House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Thursday avoided condemning Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MI) reaffirmed position on equating the United States and Israel to terror groups Hamas and the Taliban.
When a reporter asked Pelosi during her weekly press conference about Omar’s comments regarding equating the United States and Israel to the terror groups Hamas and the Taliban, Pelosi interrupted the reporter by saying, “let’s stay with this” and said she would “answer that afterward.”
CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Omar Tuesday if she regretted equating the Western allies to terrorists.
“I don’t,” Omar replied. “I think it’s really important to think back to the point that I was trying to make. Obviously, I was addressing Secretary of State Blinken.”
“I think it’s really important for these [House] members to realize that they haven’t been partners in justice,” she explained. “They haven’t been engaging in seeking justice around the world, and I think I will continue to do that. It is important for me as someone who knows what it feels like to experience injustice in ways that many of my colleagues don’t.”
“I’ve welcomed any time my colleagues asked to have a conversation to learn from them, for them to learn from me,” she continued.
Omar tweeted Wednesday that “Most of my colleagues across Congress may not be refugees themselves, but fleeing war and persecution only to find a refuge in the United States of America—*is* the Jewish-American experience, she said. “This binds us.”
Pelosi sidestepped the same question on June 11 by saying no further action would need to be taken on Omar’s remarks comparing the United States and Israel to terrorists.
Omar originated the controversy by tweeting on June 11:
We must have the same level of accountability and justice for all victims of crimes against humanity. We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban. I asked @SecBlinken where people are supposed to go for justice.