Jake
Just to catch you up, freshman Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar made some bad tweets about AIPAC, apologized for them, and then the president called on her to resign or step down from her position on the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Today, Omar responded to Trump’s call for her resignation by highlighting his unapologetic history of “trafficking in hate”:
Hi @realDonaldTrump-
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) February 13, 2019
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
Vice President Mike Pence decided to join the conservative pile-on over Rep. Ilhan Omar’s AIPAC tweets, echoing his Trump’s call for her resignation:
Unless Representative Omar resigns from Congress, at minimum Democrat leaders should remove her from the House Foreign Affairs Committee. pic.twitter.com/xivvu45pSs
— Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) February 13, 2019
“Anti-Semitism has no place in the United States Congress, or anywhere in our country or the free world,” Pence said. “Unless Representative Omar resigns from Congress, at minimum Democrat leaders should remove her from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.”
First of all, Rep. Omar explained her tweets were only intended to criticize AIPAC as a lobbying group and not to suggest some shadowy Jewish-led conspiracy. Secondly, Mike Pence obviously has no moral standing to demand “consequences” for anti-Semitic rhetoric from anyone after he’s failed—repeatedly—to condemn any of President Trump’s many, many anti-Semitic statements.
Just to give you a taste of the gobsmacking Republican hypocrisy on display, here are some of Trump & company’s most anti-Semitic moments (starts around the 1:45 mark)—none of which Pence thought deserved similar consequences:
.@jaketapper shows President Trump's hypocrisy over Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar’s anti-Semitic tweet with a little help from a "rogue" control room. pic.twitter.com/EJc2TJnmrU
— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) February 13, 2019
Like his boss yesterday, Mike Pence got lit up on Twitter for the glaring double standard on display when it comes to condemning bigotry:
You incompetent, disingenuous, end times believing, butt sucking parasite! Why don’t you walk down the hall and tell the gutter pig you trained to watched television and read from a prompter to resign! https://t.co/mvuoR9hN1B
— Anthony Atamanuik (@TonyAtamanuik) February 13, 2019
Question.
— andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) February 13, 2019
At an event last year, Pence said of Steve King "I just couldn’t be more proud to have served with him in Congress.”
Did he ever condemn him or tag him in a tweet?https://t.co/d9D5USy00W
"The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day." -- Donald Trump https://t.co/BneD5K9eRB
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) February 13, 2019
COOL, LET’S START WITH THE GUY WHO PUT A FAKE RABBI ON STAGE TO BLESS REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES RIGHT AFTER THE TREE OF LIFE SHOOTING https://t.co/wlnTHs6TFa
— Leah NO WALL, CALL NOW Greenberg (@Leahgreenb) February 13, 2019
Remind us @VP about the apology @realDonaldTrump delivered when in '15 he told members of the Republican Jewish coalition, "You are not going to support me because I don't want your money." Oh, I forgot. There was no apology. And you did not denounce him. #trump https://t.co/YHvJ8w8vV9
— David Shuster (@DavidShuster) February 13, 2019
It would behoove everyone in the legitimate political media to acknowledge that Pence doesn't mean a word of this (he is fiercely loyal to Donald Trump) and to fold his gross display of bad faith into the mix when evaluating the credibility of his other statements. https://t.co/pnqNGja8Z1
— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) February 13, 2019
Of course, there’s another reason Pence and Republicans might not want Omar on the Foreign Affairs Committee—she’s good at her job. Today Omar grilled Trump Venezuela Special Envoy Elliott Abrams for his support of Latin American military forces responsible for brutal massacres during the Reagan administration and his role in covering up their abuses. Abrams was also convicted of withholding information from Congress following the Iran-Contra investigation and then pardoned by George H.W. Bush.
.@IlhanMN asks Elliott Abrams whether he would support an armed faction in Venezuela that committed crimes against humanity or genocide if it served American interests as he did in Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador.
— jordan (@JordanUhl) February 13, 2019
Abrams refuses to answer. pic.twitter.com/LNK17EsGzU
While CNN was buttonholing Omar about her tweets en route to this hearing, Elliott Abrams - a genocide apologist who lied to Congress - strolled into the room with barely a blink from the assembled press. https://t.co/cAejKXdN4O
— Adam Jentleson 🎈 (@AJentleson) February 13, 2019
It’s pretty clear who deserves more scrutiny and who’s getting a pass.
h/t: CNN, The Intercept