Thursday, Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) spoke on the House floor before voting “no” on the Democrats’ resolution to condemn all hate.
Zeldin pointed out House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) “double standard” for the “watered down” resolution that did not name Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) specifically for her “pointed, bigoted, unreasonable, illegitimate, antisemitic” remarks when the House named Rep. Steve King (R-IA) in a resolution in January.
“If [Omar] was a Republican, that member’s name would be in this resolution and this resolution would be all about condemning antisemitism and it would be done so forcefully,” Zeldin argued.
He added, “Even if you gave [Omar] every benefit of the doubt, that she had no idea what she was doing, why now wouldn’t she be apologizing? Why would she be more emboldened to refuse an apology altogether? I apparently am giving Rep. Omar more credit than the speaker is because I don’t believe she is naive.”
Zeldin also slammed the decision to remove King from all committees while an unapologetic Omar gets to remain serving on the Foreign Affairs committee.
Zeldin also released the following statement:
If a Republican Member was pushing the anti-Semitism that Rep. Omar keeps peddling, this resolution would name names, and be solely, emphatically focused on anti-Semitism and that member would be removed from their committee assignments. The double standard motivating this decision by the Speaker and the moral equivalency filling this watered down text is spineless and disgusting.
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