(Headline USA) Days after Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., was attacked by the Left over comments about firebrand leftist Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., whom she likened to a bomb-carrying terrorist, the two spoke by phone.
By both lawmakers’ accounts, it did not go well.
Monday’s private conversation, which Boebert sought after issuing a broad public statement last Friday, offered an opportunity to extend an olive branch in a House riven by tension.
Instead, it ended abruptly after Boebert rejected Omar’s request for a public apology.
Boebert previously apologized “to anyone in the Muslim community I offended,” but not directly to Omar.
The latest rift comes an unprecedented assault on conservative speech from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who has gone so far as refusing to seat Republican congressmen she disagreed with on the House’s Jan. 6th commission.
Earlier this month Democrats censured conservative Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona over a parody video he tweeted of a Japanese anime that depicted him slaying Rep. Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez.
In February Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia was booted from congressional committees for her inflammatory rhetoric amid calls of hypocrisy and double-standards, ironically, that the House Democrats had earlier refused to condemn Omar’s overtly anti-Semitic remarks and comments that appeared to downplay the Sept. 11 jihadist attacks.
Omar also has been the subject of several financial and political scandals, as well as personal scandals, that may resurface should Republicans regain control of the House and she is re-elected.
After Monday’s phone call, Omar and Boebert quickly issued statements condemning each other.
“I believe in engaging with those we disagree with respectfully, but not when that disagreement is rooted in outright bigotry and hate,” Omar said in a statement. She said she “decided to end the unproductive call.”
Boebert shot back in an Instagram video: “Rejecting an apology and hanging up on someone is part of cancel culture 101 and a pillar of the Democrat Party.”
The chain of events was set in motion over a week ago when a video posted to Facebook showed Boebert speaking before constituents, describing an interaction with Omar—an interaction that Omar maintains never happened.
In the video, the freshman Colorado lawmaker claims that a Capitol Police officer approached her with “fret on his face” shortly before she stepped aboard a House elevator and the doors closed.
“I look to my left and there she is—Ilhan Omar. And I said, ‘Well, she doesn’t have a backpack. We should be fine,’” Boebert says with a laugh.
Reaction to the video was swift. Omar called on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to “take appropriate action” because “normalizing this bigotry not only endangers my life but the lives of all Muslims. Anti-Muslim bigotry has no place in Congress.”
House Democratic leadership also issued a joint statement condemning “Boebert’s repeated, ongoing and targeted Islamophobic comments and actions,” while calling on McCarthy “to finally take real action to confront racism.”
Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said the speaker had nothing new to add Monday and pointed to the statement issued by Democratic leaders last week calling on McCarthy to act.
Boebert tweeted Friday that “I apologize to anyone in the Muslim community I offended with my comment about Rep. Omar,” adding that “there are plenty of policy differences to focus on without this unnecessary distraction.”
It’s not Boebert’s first brush with Omar. She has previously called the Minnesota Democrat and others “full time propagandists” for “state sponsored terrorism,” and “politicians with suicide belts strapped their body.”
In May, she tweeted that Omar was “a full-time propagandist for Hamas.”
She has also called Omar and Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib “evil” while also referring to them as the “jihad squad.” Tlaib, like Omar, is Muslim.
There is basis for Boebert’s criticism. In at least one official court deposition, Omar was accused of being a Qatari asset, according to the Washington Examiner.
Kuwaiti-born Canadian businessman Alan Bender testified in the trial of Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad al Thani, a member of the Qatari royal family, that Omar was the “jewel in the crown” of several US officials on the Qatari payroll and that she had actively recruited others.
He said Qatari and Iranian officials had told him, “If it wasn’t for our cash, Ilhan Omar would be just another black Somali refugee in America collecting welfare and serving tables on weekends.”
A spokesperson for Omar denied the allegations in a statement to the Jerusalem Post.
“Since the day she was elected, Saudi Arabian trolls and mouthpieces have targeted Omar with misinformation and conspiracy theories,” the spokesperson wrote. “The latest, outlandishly absurd story from a Saudi-funded media outlet is of course false and only the latest in that trend.”
Omar also has drawn scrutiny for her anti-Semitic comments, often in reference to Israel.
In 2019, she suggested that Israel’s supporters are pushing U.S. lawmakers to take a pledge of “allegiance to a foreign country.” She was also pressured to apologized “unequivocally” for suggesting that congressional support for Israel was “all about the Benjamins baby,” a longstanding trope about Jews buying influence.
House Democratic leadership issued a watered down rebuked to Omar over the remarks, initially condemning her anti-Semitism specifically before making it a more vaguely worded condemnation of “hate speech” that seemed more targeted at then-President Donald Trump and his supporters.
Adapted from reporting by Associated Press
