Ilhan Omar Blasts Lauren Boebert for ‘Made Up’ Story Filled With Anti-Muslim Comments: ‘Sad She Thinks Bigotry Gets Her Clout’
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Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) called out Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) in a Thursday tweet, claiming that the conservative congresswoman “made up” a story filled with anti-Muslim tropes.
“Anti-Muslim bigotry isn’t funny & shouldn’t be normalized. Congress can’t be a place where hateful and dangerous Muslims tropes get no condemnation,” Omar said on Twitter, responding to a video of Boebert that has since gone viral.
Fact, this buffoon looks down when she sees me at the Capitol, this whole story is made up. Sad she thinks bigotry gets her clout.
Anti-Muslim bigotry isn’t funny & shouldn’t be normalized. Congress can’t be a place where hateful and dangerous Muslims tropes get no condemnation. https://t.co/S1APT7RbqW
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) November 26, 2021
In the video of Boebert, shared by a Twitter account PatriotTakes, the Colorado representative claimed she eased a Capitol Police officer’s worry about Omar by assuring them that “she doesn’t have a backpack.”
“So the other night on the House floor was not my first jihad squad moment. So I was getting into an elevator with one of my staffers. And he and I are – we’re leaving the Capitol. We’re going back to my office and we get in the elevator, and I see a Capitol Police officer running hurriedly to the elevator,” said Boebert.
“I see fret all over his face, and he’s reaching… The door’s shutting, like I can’t – I can’t open it – like, what’s happening? I look to my left, and there she is. Ilhan Omar. I said, ‘Well she doesn’t have a backpack, we should be fine.’”
According to Omar, the incident did not even occur and Boebert allegedly struggles to even look at Omar when they pass each other in the Capitol.
“Fact, this buffoon looks down when she sees me at the Capitol, this whole story is made up,” Omar said in her Thursday tweet. “Sad she thinks bigotry gets her clout.”
Omar is one of the first two Muslim women in Congress — the other being Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib.
While the comments drew laughter from Boebert’s crowd, many on Twitter stood by Omar, both defending her and ripping Boebert’s remarks as “anti-Muslim bigotry.”
“This is pure anti-Muslim bigotry and as such is completely contrary to what the USA is supposed to stand for. That this is tolerated in American politics and the House GOP is an indictment against anyone who is silent about it,” CNN’s Jake Tapper tweeted on Thursday.
This is pure anti-Muslim bigotry and as such is completely contrary to what the USA is supposed to stand for. That this is tolerated in American politics and the House GOP is an indictment against anyone who is silent about it. https://t.co/b5dNprwG2n
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) November 26, 2021
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) also blasted Boebert for her comments, calling them “personally hurtful” and noting that they “legitimately endanger” Omar as well as the Muslim community.
“Yet another blatant display of Islamophobia targeting Omar,” she tweeted. “These comments are personally hurtful, legitimately endanger her & the broader Muslim community. Rhetoric like this must be denounced & anyone spewing it held to account.”
