{"id":43503,"date":"2021-11-29T18:14:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-30T01:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/rep-boebert-refuses-to-apologize-for-anti-muslim-remarks-in-call-with-rep-omar\/"},"modified":"2021-11-30T01:14:00","modified_gmt":"2021-11-30T01:14:00","slug":"rep-boebert-refuses-to-apologize-for-anti-muslim-remarks-in-call-with-rep-omar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/rep-boebert-refuses-to-apologize-for-anti-muslim-remarks-in-call-with-rep-omar\/","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Boebert refuses to apologize for anti-Muslim remarks in call with Rep. Omar"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Third
Third District Rep. Lauren Boebert takes the stage at the Western Conservative Summit on June 19, 2021 at the Hyatt Regency in Denver. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun)<\/span>Olivia Sun\/The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON \u2013 Days after firebrand conservative Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado was harshly criticized for making anti-Muslim comments about Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat whom she likened to a bomb-carrying terrorist, the two spoke by phone Monday.<\/p>\n

By both lawmakers\u2019 accounts, it did not go well.<\/p>\n

\"Rep.
Rep. Ilhan Omar<\/span>Morry Gash<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The conversation, which Boebert sought after issuing a tepid 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\u2019s request for a public apology, amplifying partisan strife that has become a feature, not a bug, of the GOP since a mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.<\/p>\n

Boebert previously apologized \u201cto anyone in the Muslim community I offended,\u201d but not directly to Omar.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just the latest example of a GOP lawmaker making a personal attack against another member of Congress, an unsettling trend<\/a> that has gone largely unchecked by House Republican leaders. It also offers a test of Democrats\u2019 newfound resolve to mete out punishment to Republicans.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month conservative Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona was censured<\/a> over a violent video. In February Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia was booted<\/a> from congressional committees for her inflammatory rhetoric.<\/p>\n

After Monday\u2019s phone call, Omar and Boebert quickly issued statements condemning each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe in engaging with those we disagree with respectfully, but not when that disagreement is rooted in outright bigotry and hate,\u201d Omar said in a statement. She said she \u201cdecided to end the unproductive call.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boebert shot back in an Instagram video: \u201cRejecting an apology and hanging up on someone is part of cancel culture 101 and a pillar of the Democrat Party.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 an interaction that Omar maintains never happened.<\/p>\n

In the video, the freshman Colorado lawmaker claims that a Capitol Police officer approached her with \u201cfret on his face\u201d shortly before she stepped aboard a House elevator and the doors closed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look to my left and there she is \u2013 Ilhan Omar. And I said, \u2018Well, she doesn\u2019t have a backpack. We should be fine,\u2019\u201d Boebert says with a laugh.<\/p>\n

Omar is Muslim. Boebert\u2019s comment about Omar not wearing a backpack was an apparent reference to her not carrying a suicide bomb.<\/p>\n

Reaction to the video was swift. Omar called on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to \u201ctake appropriate action\u201d because \u201cnormalizing this bigotry not only endangers my life but the lives of all Muslims. Anti-Muslim bigotry has no place in Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n

House Democratic leadership also issued a joint statement condemning \u201cBoebert\u2019s repeated, ongoing and targeted Islamophobic comments and actions,\u201d while calling on McCarthy \u201cto finally take real action to confront racism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet McCarthy, who is in line to become House speaker if Republicans retake the majority next year, has proved reluctant to police members of his caucus whose views are often closely aligned with the party\u2019s base.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Boebert tweeted Friday that \u201cI apologize to anyone in the Muslim community I offended with my comment about Rep. Omar,\u201d adding that \u201cthere are plenty of policy differences to focus on without this unnecessary distraction.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not Boebert\u2019s first brush with controversy \u2013 nor Omar\u2019s. Since Boebert\u2019s election to Congress in 2020, she has leaned in to provocative broadsides that delight the party\u2019s base. Omar has drawn her focus in particular. She has previously called Omar and others \u201cfull-time propagandists\u201d for \u201cstate sponsored terrorism,\u201d and \u201cpoliticians with suicide belts strapped their body.\u201d<\/p>\n

In May, she tweeted that Omar was \u201ca full-time propagandist for Hamas.\u201d She has also called Omar and Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib \u201cevil\u201d while also referring to them as the \u201cjihad squad.\u201d Tlaib, like Omar, is Muslim.<\/p>\n

Omar too has drawn scrutiny for her comments, often in reference to Israel, some of which have been blasted as anti-Semitic.<\/p>\n

In 2019, she suggested that Israel\u2019s supporters are pushing U.S. lawmakers to take a pledge of \u201callegiance to a foreign country.\u201d She was also pressured to apologized \u201cunequivocally\u201d for suggesting that congressional support for Israel was \u201call about the Benjamins baby,\u201d a longstanding trope about Jews buying influence.<\/p>\n

House Democratic leadership directly rebuked Omar over the remarks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Both representatives say conversation went badly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[981,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-43503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-3rd-congressional-district","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43503"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=43503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}