On Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, ever eager to paint those on the political Right as racist, declared that the “root causes” of the January 6 Capitol riots were white supremacy, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia.
A reporter asked, “Is there a timeline that you want this committee to have a final report to you? Who will this committee report to, and what does that final report look like?”
“The timeline will be as long as it takes for them, the time they need to do the investigation of the causes of this,” Pelosi replied. “There are two actual paths: one is about the root causes of it: the white supremacy, the anti-Semitism, the Islamophobia, all of the rest of it that was so evident when you see a sweatshirt on one of the people saying, ‘Camp Auschwitz.’”
“The other is the security of the Capitol and what it means to be ready for such an insurrection,” she continued. “While I think we could have been better prepared, I don’t think anybody would have foreseen an insurrection incited by the President of the United States. So the timetable will be as long as it takes; we were agreeable to doing it in a time frame that the Republicans felt comfortable with but now another month has gone by and another month has gone by so we’ll just have to make the plan and see how long that takes.”
.@SpeakerPelosi: “Root causes” of Capitol riot were “white supremacy, anti-Semitism, islamophobia” pic.twitter.com/8e96SrPHFT
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) June 24, 2021
Pelosi’s attempt to tar the political Right as racist doesn’t jive well with her supine position regarding anti-Semitism in her own party. Earlier this month, Pelosi and other leading Democrats issued a statement thanking Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) for “clarifying” a tweet Omar posted equating the United States and Israel to the terrorist regimes Hamas and the Taliban.
Omar had written, “We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban.” After Omar’s supposed “clarification,” Pelosi and the Democrats stated, “We welcome the clarification by Congresswoman Omar that there is no more equivalency between the U.S. and Israel and Hamas and the Taliban.”
“Omar, however, did not use the word ‘moral’ in her clarification,” The Daily Wire noted.
CNN’s Dana Bash claimed that Omar “clarified” her remarks, saying to Pelosi, “You and other top House Democrats released a pretty rare statement rebuking her for appearing to ‘draw false equivalencies between the United States and Israel and terrorist organizations Hamas and Taliban. She clarified. She said that she was in no way equating them.”
Pelosi corrected Bash, “We did not rebuke her. We thanked [her], acknowledged that she made a clarification. … Congresswoman Omar is a valued member of our caucus.”
Back in March 2019, after Omar had made anti-Semitic remarks, Pelosi initially said she would back a blanket condemnation of anti-Semitism, but then backed down, permitting Omar, among others, to rewrite the resolution condemning “all hate” instead of specifically anti-Semitism.
“Pelosi also excused Omar’s behavior, claiming that the freshman Democrat had ‘a different experience in the use of words,’ and wasn’t actually accusing her fellow members of Congress of having dual loyalty to the United States and Israel,” The Daily Wire pointed out.