In a series of identity politics-laden tweets on Tuesday, freshman congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggested her fellow Democrats were being hypocritical for planning to condemn Rep. Ilhan Omar’s recent anti-Semitic comments.
As The Daily Wire reported, Omar tripled down on her promotion of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories on Sunday. In response to Jewish congresswoman Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) calling out Omar over her “bigotry” concerning pro-Israel legislators, whom Omar has suggested have a “foreign allegiance” to Israel, Omar responded by again floating the anti-Semitic “dual loyalty” accusation.
“Our democracy is built on debate, Congresswoman!” tweeted Rep. Omar Sunday. “I should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country in Congress or serve on committee. The people of the 5th elected me to serve their interest. I am sure we agree on that!”
Amid the string of anti-Semitic statements, House Democrats are now planning on formally rebuking Omar (though they may not end up actually naming her in the rebuke), which has triggered Omar’s fellow freshman and radical Democrat Ocasio-Cortez to come to her defense. The plan to call out Omar, Ocasio-Cortez suggested in tweets Tuesday, is “hurtful” because such reprimands supposedly aren’t consistently brought for other offenses against minorities.
“One of the things that is hurtful about the extent to which reprimand is sought of Ilhan is that no one seeks this level of reprimand when members make statements about Latinx + other communities (during the shutdown, a GOP member yelled ‘Go back to Puerto Rico!’ on the floor),” she wrote.
“It’s not my position to tell people how to feel, or that their hurt is invalid,” she added in another tweet. “But incidents like these do beg the question: where are the resolutions against homophobic statements? For anti-blackness? For xenophobia? For a member saying he’ll ‘send Obama home to Kenya?'”
“In this administration + all others, we should actively check antisemitism, anti-blackness, homophobia, racism, and all other forms of bigotry,” she wrote in follow-up tweets. “And the most productive end goal when we see it is to educate and heal. It’s the difference btwn ‘calling in’ before ‘calling out.’ ‘Calling out’ is one of the measures of last resort, not 1st or 2nd resort. We do it when repeated attempts to ‘call in’ are disrespected or ignored. And I believe that Ilhan, in her statement a few weeks ago, has demonstrated a willingness to listen+work w/impacted communities.”
Politico notes in its report on Ocasio-Cortez’s partial defense of Omar that her reference about the “Go back to Puerto Rico!” remark was made by Rep. Jason Smith, who underscored that the comment was not racially motivated but rather referring to a widely reported 30-member Democrat congressional event in Puerto Rico that occurred during the shutdown and that Republicans criticized for its waste of funds.
Among the growing list of anti-Semitic comments made by Omar is her conspiratorial accusation that congressional members defend Israel because of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, infamously stating, “It’s all about the Benjamins baby.” House Republicans condemned such anti-Semitic remarks, with Omar even voting for the resolution. But she quickly resorted to anti-Semitic assertions again.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is reportedly planning to officially reprimand Omar for her latest comments on Wednesday, though Politico reports that Democrats are still debating about whether or not to provide her name in the rebuke.