Ilhan Omar: ‘I Don’t Want Everyone Necessarily to Feel Comfortable Around Me’

A new report on the Democrat Party’s identity crisis signals Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MD) intends to continue being a lightning rod for controversy despite bipartisan blowback over her repeated trafficking in anti-Jewish tropes.

Politico Magazine’s chief political correspondent Tim Alberta interviewed Omar and Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) in recent weeks for an article detailing how the Minnesota Democrats’ “dueling visions” for the future indicate more turmoil to come.

Alberta writes:

To better understand these dueling visions for the Democratic Party, I sat down with both Omar and Phillips, spent several days in their communities and talked with some of their constituents. What I learned is that, despite the cautionary tale offered by years of vicious Republican infighting, Democrats are dangerously close to entering into their own fratricidal conflict. On matters of both style and substance, the fractures within this freshman class are indicative of the broader divisions in a party long overdue for an ideological reckoning.

And Omar isn’t shying away from it. “I am certainly not looking to be comfortable, and I don’t want everyone necessarily to feel comfortable around me,” she told me, a mischievous smile tugging at her lips. “I think really the most exciting things happen when people are extremely uncomfortable.”

Phillips, a friendly soul and consensus-builder by nature, is among those feeling a bit uncomfortable. Amid a discussion of Omar and Ocasio-Cortez, he complained, “Suddenly an entire party is being branded by the perspectives of two of its members who represent 1 percent of the caucus.”

Read Politico Magazine’s full report here.

The profile’s release comes after the House passed a resolution Thursday condemning antisemitism and other bigotry. Democrats are trying to push past a dispute that has overwhelmed their agenda and exposed fault lines that could shadow them through next year’s elections.

The 407-23 vote Thursday belied the emotional infighting over how to respond to Omar’s recent comments suggesting House supporters of Israel have dual allegiances. For days, Democrats wrestled with whether or how to punish the Minnesota Democratic lawmaker, arguing over whether Omar, one of two Muslim women in Congress, should be singled out, what other types of bias should be decried in the text and whether the party would tolerate dissenting views on Israel.

Republicans generally joined in the favorable vote, though nearly two dozen opposed the measure. Rep Lee Zeldin (R-NY), himself a Jew, called it a “sham.”

Generational as well as ideological, the argument was fueled in part by young, liberal lawmakers — and voters — who have become a face of the newly empowered Democratic majority in the House. These lawmakers are critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, rejecting the conservative leader’s approach to Palestinians and other issues.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.