Reps. Ilhan Omar and Lauren Boebert had a phone conversation Monday. It did not go well.
Both lawmakers took to Twitter on Monday to claim that the other did not speak in good faith. Ms. Omar said the entire Republican Party is bigoted and Mrs. Boebert said her Democratic counterpart refuses to condemn terrorism.
The feud between the women escalated last week when a video surfaced of Mrs. Boebert joking about Ms. Omar, who is the first Somali American elected to Congress, fitting the profile of a suicide bomber.
The call was supposed to be a peace offering.
“Instead of apologizing for her Islamophobic and fabricated lies, Rep. Boebert refused to publicly acknowledge her hurtful and dangerous comments,” Ms. Omar, a Minnesota Democrat and member of Congress’ far-left “Squad,” wrote in a statement posted to Twitter.
Mrs. Boebert, a firebrand Republican from Colorado, didn’t back down either, saying Ms. Omar hung up on her when she attempted to apologize.
“I wanted to let her know that I had reflected on my previous remarks,” Mrs. Boebert said in the video posted on social media. “As a strong Christian woman who values faith deeply, I never want anything I say to offend someone’s religion. So I told her that.”
She continued, “She kept asking for a public apology. So I told Ilhan Omar that she should make a public apology to the American people for her anti-American, antisemitic, anti-police rhetoric.” Mrs. Boebert added, “She continued to press, and I continued to press back. And then, Rep. Ilhan Omar hung up on me.”
The ongoing fight between both lawmakers hikes the chances that Mrs. Boebert is next on House Democrats’ list to make an example of to the GOP just two weeks after Democrats used their majority to censure and remove Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona from his committees.
Ms. Omar said Mrs. Boebert “doubled down on her rhetoric and I decided to end the unproductive call.”
Mrs. Boebert asked her supporters to stand by her.
“Please know. I appreciate you and your support. I appreciate you understanding that I will always shoot straight with you,” she said. “This isn’t about religion. It’s about the horrible failed Democrat policies and anti-Americanism that I will call out each and every time I hear it. I am here to protect your freedom and continue making this the greatest nation our world has ever seen.”
The lawmakers have been battling since a video clip was posted by a Twitter account called PatriotTakes that showed Ms. Boebert describing an encounter in a Capitol elevator with Ms. Omar. Mrs. Boebert said she joked with a nearby Capitol police officer that Ms. Omar was not dangerous because, “Well, she doesn’t have a backpack. We should be fine.”
Last week, Mrs. Boebert apologized for her backpack joke in a tweet: “I apologize to anyone in the Muslim community I offended with my comment about Rep. Omar. I have reached out to her office to speak with her directly. There are plenty of policy differences to focus on without this unnecessary distraction.”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, California Republican, and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Maryland Democrat, also set up the Boebert-Omar call in an attempt to cool the conflict.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s team last week said Rep. Boebert’s “repeated, ongoing and targeted Islamophobic comments and actions against another Member of Congress, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, are both deeply offensive and concerning. This language and behavior are far beneath the standard of integrity, dignity and decency with which the Constitution and our constituents require that we act in the House.”
They did not mention censure or removing Mrs. Boebert from her committees, but some House Democrats are demanding punishment of her if Mr. McCarthy does not do so.
The Council on American Islamic Relations has demanded Mrs. Boebert be censured if she doesn’t make a better public apology.
“If she once again refuses to do so, Speaker Pelosi and Leader Hoyer should move to censure her. Failing to do so would signal that Islamophobia is an acceptable form of bigotry in the halls of Congress,” he said.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican who was stripped of her committees for offensive Facebook statements posted before her time in office, shot back at Democrats for threatening to censure Mrs. Boebert. “If Democrats move against @laurenboebert, who apologized, they’ll only help Lauren and reveal their true nature,” she tweeted last week.
She continued, “@IlhanMN committed immigration fraud by repulsively marrying her brother, reveres Al-Qaeda, & refers to 9/11 Islamic terror attack as ‘some people did something.’”
In another Tweet, she writes, “Pelosi’s absurd committee assignments and punishments can’t really be taken seriously. Instead Members who vote with her deranged abuses of power, clearly don’t care about America’s security or sensibility.”
Correction: An earlier version of this article suggested Rep. Greene was stripped of her committee posts because of offensive tweets. It was for offensive Facebook posts.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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