Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) shared perhaps the strangest take on last weekend's incident at the Lincoln Memorial, when a group of Covington Catholic high school students got into a confrontation with Native American activists. The initial outrage was against the students, but when more footage was released, it looked like the adults were to blame because it was the group of Native Americans who first approached the teenagers. The video evidence didn't change Omar's mind on the boys, however. In a Tuesday night tweet, the congresswoman alleged that the students were guilty of harassing a group of black men, chanting racist things, and protesting a "woman's right to choose" by shouting, "it's not rape if you enjoy it." She has since deleted her tweet, but someone grabbed a screenshot.
You can run
— Jim Hanson (@Uncle_Jimbo) January 23, 2019
But you can't hide
Here is the foul tweet from Rep Omar pic.twitter.com/W0vVi8SR8U
Conservatives on Twitter accused Omar of slander and wondered why she wasn't as concerned by the Black Hebrew Israelite group that was chanting obscenities at the high school kids.
They are literally to the point where they are defending the adults who were yelling racist and homophobic slurs in order to smear kids who were countering those slurs. All so they can keep smearing kids wearing the wrong hats.
— (((AG))) (@AG_Conservative) January 23, 2019
These are bad people. https://t.co/i4rHDo9nbE
Dana Loesch was there to derail Omar's claims.
- Those weren’t Covington students
— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) January 23, 2019
- Video shows the kids taunted no one; you’re defending grown adults who are on camera racially and sexually slurring young boys
Hi media, any of you want to report on this sitting official’s inexcusable smear here? https://t.co/HQoO1XjvH0
Omar's latest hot take gave critics a chance to revisit Omar's history of anti-Semitic comments. In 2012, she tweeted her opinion that Israel has "hypnotized the world." CNN asked her last week if she regretted those sentiments and the best she could do was, "Those unfortunate words were the only ones I could think about expressing at that moment," adding that she didn't know how the comment was offensive to Jewish people.
Facing another round of backlash, Omar finally offered an apology this week. Or at least it seemed more like one. I'll let you decide.
Hi @bariweiss,
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) January 22, 2019
You are correct when you say,
“Perhaps Ms. Omar is sincerely befuddled and not simply deflecting”
In all sincerity, it was after my CNN interview that I heard from Jewish orgs. that my use of the word “Hypnotize” and the ugly sentiment it holds was offensive. pic.twitter.com/IxPScaSzGw
That statement came in the context of the Gaza War.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) January 22, 2019
It’s now apparent to me that I spent lots of energy putting my 2012 tweet in context and little energy is disavowing the anti-semitic trope I unknowingly used, which is unfortunate and offensive.
Omar also recently helped spread the conspiracy that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is only so vocally supportive of President Trump because he's "compromised."