Ilhan Omar Opposes Sanctions on Venezuela — But Wants Them on Israel

Ilhan Omar (Alex Wong / Getty)
Alex Wong / Getty

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) rejected the Trump administration’s new sanctions against Venezuela’s state-owned oil company on Monday, doubling down on her defense of Nicolas Maduro’s socialist regime last week.

Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin and National Security Advisor John Bolton announced the sanctions against Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PdVSA) from the White House briefing room. Last week, the administration recognized the opposition, led by socialist Juan Guaidó, as the legitimate government of Venezuela, and other nations followed.

As Breitbart News reported, the U.S. was acting in accordance with a provision in the Venezuelan constitution that exists to prevent the deterioration of democracy in the case of an autocratic regime such as Maduro’s.

Nevertheless, Omar raised against a “US backed coup” that aimed, she said, to bring a “far right” opposition to power. She insisted that sanctions, not socialism, were the reason behind Venezuela’s deepening economic woes.

On Monday, she doubled down, tweeting that she opposed the adminstration’s new sanctions against PdVSA:

However, Omar supports sanctions against Israel as part of the “boycott, divestment, sanctions” movement — which many critics have called antisemitic, since it only targets Israel and ignores Palestinian terror.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) appointed Omar to the House Foreign Affairs Committee earlier this month, despite her history of antisemitic rhetoric, her support for sanctions against Israel, and her radical foreign policy views in general.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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