House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a strongly worded statement condemning Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s blatantly anti-Semitic comments made over the weekend…but didn’t say anything about removing the freshman congresswoman from her place on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
“Congresswoman Omar’s use of anti-Semitic tropes and prejudicial accusations about Israel’s supporters is deeply offensive,” the Democratic Leadership said in a statement Monday. “We condemn these remarks and we call upon Congresswoman Omar to immediately apologize for these hurtful comments.”
In a tweet accompanying the statement, Pelosi said she'd had a "conversation" with Omar where the two "agreed that we must use this moment to move forward as we reject anti-Semitism in all forms."
In our conversation today, Congresswoman Omar and I agreed that we must use this moment to move forward as we reject anti-Semitism in all forms. https://t.co/UpZA3DNgQs pic.twitter.com/1Z6rH65e3M
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) February 11, 2019
Omar, an open supporter of Palestine with a well documented history of anti-Semitism, lit a firestorm on Twitter Sunday for accusing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) of buying congressional support for Israel after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy called on Pelosi to get a hold on the increasing number of anti-Semites within congressional Democratic ranks.
Both tweets were still up and active more than an hour after Pelosi and her fellow Democrats released their statement.
Accusing Jewish people of buying off their backers is pretty commonly understood anti-Semitic trope – something Pelosi and her fellow Democratic leaders seem to know perfectly well. Even still, the Democratic leadership stopped short of stripping Omar of her place on the House Foreign Affairs Committee -- or suggesting any punitive action at all, in fact, ending simply with, “As Democrats and as Americans, the entire Congress must be fully engaged in denouncing and rejecting all forms of hatred, racism, prejudice and discrimination wherever they are encountered.”