Rep. Ilhan Omar doubled down on her recent comments about the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks by comparing her remarks to those of former President George W. Bush in the wake of the tragedy.
Ms. Omar referred to 9/11 as “some people did something,” while Mr. Bush said, “The people — and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear from all of us soon!”
“Was Bush downplaying the terrorist attack? What if he was a Muslim,” the Minnesota Democrat tweeted Friday, along with a Washington Post opinion article about her remarks.
Ms. Omar received backlash following a speech to the Council on American-Islamic Relations last weekend discussing how the organization was founded to address Muslims being treated as “second-class” citizens post-9/11.
“CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties,” she said.
Ms. Omar’s comments prompted the New York Post to put her words over an image of both of the twin towers on fire with the headline, “Here’s your something,” on its front page Thursday.
Ms. Omar’s Democratic colleagues, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley, have all come to her aide, saying her quotes were taken out of context.
Rep. Liz Cheney disagreed, calling Ms. Omar’s comments “nauseating, frankly” and criticizing the lawmakers coming to her aid.
“Some of her colleagues, including Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, have launched a defense of her. First of all, there’s no context in which calling 9/11 ’some people did something’ is anything other than a disgrace,” the Wyoming Republican said in an interview with SiriusXM Patriot posted Friday.
• Bailey Vogt can be reached at bvogt@washingtontimes.com.
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