OPINION:
Rep. Ilhan Omar took to the pages of The New York Times to trash-talk President Donald Trump and paint him as a certain racist, worthy only of tossing on the trash heap of politics and history.
That’s not really the story.
The story here is why The New York Times, already in hot water for recent oopsie-daisies in editorial discretion that led to questions of the paper’s anti-Semitic direction, would allow the one member of Congress who’s battling off anti-Semitism accusations herself to have carte blanche to call out the president for discrimination.
Anyhow, Omar’s piece was titled, “It Is Not Enough To Condemn Trump’s Racism” — as if Trump’s so-called racism was a given. Like how the liberals always say climate change is settled science.
She then wrote: “Throughout history, demagogues have used state power to target minority communities and political enemies, often culminating in state violence. Today, we face that threat in our country, where the president of the United States is using the influence of our highest office to mount racist attacks on communities across the land.”
Blech.
This is rather pot calling the kettle black — except that in this case, the kettle, Trump, is hardly black.
Ilhan, on the other hand, inspires headlines like this, from the Manhattan Institute: “Democrats Need to oust Rep. Ilhan Omar From the Foreign Affairs Committee.” Why? Ilhan’s repeated perceived anti-Israel comments have left listeners with quite an unfavorable view of the congresswoman — so unfavorable, in fact, that even fellow Democrat, the congressman from New York, Eliot Engel, demanded in March that she apologize for her “vile, anti-Semitic slur.”
Pot, meet Ilhan.
Another pot? The New York Times itself.
“’The New York Times’ apologizes for running anti-Semitic cartoon,” the Jewish News Syndicate wrote in a recent headline.
“New York Times cuts political cartoons amid anti-Semitism backlash,” The New York Post reported in June.
Birds of a feather, they do flock together — yes?
Calling out the president of the United States as a racist in one of the nation’s largest newspaper is not just bad form. It’s not just ridiculously hyperbolic, given the no-proof nature of the accusation.
It’s over-the-top aggressive. And this is a classic Bible illustration of when the finger-pointers, Ilhan and The New York Times, ought to remove the log from their own eyes before crying about the splinters of others.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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