'I stand undeterred': Ilhan Omar fires back after Trump shares 9/11 video
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., issued a five-tweet response on Saturday after President Trump and others attacked her by promulgating a video with jarring images of the 9/11 attacks.
"I did not run for Congress to be silent," she wrote. "I did not run for Congress to sit on the sidelines. I ran because I believed it was time to restore moral clarity and courage to Congress. To fight and to defend our democracy."
She continued: "No one person — no matter how corrupt, inept, or vicious — can threaten my unwavering love for America. I stand undeterred to continue fighting for equal opportunity in our pursuit of happiness for all Americans."
Omar, who is Muslim, has come under assault in recent days for comments she made last month at a fundraiser for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Omar said the organization “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.” [CAIR was in fact founded in 1994. Omar’s spokesman said she misspoke and “meant to refer to the fact that the organization had doubled in size after the Sept. 11 attacks.”]
Her opponents focused on her use of the phrase “some people did something,” implying that it minimized the attacks that brought down the Twin Towers in New York and gravely damaged the Pentagon. Almost 3,000 Americans died in those attacks and the crash of a hijacked airliner in Pennsylvania.
The blowback was fierce. On Thursday, The New York Post responded by splashing an image on its cover of the burning Twin Towers. On Friday, President Trump waded into the controversy and shared video footage of the Sept. 11 attacks.
“WE WILL NEVER FORGET!” he exclaimed on Twitter.
WE WILL NEVER FORGET! pic.twitter.com/VxrGFRFeJM
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 12, 2019
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was among the Democrats who said Trump's video crossed a line.
“The memory of 9/11 is sacred ground, and any discussion of it must be done with reverence,” she said in a Saturday morning press release. “The President shouldn’t use the painful images of 9/11 for a political attack.”
View Omar's full response below:
This country was founded on the ideas of justice, of liberty, of the pursuit of happiness. But these core beliefs are under threat. Each and every day. We are under threat by an administration that would rather cage children than pass comprehensive immigration reform.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) April 13, 2019
An administration that would rather give billionaires tax breaks than provide a little cushion for working people. An administration that would rather attack fellow Americans who are transgender and wear our country’s uniform than fight for equality and opportunity for all.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) April 13, 2019
I did not run for Congress to be silent. I did not run for Congress to sit on the sidelines. I ran because I believed it was time to restore moral clarity and courage to Congress. To fight and to defend our democracy.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) April 13, 2019
No one person – no matter how corrupt, inept, or vicious – can threaten my unwavering love for America. I stand undeterred to continue fighting for equal opportunity in our pursuit of happiness for all Americans.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) April 13, 2019
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.💪🏽
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) April 13, 2019
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