CNN anchor Jake Tapper said Sunday on “State of the Union” that the Republican Party was conducting a “bigotry campaign’ while discussing Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) calling Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) the “jihad squad.”
When asked about death threats, Omar said, “We receive too many to count. There’s a general fear that I have, my staff has, and the community at large has. We constantly hear from so many people across the country where their children’s hijabs have been pulled off. My daughters have experienced this. I have experienced this as a young person in this country. We know what this kind of language that this member is using leads to. We know that the kind of man who leaves that voicemail for a member of Congress is not going to spare a young Muslim girl when he sees her taking the bus or walking home from school or when he runs into her at the grocery store. So we have a responsibility as leaders — words matter. Words can cause violence. She knows that the language that she’s using, the audience that she’s using it for is going to incite violence against myself and my community.”
Tapper said, “I can’t believe that we are here in 2021 in the United States of America. I can’t think of anything less American than this bigotry campaign of Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene and others and the complicity of the leaders of the Republican Party who have not said a word. I have nothing but sympathy and empathy for you. We are here to bring attention to this as much as possible.”
Omar said, “I appreciate that. It is shameful.”
Tapper said, “It’s violent. it’s un-American.”
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