Congresswoman says rightwing vitriol cannot threaten her âunwavering love for Americaâ as president pushes video
In the face of attacks from Donald Trump, Republicans and rightwing media outlets, the Minnesota representative Ilhan Omar said on Saturday no one could âthreatenâ her âunwavering love for Americaâ.
Omar thanked supporters for standing âagainst an administration that ran on banning Muslims from this countryâ.
âNo one person â no matter how corrupt, inept, or vicious â can threaten my unwavering love for America,â she wrote on Twitter. âI stand undeterred to continue fighting for equal opportunity in our pursuit of happiness for all Americans.â
In the hours after the president attacked Omar, who came to the US from Somalia as a refugee and became one of the first Muslim women in Congress, progressive Democrats condemned the president for âinciting violenceâ against her. Just last week, a Trump supporter from New York state was charged with threatening to kill Omar.
But while presidential candidates rallied behind Omar, House leaders did not immediately take the same approach.
Leadership and some freshmen Democrats have disagreed over how to respond to attacks on Omar, including accusations that her criticism of US policy on Israel was antisemitic. Last month, Omar apologized âunequivocallyâ after suggesting support for Israel was fueled by donations from a lobby group.
On Saturday morning, Speaker Nancy Pelosi hedged her response to Trumpâs tweet, saying âthe president shouldnât use the painful images of 9/11 for a political attackâ but not mentioning Omar.
âThe memory of 9/11 is sacred ground, and any discussion of it must be done with reverence,â Pelosi wrote, a comment that could be read as a criticism of Omar as well as the president. âIt is wrong for the president, as commander-in-chief, to fan the flames to make anyone less safe.â
Trump tweeted âWE WILL NEVER FORGET!â with a video edited to suggest Omar was dismissive of the attacks. The video used part of a speech last month to the Council on American-Islamic Relations in which Omar discussed the problem of Islamophobia, describing âthe discomfort of being a second-class citizenâ. After September 11, she said, advocates ârecognized that some people did something, and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil libertiesâ.
Rightwing politicians were quick to say Omar was dismissing the gravity of 9/11. Dan Crenshaw, a congressman from Texas who as a Navy Seal was seriously injured in Afghanistan, falsely claimed Omar âdoes not consider [September 11] a terrorist attack on the USA by terroristsâ.
Two of the most progressive candidates for the Democratic nomination called on all lawmakers to condemn such attacks. Senator Bernie Sanders called attacks on Omar âdisgusting and dangerousâ and said Omar would not âback down to Trumpâs racism and hate, and neither will weâ.
Senator Elizabeth Warren said: âThe president is inciting violence against a sitting congresswoman â and an entire group of Americans based on their religion. Itâs disgusting. Itâs shameful. And any elected leader who refuses to condemn it shares responsibility for it.â
Buttigieg added: âThe threats against the life of [Omar] make clear what is at stake.â
Among other candidates, former Hud secretary JuliĂĄn Castro said he stood with Omar and âothers targeted by the presidentâs anti-Muslim rhetoricâ. Former congressman Beto OâRourke said: âWe are stronger than this presidentâs hatred and Islamophobia. Do not let him drive us apart or make us afraid.â
The California senator Kamala Harris wrote: âFor two years, this president has used the most powerful platform in the world to sow hate [and] division. Putting the safety of a sitting member of Congress at risk [and] vilifying a whole religion is beyond the pale. Iâll be blunt â we must defeat him.â
âEnough is enough,â she wrote. âNo more silence, with NY Post and now Trump taking Ilhanâs words out of context to incite violence toward her, itâs time for more Dems to speak up. Clearly the GOP is fine with this shameful stunt, but we cannot stand by.â
He has repeated false claims about âthousands and thousands ofâ Muslims in New Jersey celebrating on the day itself; his business received money meant for small businesses affected by the attack, even though his businesses were not; he has claimed to have helped clear rubble from the attack site, a claim for which evidence does not exist; he has said he watched people jump from the World Trade Center towers from Trump Tower, four miles away, which would not be possible.
Perhaps most famously, in an interview hours after the attack on the World Trade Center, part of attacks in which 2,977 people were killed, Trump described his shock and disbelief. Then he added a comment that left his interviewers âstunnedâ.
Trump, claimed, falsely, that one of his own buildings had been âthe second-tallest building in downtown Manhattanâ, after the World Trade Center.
âAnd now itâs the tallest,â he said.