Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) slammed House Democrats on Thursday over a “sham” House resolution vote condemning hate, saying that the vote avoided condemning Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) anti-Semitic remarks.
“Today’s resolution vote was a sham put forward by Democrats to avoid condemning one of their own and denouncing vile anti-Semitism,” Cheney wrote in a statement provided to The Daily Wire. “While I stand whole heartedly against discrimination outlined in this resolution, the language before the House today did not address the issue that is front and center.”
“After several days of infighting and a near-rebellion by rank-and-file Democrats, as well as a major last-minute revision, the House on Thursday overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan resolution that only indirectly condemned Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar’s repeated ‘anti-Semitic’ and ‘pernicious’ comments — without mentioning her by name,” Fox News reported. “The final vote was 407 to 23, with 23 Republicans voting no, and all Democrats voting yes. Iowa GOP Rep. Steve King, who faced his own bipartisan blowback for comments purportedly defending white nationalists, voted present.”
“Rep. Omar’s comments were wrong and she has proven multiple times that she embodies a vile, hate-filled, anti-Semitic, anti-Israel bigotry,” Cheney continued. “She deserves to be rebuked, by name, and removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee so that there is no mistake about the values and priorities that the House stands for.”
Omar sparked outrage over the weekend when she suggested that a Jewish member of Congress was expecting her to have dual loyalties to Israel.
“For Democratic leadership to kowtow to their radical members and refuse to offer legislative language that criticizes Rep. Omar’s statements in the strongest possible manner confirms what we already knew: that their party is controlled by far-left extremists who can’t even muster the courage to stand up to blatant anti-Semitism,” Cheney concluded. “This is a sad day for the House and Democrats’ lack of action is fully responsible for bringing us to this unfortunate moment.”
Fox News added that while Democrats postponed the vote as they continued to debate over the resolution, Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) slammed his own party for not condemning anti-Semitism.
“Why are we unable to singularly condemn anti-Semitism?” Deutch asked. “It feels like we’re only able to call out the use of anti-Semitic language by a colleague of ours — any colleague of ours — if we’re addressing all forms of hatred. It feels like we can’t say it’s anti-Semitism unless everyone agrees it’s anti-Semitism.”
Omar later released a press statement calling the resolution “historic,” as if it was a win for her, and did not apologize for her statements.
“Today is historic on many fronts,” Omar said. “It’s the first time we have voted on a resolution condemning Anti-Muslim bigotry in our nation’s history. Anti-Muslim crimes have increased 99% from 2014-2016 and are still on the rise.”
“We are tremendously proud to be part of a body that has put forth a condemnation of all forms of bigotry including anti-Semitism, racism, and white supremacy,” the statement added. “At a time when extremism is on the rise, we must explicitly denounce religious intolerance of all kinds and acknowledge the pain felt by all communities. Our nation is having a difficult conversation and we believe this is great progress.”