'You Have Trafficked In Hate Your Whole Life': Ilhan Omar Fires Back At Trump
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A day after President Donald Trump said that Rep. Ilhan Omar should resign from Congress for some recent tweets broadly condemned as anti-Semitic, the freshman congresswoman fired back on Twitter, accusing the president of "trafficking in hate" for his entire life.
On Wednesday morning, Omar tweeted at Trump, saying that the president has trafficked in hate against Muslims, immigrants, indigenous people, blacks, and Jews. Additionally, she implied that while she takes criticism to heart, the president does not.
Hi @realDonaldTrump-
You have trafficked in hate your whole life—against Jews, Muslims, Indigenous, immigrants, black people and more. I learned from people impacted by my words. When will you? https://t.co/EqqTyjkiNE
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) February 13, 2019
Omar's tweet was a response to what Trump told reporters Tuesday, when he spoke on a pair of tweets that Omar wrote over the weekend, which he described as "terrible." He added that he thought Omar should step down from Congress or resign from her post on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"What she said is so deep-seated in her heart, that her lame apology -- and that is what it was, lame -- she didn't mean a word of it," Trump said.
In those weekend tweets, Omar suggested that the reason members of Congress support Israel is because they are being paid to do, specifically by the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC.
"It's all about the Benjamins baby," Omar wrote, referencing a lyric about $100 bills from a '90s Puff Daddy song.
Prominent Republicans and Democrats swiftly condemned the tweets as perpetuating anti-Semitic tropes, specifically the idea that Jews control politics through money. Omar later apologized on Monday, saying that her intention was never to offend Jewish Americans.
"We have to always be willing to step back and think through criticism, just as I expect people to hear me when others attack me for my identity," she said. "This is why I unequivocally apologize."
Critics have alleged Omar's apology was not genuine. Vice President Mike Pence tweeted, "Unless Rep. Omar resigns from Congress, at minimum Democrat leaders should remove her from the House Foreign Affairs Committee."
A number of Republican members of Congress have joined Pence in calling for Omar to be removed from the House Foreign Affair Committee. Republicans point to the case of Iowa Republican Congressman Steve King, who last month was removed from committees over his comment about white supremacy.
Minnesota Democratic Congressman Dean Phillips, who is Jewish, did not call for Omar to be stripped of committee assignments but said he had spoken to her.
"We had a frank discussion. We had an impassioned discussion, and in my statement I said it's time we all start talking more and tweeting less," he said.