Trump on Ilhan Omar’s Antisemitism: ‘She Should Be Ashamed of Herself’

Ilhan Omar ashamed with Rashida Tlaib (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)
J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press
Joel B. Pollak

President Donald Trump addressed the controversy around recent antisemitic statements by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) on Monday evening, telling reporters on Air Force One that she should be “ashamed” of what she had said.

“I think she should be ashamed of herself. I think it was a terrible statement and I don’t think her apology was adequate,” the president said, according to a pool report. Asked what Omar should have said instead, Trump answered: “She knows what to say.”

On Sunday, Omar posted several tweets suggesting that members of Congress supported Israel because they had been paid to do by pro-Israel groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

Members of both parties took offense, and Democratic Party leaders eventually condemned Omar’s remarks as antisemitic. In response, she apologized — but said she would continue attacking AIPAC.

Barely an hour after apologizing, Omar used her apology to attack House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), retweeting a left-wing pundit who accused McCarthy of antisemitism for criticizing George Soros and other donors to the Democratic Party who happened to be Jewish.

Trump devoted a significant portion of his State of the Union address last week to fighting antisemitism, honoring Holocaust survivors and the victims, survivors, and first responders at the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting last fall.

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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