Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly, who represents Virginia’s 11th District, excused Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s blatant anti-Semitism as a product of her being a “freshman” lawmaker.
Because apparently, it takes multiple terms in Congress to figure out how not to be a racist.
“I make a huge distinction between Omar and say someone like Steve King, who has been around for decades. Steve King’s been saying horrible, racist things for a long time and, you know, there was crickets, total silence on the Republican side of the aisle about it until very recently. All of a sudden, they were shocked -- he was talking about white supremacism,” Connolly told CNN anchor Don Lemon Thursday night.
“Omar is a freshman. She’s new here, she’s young. I think she has learned a painful lesson that the words you use through whatever what medium can be painful and can be hurtful and will have consequences. So hopefully moving forward, this is a valuable lesson she has learned and she’ll seek counsel and be far more careful about how she expresses herself.”
What Connolly failed to mention is that after making his racially charged comments (which he himself claimed had been taken out of context), Rep. King was nearly immediately stripped of his congressional committee assignments while House Republicans launched – and passed – a resolution specifically condemning white supremacy.
Democrats, on the other hand, failed to pass a resolution condemning anti-Semitism that didn’t even mention Omar’s name, ultimately settling for an updated resolution condemning hate speech against – deep breath – African Americans, Native Americans, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, immigrants, Latinos, Pacific Islanders, Asian Americans, and the LGBT.