In a joint statement that was issued this week with fellow members of Democratic leadership in the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) went after House GOP leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for his repeated failures to take meaningfully substantive action to tamp down on racism among Republicans.
Lauren Boebert’s apology for her anti-Muslim attack is empty and frivolous. She must be removed from Congress.
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) November 27, 2021
A new example of this trend emerged when footage began to circulate of Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) saying at a recent event that she’d (supposedly) been present when Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) had been seemingly “mistaken for a terrorist” by a Capitol Police officer while making her way through the Capitol complex, as summarized by CNN. At the same event, Boebert also claimed that she then turned to Omar and said that the “jihad squad decided to show up for work today.” Omar said that the “whole story is made up.”
“I apologize to anyone offended” is a classic non-apology apology. Also, no actual apology here from Boebert to her Congressional colleague for suggesting she might be a suicide bomber. https://t.co/61SuQrFTNh
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) November 26, 2021
No matter the apparent lack of any meaningful basis in reality for Boebert’s remarks, the problem remains that she is willing to spread such nonsensical and racist hatred. (Omar is a Muslim and originally hails from Somalia.) And McCarthy seems as willing as ever to look the other way. As that joint statement from Democratic leaders put it:
‘Racism and bigotry of any form, including Islamophobia, must always be called out, confronted and condemned in any place it is found. This is particularly true in the halls of Congress, which are the very heart of our democracy. Congresswoman Boebert’s repeated, ongoing and targeted Islamophobic comments and actions against another Member of Congress, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, are both deeply offensive and concerning… Leader McCarthy and the entire House Republican Leadership’s repeated failure to condemn inflammatory and bigoted rhetoric from members of their conference is outrageous. We call on the Republican Leadership to address this priority with the Congresswoman and to finally take real action to confront racism.’
House Dem Leaders on the Colorado Republican's bigoted remarks:
Kevin McCarthy's "repeated failure to condemn inflammatory and bigoted rhetoric from members of their conference is outrageous. We call on the Republican Leadership to address this priority with the Congresswoman."
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 27, 2021
There’s little to suggest, unfortunately, that Republican leaders have any intention of taking these calls for action into consideration. It’s just recently that Republican figureheads including McCarthy rushed to the defense of Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) after he posted an edited, partly animated video that depicted him murdering Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). As Ocasio-Cortez herself put it recently, discussing the video: “What is so hard about saying that this is wrong? This is not about me. This is not about Representative Gosar. But this is about what we are willing to accept.” Only two — out of over 200 — House Republicans voted to censure Gosar when a resolution to do so was up for consideration on the day that Ocasio-Cortez made those remarks.
Rep. Boebert is such an unserious legislator that her public statements invariably consist of fabricated stories and Islamophobic rhetoric about @IlhanMN. This is the latest shameful display from within the GOP Caucus. When will @GOPLeader stop enabling these dangerous attacks? https://t.co/wtQUtLVYIH
— Mondaire Jones (@MondaireJones) November 26, 2021
