House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said Friday that Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) does not need to apologize further for comments insinuating that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was a suicide bomber, and outlined instances in which Democratic leadership failed to properly address what he saw as egregious assertions made by members of the Democratic Party.
"What’s interesting to me, I didn’t get to watch Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi’s press conference [Thursday], did any of you raise the question when someone on their side of the aisle said I work with the Ku Klux Klan, referring to Republicans?" McCarthy asked reporters, alluding to a tweet earlier this week from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
He also referenced multiple instances in which Omar, who has called on McCarthy to punish Boebert, was not disciplined by Pelosi over comments considered by many lawmakers to be anti-Semitic and anti-American.
"Did anyone on your side of the aisle talk about [how] when Omar said the only reason I support Israel is about the Benjamins, I never got a public apology or phone call?" McCarthy said.
"Did anybody on your side of the aisle — I think you might have asked Speaker Pelosi about this one — when Congresswoman Omar referred to America and the Taliban as equal, because I remember Speaker Pelosi saying something to the effect, I could be wrong, it was to the effect that she did not denounce her for saying that," he continued. "I think when somebody does something that is wrong, they apologize."
McCarthy also told reporters Friday that he had talked to Boebert and noted that she apologized publicly and personally.
"We should lower the temperature of this Congress," McCarthy said. "We should work together and talk to one another. In disagreements, if something goes astray, you apologize for it — exactly what Lauren Boebert did."
This comes after Boebert apologized to the Muslim community last week after a video surfaced on Twitter of her joking about being on an elevator with Omar as a police officer rushed toward them to stop the doors from closing.
"I look to my left and there she is: Ilhan Omar. And I said, 'Well, she doesn’t have a backpack. We should be fine,'" Boebert said in the video. "So we only had one floor to go and I was like eh, 'do I say it, do I not.' I looked over and I said, 'Oh look, the jihad squad decided to show up for work today.'"
Omar responded to the video by saying in a tweet that the elevator interaction never occurred and that Boebert's comments were an example of "Anti-Muslim bigotry."
And on Monday, the two congresswomen had a phone call that was intended to ease tensions but ended up doing the opposite. They each put out statements following the call, with Omar claiming Boebert "refused to publicly acknowledge her hurtful and dangerous comments" and Boebert alleging that Omar wanted a public apology because her previous public statement was not sufficient.
Boebert also said that, during the call, she called on Omar to retract prior "anti-American, anti-Semitic, anti-police" comments and, after a back and forth exchange, the Minnesota Democrat hung up the phone.
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