AOC, Elizabeth Warren, & More Are Furious Over Trump's 9/11 Tweet About Ilhan Omar
If you've been online on April 13, you might've noticed that Rep. Ilhan Omar's name has surged to the top of Twitter's trending list. While the messages are really sweet, the reason why she might need support is kind of messed up. The "I Stand With Ilhan Omar" hashtag is in response to a tweet President Donald Trump sent blasting the freshman congresswoman over her "response" to 9/11. Elite Daily reached out to the White House for comment on the video and the subsequent reactions, but did not hear back by the time of publication.
It started with Trump tweeting a video on April 12 that splices a clip of a comment Omar made while speaking at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in March into videos of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. But the comment, which came while Omar was discussing how terrorism has led to Islamophobia, is edited in a way that paints her out to be dismissive of the tragedy. According to NPR, the full quote was "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." But the video only focuses on the "some people did something" comment, so when paired with the 9/11 footage, it looks horrible.
"WE WILL NEVER FORGET!" Trump wrote alongside the video. It marks yet another time the president has attacked the Muslim lawmaker and people are seriously sick of it. Rep. Omar hasn't directly responded to the video at the time of publication, but she did tweet on April 13:
Thank you for standing with me – against an administration that ran on banning Muslims from this country – to fight for the America we all deserve.
Among those speaking out are Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), Rep. Adam Schiff (D-California), and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts). The White House did not immediately respond to Elite Daily's request for comment on the backlash.
Rep. Schiff called Trump's tweet "dangerous and irresponsible."
"The disgusting and dangerous attacks against her must end," Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont) added.
Warren really didn't hold back, writing that Trump's actions are "disgusting" and "shameful." She went on to say that "any elected leader who refuses to condemn it shares responsibility for it."
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shared her support for Omar by tweeting a picture of Martin Niemöller quote about standing up for others even if you might not share the same background. Niemöller was a Lutheran pastor living in Germany at the time of the Holocaust and famously spoke out against Adolf Hitler, per the Holocaust Encyclopedia.
Some people shot criticism back at Trump, like reporter David Leavitt, who pointed out how Trump infamously bragged that he had the tallest building in the area City just moments after the Twin Towers crashed.
While we're at it, I'd just like to point out one more of Trump's troubling comments related to 9/11, like this tweet he sent on the anniversary of the tragedy back in 2013 extending his "best wishes" to the "haters and losers." If you ask me, he hasn't had the best "responses" to the tragedy, either.
As much as I'm over here shaking my head at his antics, it's at least comforting to see so many people spreading words of encouragement while all this is going on.
I can't say it's surprising, though. Trump has been strongly criticizing Omar since at least February, when she sent tweets that some called "anti-Semitic" for spreading tropes about Jewish money influencing politics.
If you missed it in February, Omar tweeted about Israel and lobbying in the U.S. political system, suggesting that American politicians support Israel because they are being paid to do so by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a prominent pro-Israel lobbying group with a mission to "strengthen, protect and promote the U.S.-Israel relationship in ways that enhance the security of the United States and Israel," per its website. Though it's not a political action committee (PAC) and does not contribute funds to political candidates, the group has been recognized as a politically influential organization, which is something Omar apparently has a problem with.
Though she apologized in a tweeted statement for the remarks, saying she never meant to "offend [her] constituents or Jewish Americans as a whole," President Donald Trump still urged her to step down from either her post or the House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC), and he continues to criticize her over the comments.
When it comes to Trump's latest tweet about the freshman congresswoman in tandem with 9/11, it's clear that people aren't about to let him get away with this extreme response. And this probably isn't the end of it. Stay tuned for what may happen next.
