On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Alex Wagner Tonight,” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) stated that House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) visit to Columbia was to “stir up really more anger and hate and endanger the lives of young people who are at that encampment at Columbia University.”
Omar said, “This is a man who is holding onto his speakership. He knows he might be on the chopping block, and it is not surprising that he would go out to Columbia University and stir up really more anger and hate and endanger the lives of young people who are at that encampment at Columbia University.”
She added, “These people do not care about violent protests. They don’t care about [the] 1st Amendment. They care about performing their political theater, which is what they, most of the time, do. These are people who supported insurrectionists on January 6, who threatened my life and the lives of all of our colleagues, who threatened the peaceful transfer of governance. It is really astonishing that they want to be taken seriously today as they call for the National Guard to come in. This is also a group of people who are first to criticize other countries as authoritarians when they call in the military to crack down on peaceful protests and people who are speaking up for their rights, people who are standing up for human rights, people who are speaking up against their government utilizing their own resources, their tax dollars, to help in what now has been considered a genocide that Israel’s carrying out against the people of Gaza.”
Omar continued, “I want people to actually understand why these kids are risking their academics and their ability to stay in good standing at their universities. They are worried what it means to grow up in a world where people can watch nearly 35,000 people be killed, to watch nearly 70% of them be children and women, to watch the destruction of 80% of infrastructure, to see a country withhold water, food, electricity, to starve people, and carry out collective punishment. Israel’s being hauled in front of international courts and being accused of genocide. These kids don’t want us to be complacent.”
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