Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont defended Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar on Friday night after she faced intense backlash for her 9/11 comments.
Omar ruffled feathers when she said “some people did something” in reference to 9/11 during a speech last month. Many considered the comments, which only resurfaced this week, as inappropriately flippant about a terrorist attack that killed thousands.
“Ilhan Omar is a leader with strength and courage. She won’t back down to Trump’s racism and hate, and neither will we,” Sanders tweeted. “The disgusting and dangerous attacks against her must end.”
Ilhan Omar is a leader with strength and courage. She won’t back down to Trump’s racism and hate, and neither will we. The disgusting and dangerous attacks against her must end.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) April 13, 2019
Warren echoed Sanders’ sentiment, arguing that Trump was “inciting violence” against Omar for tweeting a video of Omar’s comments that also featured coverage of the terror attacks themselves.
The President is inciting violence against a sitting Congresswoman—and an entire group of Americans based on their religion. It’s disgusting. It’s shameful. And any elected leader who refuses to condemn it shares responsibility for it.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) April 13, 2019
The New York Post piled on to the criticism by publishing her quote Thursday with the infamous photo of the second plane going into the World Trade Center on the paper’s front page. (RELATED: Rashida Tlaib Defends Ilhan Omar’s 9/11 Comments: This is ‘Racist’)
WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 15: U.S. Rep Ilhan Omar (D-MN)speaks to media outside the US Captiol on January 15, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
Omar doubled down Friday on her remarks on social media, wondering aloud if former President George W. Bush was trivializing 9/11 with his famous speech atop the World Trade Center wreckage, when he said, “The people — and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!”
Following the president’s tweet, progressives like Rep. Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan also came out and defended their colleague.
Sanders also defended Omar when she faced backlash for accusing the pro-Israel lobbying group American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) of buying pro-Israel support from American politicians.
No other Democratic presidential candidate has made a statement about Omar at the time of publication.