President Trump called on embattled Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar to resign or be stripped of a key committee post Tuesday over comments that were viewed as anti-Semitic.
“It’s terrible what she said and I think she should either resign from Congress, or she should certainly resign from the House Foreign Affairs Committee,” Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House. “Anti-Semitism has no place in the United States Congress.”
The president said the comments by Ms. Omar, a native of Somalia who is Muslim, are “deep-seated in her heart.” He called her apology this week “lame.”
“She didn’t mean a word of it, [it] was just not appropriate,” Mr. Trump said.
Ms. Omar, a first-term lawmaker, was forced by Democratic leaders to apologize for saying on Twitter that some lawmakers’ support for Israel was “all about the Benjamins,” a reference to campaign donations from pro-Israeli interests.
In her apology, she said she was “grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes.”
After she apologized Monday, Ms. Omar went on to retweet a thread defending her claim that campaign contributions from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee buy support for the group’s positions.
Whether or not she resigns, the president said, “at a minimum, she shouldn’t be on committees, certainly that committee.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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