Speaker Nancy Pelosi addressed Democratic leaders’ statement criticizing Congresswoman Ilhan Omar on CNN Sunday.
House Democratic leaders recently put out a statement rebuking Omar for “drawing false equivalencies between democracies like the U.S. and Israel and groups that engage in terrorism like Hamas and the Taliban.”
Omar recently tweeted, “We must have the same level of accountability and justice for all victims of crimes against humanity. We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban.”
A number of Democrats publicly criticized her, and Omar ended up releasing a statement saying, “To be clear: the conversation was about accountability for specific incidents regarding those ICC cases, not a moral comparison between Hamas and the Taliban and the U.S. and Israel. I was in no way equating terrorist organizations with democratic countries with well-established judicial systems.”
CNN’s Dana Bash asked Pelosi about the rebuke and how Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib publicly called out Democratic leadership over it.
Pelosi started by saying, “We did not rebuke her. We acknowledged that she made a clarification.”
“Congresswoman Omar is a valued member of our caucus,” she continued. “She asked her questions of the Secretary of State. Nobody criticized those… That was not of concern. Members did become concerned when the tweet that was put out equated the United States with the Taliban and Hamas.”
“And then she clarified it. And we thanked her for clarification,” Pelosi added.
“So do you want people to just let it go?” Bash asked.
“They can say whatever they want,” Pelosi said. “What I’m saying is end of subject. She clarified, we thanked her, end of subject. Whatever people go out and say is up to them, but what happened is a reflection of the respect we have for our member when she made her questions at the hearing, but the disagreement that we have to equate the United States of America with Hamas and the Taliban.”
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