Politics

Pelosi: Omar ‘Doesn’t Understand’ Anti-Semitic Connotations Of Her Words

Doug Mills/Pool via REUTERS

Mike Brest Reporter
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi defended Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar on Friday when asked about the anti-hate bill that recently passed the House.

Omar offended many when she made comments last week regarding the “dual loyalty” she believes members of Congress are expected to have toward Israel. The comments received significant backlash and resulted in an anti-hate resolution that passed through the House on Thursday.

Pelosi reiterated the stance she expressed Thursday, suggesting that Omar is not anti-Semitic but rather simply “doesn’t understand.” (RELATED: Omar Facing More Accusations Of Anti-Semitism)

WATCH:

“It was an anti-hate resolution, but it was watered down in the view of some people and it wasn’t as much of an anti-Semitic resolution in terms of chastising somebody for something she had said. Are you happy with the resolution and was it difficult negotiating that resolution that ultimately passed?” David Rubenstein asked Pelosi at an Economic Club event Friday.

“Well, I appreciate that question, thank you,” Pelosi answered. “I don’t think it watered-down anti-Semitic language at all. I think it strengthened it. It isn’t about anybody who hates anybody, it’s about people who act upon their hatred and that is what we have no place for against anyone in our country, and it is part of our values that we convey to the rest of the world.” (RELATED: Omar’s Experiences Are ‘More Personal’ Than Children Of Holocaust Survivors)

Pelosi continued:

The incident that happened with — I don’t think our colleague is anti-Semitic. I think she has a different experience in the use of words, doesn’t understand that some of them are fraught with meaning, that she didn’t realize. But nonetheless that we had to address. And so the question was, do you have one amendment that just talks about anti-Semitism — I mean resolution, or one that addresses white supremacy, white — so many of the — Islamophobia all the rest of it.

Pelosi’s statement comes the same day as Omar tweeted that she came to America 24 years ago Friday.

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