It will probably pain Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota to know she shares at least one quality with former President Donald Trump: the inability to know when to shut up.
Like Trump, the congresswoman’s mouth is her greatest enemy, especially when her brain has opinions on Jews and Israel, which is quite often. A little too often, actually.
Omar claimed this week on CNN her Jewish colleagues in Congress have not “been partners in justice.” They’re simply not as committed to fighting injustice around the world as she and her cohort supposedly are, Omar said, adding her Jewish colleagues just don’t understand injustice the way she does. She attempted to clean up her remarks later, claiming in a series of tweets she didn’t actually say what she absolutely said.
On CNN, the congresswoman also addressed her comments earlier this month equating the United States and Israel with recognized terrorist groups, including Hamas and the Taliban. Omar said she stands by her comments.
In other words, the interview didn’t go well.
“Some of your fellow House Democrats have been frustrated,” said anchor Jake Tapper. “Sometimes you’ve made comments that offend them.”
Tapper then referred to a couple of notable incidents, including the time Omar claimed Congress’s pro-Israel members are doing it for the “Benjamins” (translations: they’re being paid to support Israel).
“Do you understand why some of your fellow House Democrats, especially Jews, find that language anti- Semitic?” Tapper asked.
Omar responded, “I think it’s really important for these members to realize that they haven’t been partners in justice. They haven’t been, you know, equally engaging in seeking justice around the world.”
She added, “It is important for me as someone who knows what it feels like to experience injustice in ways that many of my colleagues don’t to be a voice in finding accountability, asking for mechanisms for justice for those who are maligned, oppressed, and who have had injustice than to them.”
Putting aside the nonsense, wholly meaningless babble about the “mechanisms for justice” (who talks like this?), it’s actually laugh-out-loud funny Omar asserts her Jewish colleagues don’t understand “injustice” the way she does. For starters, she doesn’t know that. Secondly, anti-Semitism is rather famously known as the world’s “oldest hatred,” so there’s a high probability at least some Jewish members of Congress have an idea of what she’s talking about.
It doesn’t end there. Tapper also asked Omar about the time she equated the U.S. and Israel with terrorist groups.
“And as you know, a group of Jewish House Democrats wrote a letter to President Biden saying that accusing Israel of acts of terror as you and other members of the squad have done is anti-Semitic,” said Tapper.
He asked, “Do you regret these comments?”
“I don’t,” the congresswoman responded. “I think it’s really important to think back to the point that I was trying to make.”
For the record, here is what Omar said on June 7: “We must have the same level of accountability and justice for all victims of crimes against humanity. We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban. I asked [Secretary of State Antony Blinken] where people are supposed to go for justice.”
Omar continued this week, saying, “I tend to think that people around the world who have experienced injustice need to be able to have a place where they can go … I think that it is really important for us to continue to find ways in which people can find justice around the world.”
Later, after Omar’s remarks on CNN played poorly with audiences, she hopped on social media to claim her comments were being taken out of context by racists, sexists, etc., etc. You know the drill.
“It’s their mission to turn and twist everything I say until I am completely silenced,” she said. “Demonizing voices for justice is part of their playbook and it won’t work here.”
Speaking of playbooks, this is how Omar and her cohort usually respond to criticism. They claim first they’re being oppressed, that shadowy forces are attempting to silence young women of color. In fact, if Omar sees the article, I guarantee she’ll claim it’s an attempt to “silence” her, a woman of color. They then reiterate the thing they’re attempting to walk back, repeating the initial charge with slightly more polished language. They then conclude with something cliché such as, “I’m not leaving this fight!” or “Hate has no home here!” It’s as tiresome as it’s predictable.
“I am someone who has survived war and experienced injustice firsthand, who is alive today because I was welcomed into this country as a refugee,” Omar’s post-CNN spin continued, “I know that many of my colleagues — both Jewish and non-Jewish — deeply share that commitment to fighting injustice.”
It goes on like that for a bit, but you get the point. This is what we call crisis communications.
That Omar so frequently finds herself in these positions is about as funny as it is bewildering. Maybe she really is a motor-mouth with a weird Israel fixation. Then again, perhaps the holes she keeps digging for herself are part of some master strategy I’m just not seeing.
She is either remarkably stupid or remarkably clever. It’s honestly hard to tell. And that’s something else she has in common with Trump.
