U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib is defending fellow Justice Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar’s reference to the September 11 terrorist attacks as “some people did something,” implying folks are only offended by the remark because they’re racist.
MSNBC broached the topic with Tlaib, who serves as the only other Muslim woman in Congress alongside Omar, and she didn’t hesitate to blame racism for the controversy.
The news site played a clip of Omar’s remarks at a Council on American-Islamic Relations this week and asked Tlaib to respond.
“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,” said Omar, a freshman congresswoman from Minnesota.
“Do you think that she should have rethought her words? Do you worry about the appropriateness of that?” MSNBC host Hallie Jackson asked.
“No, look, they do this all the time to us, especially women of color,” Tlaib said. “They do that, they take our words out of context because they’re afraid, because we speak truth. We speak truth to power.”
Belittling those who lost family in the terrorist attack Omar describes as “something,” and other comments disparaging Jewish Americans for allegedly buying access to government, is really about “uplifting people,” Tlaib contends.
“My sister Ilhan Omar what she was talking about was uplifting people by supporting their civil liberties and civil rights,” she said.
Omar is a refugee from Somalia, so she would never condone terrorism or minimize its devastation, Tlaib claimed.
“Especially as a person who is impacted by being a refugee herself, she sees what terrorism can do. She sees what violence can do to a whole country, a whole people,” Tlaib told Jackson.
Anyone who believes otherwise is a racist, the congresswoman alleged.
“This is just pure racist act by many of those, hateful acts by those, because she does speak truth when it talks about different issues they don’t disagree with and I’m really outraged …,” Tlaib said.
Tlaib, Omar, socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Maryland Rep. Ayanna Pressley are among freshman Democrats in the House pushing their party toward socialist policies including the Green New Deal, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, government guaranteed jobs and money, and other far-left proposals.
On Thursday, the New York Post blasted Omar for her comments with a front page picture of the Twin Towers exploding. The headline: “Here’s your something.”
Unlike Tlaib, Pressley blamed the scandal on the Post’s owner, Rupert Murdoch.
@Ilhan full comments clearly speak to post 9/11 #Islamophobia Manipulating her remarks is defaming & dangerous for her & her family. Stop with this recklessness. @rupertmurdoch this is on you – stoking hate, fear & division, putting REAL lives at risk. Shame on you. https://t.co/fpemnGxQKk
— Ayanna Pressley (@AyannaPressley) April 11, 2019
“@Ilhan full comments clearly speak to post 9/11 #islamaphobia Manipulating her remarks is defaming & dangerous for her & her family,” Pressley posted to Twitter with a picture of the Post’s front page. “Sop with this recklessness. @rupertmurdoch this is on you – stoking hate, fear & division, putting REAL lives at risk. Shame on you.”
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