The controversy surrounding Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, who’s accused of using anti-Semitic tropes to criticize Israel and it’s U.S. supporters, took a turn on Friday after the freshman congresswoman retweeted an attack on Meghan McCain for her “faux outrage” over Omar’s comments.
McCain, the daughter of late Sen. John McCain and a co-host of ABC’s “The View,” became emotional during a recent segment discussing House Democrats’ plan to pass a resolution condemning anti-Semitism, which came in response to Omar’s latest comments on Israel.
McCain, 34, argued the congresswoman’s views were “very dangerous” and accused her of making “dog whistle” remarks against the Jewish community.
“I take this very personally,” she began, growing emotional. “I would go so far as to say I probably verge on being a Zionist, as well. What Ilhan Omar is saying is very scary to me and a lot of people and I don’t think you have to be Jewish to recognize that.”
In response, Omar retweeted a comment by journalist and commentator Mehdi Hasan who blasted McCain’s “faux outrage” on the issue and criticized the politics and racist remarks spewed by her father.
“Meghan’s late father literally sang ‘bomb bomb bomb Iran’ and insisted on referring to his Vietnamese captors as ‘gooks’. He also, lest we forget, gave the world Sarah Palin,” Hasan wrote. “So a little less faux outrage over a former refugee-turned-freshman-representative pls.”
McCain didn’t take to kindly to the attack, however, and hit back at Omar with a tweet of her own.
“@IlhanMN retweeting trash like this is beneath a sitting member of Congress, as is her blatantly anti-Semitic rhetoric,” she tweeted Friday. “The Democratic Party looking the other way only helps Trump’s re-election efforts in 2020.”
Omar, 37, who has come under fire for her remarks on Israel in the past, sparked renewed backlash last week when she suggested that pro-Israel advocates push for “allegiance to a foreign country.” The congressional newcomer made also headlines earlier this month when she tweeted that U.S. supporters of Israel were “all about the benjamins.”
Facing pressure, Omar issued an apology and later argued that her criticism of Israeli policy doesn’t make her anti-Semitic
On Thursday, the House passed a resolution to condemning anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry. The resolution was originally expected to condemn anti-Semitism only, according to The Hill.
Though the list of Omar’s detractors continues to grow, she’s still receiving support from folks who feel her criticism of Israel is valid. One of those people was Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is Jewsih and acknowledged that, “anti-Semitism is a hateful and dangerous ideology which must be vigorously opposed in the United States and around the world.”
“We must not, however, equate anti-Semitism with legitimate criticism of the right-wing, [Benjamin Netanyahu government in Israel,” he told the news site.
