House Speaker Nancy Pelosi went after President Donald Trump Saturday morning for his Twitter response to Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar’s 9/11 remarks but did not mention Omar or her comments specifically.
“The memory of 9/11 is sacred ground, and any discussion of it must be done with reverence. The President shouldn’t use the painful images of 9/11 for a political attack,” Pelosi said in a statement.
Pelosi added, “As we visit our troops in Stuttgart to thank them and be briefed by them, we honor our first responsibility as leaders to protect and defend the American people. It is wrong for the President, as Commander-in-Chief, to fan the flames to make anyone less safe.”
President Trump tweeted out a video Friday of Omar’s comments about 9/11, which also included the attacks on the World Trade Center Towers. In the tweet Trump said, “WE WILL NEVER FORGET!”
WE WILL NEVER FORGET! pic.twitter.com/VxrGFRFeJM
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 12, 2019
Pelosi, however, has yet to make a full statement on Omar’s 9/11 remarks. (RELATED: Pelosi Dodges Question On Omar’s 9/11 Comments)
“I haven’t had the opportunity to speak with [Rep. Omar] to see the nature of her comment and, as is my custom with my colleagues, I call them in before I call them out so I’ll look forward to hearing from her,” Pelosi told reporters at a press conference Friday, The Washington Examiner reported.
However, Assistant House Speaker Rep. Ben Ray Luján said Thursday on MSNBC that Omar’s 9/11 statement was “extremely hurtful” and New York Democratic Rep. Max Rose called what she said “insensitive” and “offensive.”
The comments made by Omar happened back in March at an event hosted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). At the time she stood behind a podium and said to the group, “For far too long we have lived with the discomfort of being a second-class citizen and, frankly, I’m tired of it, and every single Muslim in this country should be tired of it.”
She continued, “CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties. So you can’t just say that today someone is looking at me strange and that I am trying to make myself look pleasant. You have to say that this person is looking at me strange, I am not comfortable with it, and I am going to talk to them and ask them why. Because that is the right you have.”
When the video of the event surfaced this past week, The New York Post responded by running a cover of the 9/11 attacks on the Trade Center with the headline “Here’s Your Something.”
Despite the backlash, Omar doubled down and asked in a tweet if her comments were any different than that of President George W. Bush immediately following the terrorist attacks.
“The people — and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!” President George W. Bush
Was Bush downplaying the terrorist attack?
What if he was a Muslim https://t.co/XMazssoD49
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) April 12, 2019
Omar received support from fellow freshmen Democratic members including New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Rep. Antonio Delgado, and Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib as well as presidential Democratic candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.
Kerry Picket is a host on SiriusXM Patriot 125
