Press Secretary Jen Psaki weighed in on Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s refusal to apologize for her comments conflating the U.S. and Israel with terrorist organizations.
“Any attempt to draw an equivalency between the United States and our close ally, Israel, with a terror groups like Hamas or the Taliban, is false and unacceptable,” Psaki said during her Wednesday press conference. Psaki also claimed that doing so was “not the intent of [Omar’s] comments.”
Omar told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday that she did not regret comments in which she claimed that the U.S., Israel, Hamas, and the Taliban were all responsible for “unthinkable atrocities.”
“I think it’s really important to think back to the point that I was trying to make,” Omar told Tapper. “Obviously, I was addressing Secretary of State Blinken. The cases are put together in front of the ICC. ICC has been investigating. I know that some of my colleagues don’t let legitimacy to the ICC but I tend to think that people around the world who have experienced injustice need to be able to have a place where they can go.”
Omar then accused Jewish Democrats who condemned the earlier remarks of not “equally engaging in seeking justice around the world,” and not “know[ing] what it feels like to experience injustice.” (RELATED: Republicans, Democrats Condemn Ilhan Omar’s Latest Slam On Jewish Lawmakers)