Republican Sen. James Lankford broke with President Trump on Tuesday and accepted Rep. Ilhan Omar’s apology for anti-Semitic comments she made earlier this week.
“I do accept Rep. Omar’s apology, and I think it’s entirely appropriate,” the Oklahoma senator said on CNN’s “New Day.”
He defended the Minnesota Democrat’s comments, which she posted on Twitter, and said lawmakers can “go over the line” when they’re trying too hard to make a point.
“She’s a brand-new, freshman representative,” he said. “Sometimes, you get out there and you say things and then you try to correct it.”
Ms. Omar came under intense bipartisan backlash on Monday for suggesting in a set of tweets that pro-Israel groups were influencing U.S. lawmakers with campaign contributions, which many said promoted an anti-Semitic trope.
She apologized Monday, saying that she never intended for her comments to “offend my constituents or Jewish Americans as a whole.”
Mr. Trump dismissed her apology as insincere and called on the congresswoman to resign.
“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,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
• Gabriella Muñoz can be reached at gmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
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