Liz Cheney Scraps with Chuck Todd Over Ilhan Omar ‘Whataboutism’: ‘You Can Describe it That Way But You are Wrong’
On Meet the Press on Sunday, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) was on to talk about her “no” vote on the resolution passed by the House last week condemning “hateful expressions of intolerance,” which was brought to the floor in the wake of anti-Semitic comments by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN).
Cheney was one of 23 Republicans who voted against the resolution. “Today’s resolution vote was a sham put forward by Democrats to avoid condemning one of their own and denouncing vile anti-Semitism,” said Cheney in a statement after the vote.
Anchor Chuck Todd asked whether other Republicans made a mistake in voting for it. Cheney said that they had not made a mistake but she felt it necessary to do because Democrats were using it to protect Omar from criticism.
“The Democrats have yet to take any action to remove her from her committee,” she said. “And they’ve got a real problem. I mean, the extent to which they are abiding by anti-Semitism, enabling anti-Semitism in their party is something we watch them struggle with, but is sometimes very dangerous for the country. I hope they will be able to stand up and do the right thing.”
Todd pointed out that sources told Politico her fellow Republicans were annoyed with Cheney for not standing with the leadership to speak “with one voice”, but Cheney dismissed that as typical politics before repeating her charge against the Democrats as a whole.
“The important thing for us to be focused on and to remember, the Democrats have been in charge for about 2 1/2 months in the House, and in that time, they’ve been the party of anti-Semitism, the party of infanticide, the party of socialism. They’ve passed legislation that’s violated the first amendment, the second amendment,” she said. “It’s really time for the Democrats, the leadership in that party, to stop it, to stand up and to act worthy, frankly, of the trust the American people have in them. It’s crucial for the nation.”
Cheney led the move by Republicans to pull Rep. Steve King’s committee assignments after his own racist comments, a move that came with a resolution that, unlike the current anti-hate resolution which did not mention Omar, called out King by name. She and Todd discussed whether stripping assignments ran counter to the will of the voters, which Cheney said it does not, and again brought it back to the Democrats.
“The kind of anti-Semitism that you’re seeing now from Ilhan Omar and that has been supported by her colleagues is the kind of anti-Semitism that really has the ability to creep in and become normalized in our discourse, and we have an absolute obligation not to let that happen,” she said.
Todd then moved on to the question of “what about”-ism, and that’s when it got animated.
“Well there’s actually an anti-Semitism that has creeped in to our discourse,” said Todd. He said that Republican attacks on billionaire Democratic donor and founder of left-wing activist groups George Soros have been “mainstreamed, in ways, for years to the point where George Soros had some guy that was trying to pipe bomb him.”
They began to talk over each other as Todd said that the “whaboutaboutism’ that’s going on is “getting old.”
“The whataboutism absolutely should not go on,” said Cheney. “And everyone, including leader Mccarthy, has stood up absolutely firmly to condemen anti-Semitism,” said Cheney. “The thing that people need to be focused on here though is that the Democrats in the House of Representatives, and even some of the Democrats themselves, are completely frustrated with the fact that the leadership is protecting her. This isn’t just being silent, they are protecting her.”
Todd again suggested that both sides are guilty and that naming Omar would have singled her out.
“You can describe it that way but you are wrong,” said Cheney twice.
Watch the clip above, courtesy of NBC News.
[Featured image via screengrab]
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