet.
“I think it has been very clear to many of the people who have been creating the kind of movement that is exciting generations, that we want somebody who really has a plan that is going to tackle a lot of the systematic challenges that we have, and he doesn’t,” she added.
In its report on Omar’s comments, The Guardian describes her as “one of four new members of the House of Representatives racially abused by Donald Trump,” an apparent reference to Trump telling the four radical congresswomen known as “The Squad” to “go back” to where they came from (Omar alone of the four is an immigrant). The Guardian notably fails to mention Omar’s own racially inflammatory rhetoric and actions directed at Jews and Israel.
A new Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom poll of “likely Democratic caucusgoers” in Iowa released Saturday found Warren surging ahead of Biden for the first time.
“Sen. Elizabeth Warren came out on top with 22% of respondents selecting her as their first choice, and 20% as their second choice,” The Daily Wire reported. “Former Vice President Joe Biden, long considered the front-runner of the Democratic race, came in second, with 20% of respondents selecting him as their first choice, and only 10% as their second choice. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) came in a distant third place, with just 11% selecting him as their first choice, and 10% as their second.”
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