Top Democrats in the US Congress, including leading candidates for the presidential nomination, have strongly condemned President Donald Trump and other Republicans for attacking Muslim congresswoman Ilhan Omar over comments she made that seemingly minimized the 9/11 attacks. RNA - US Senator Bernie Sanders, who is running for president again in the 2020 elections after he lost in 2016, described Omar as a leader with “strength and courage.”
“She won't back down to Trump's racism and hate, and neither will we. The disgusting and dangerous attacks against her must end," Sanders tweeted Friday.
Ilhan Omar is a leader with strength and courage. She won't back down to Trump's racism and hate, and neither will we. The disgusting and dangerous attacks against her must end.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) April 13, 2019
US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in the lower chamber of Congress, criticized Trump on Saturday for a Twitter post that used 9/11 imagery while suggesting Omar was dismissive of the terrorist attacks.
“The memory of 9/11 is sacred ground, and any discussion of it must be done with reverence,” Pelosi said in a statement posted on Twitter. “The President shouldn’t use the painful images of 9/11 for a political attack.”
On Friday, Trump tweeted a video suggesting that Omar, a Democratic member of the House of Representatives from Minnesota, was dismissive of the attacks on September 11, 2001.
The video spliced news footage of 9/11 with a clip from a speech Omar gave last month in which she described the terror attack as “some people did something.”
The Trump tweet included the words “WE WILL NEVER FORGET!”
WE WILL NEVER FORGET! pic.twitter.com/VxrGFRFeJM
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 12, 2019
Omar has reportedly since received death threats for the remarks, but her fellow Democrats were quick to denounce Trump for going after Omar and taking the comment out of context.
In Omar’s speech, given to a Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, she said Muslims had “lived with the discomfort of being a second-class citizen and, frankly, I’m tired of it, and every single Muslim in this country should be tired of it.”
"CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties," Omar said.
The Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) was actually founded in 1994, according to its website, but its membership increased dramatically after the attacks.
Lawmakers from Trump’s Republican party have accused Omar of minimizing the 9/11 attacks, while critics of the president say he took Omar’s words out of context in order to stoke anti-Muslim sentiment.
Washington state Governor Jay Inslee and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who are both Democrats, condemned the attacks against Omar as not only dangerous for the congresswoman, but Muslims in the US in general.
"President Trump's inflammatory and dangerous rhetoric towards Ilhan Omar is jeopardizing her safety. He is deliberately putting her and all Muslim Americans in harm's way," Inslee tweeted Friday.
Warren also tweeted a similar message on Friday: "The President is inciting violence against a sitting Congresswoman—and an entire group of Americans based on their religion. It's disgusting. It's shameful. And any elected leader who refuses to condemn it shares responsibility for it."
The President is inciting violence against a sitting Congresswoman—and an entire group of Americans based on their religion. It's disgusting. It's shameful. And any elected leader who refuses to condemn it shares responsibility for it.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) April 13, 2019
Omar, one of the first Muslim women to serve in Congress, has sparked a political firestorm on Capitol Hill with comments suggesting supporters of Israel have dual allegiances.
She has repeatedly criticized Israel and the powerful pro-Israel lobby in Washington that exerts great influence in US politics.
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