Vice President Mike Pence made veiled attacks Monday against Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN), referencing Ocasio-Cortez’s comparison of border detention centers to Nazi concentration camps and calling for Omar’s removal from the House Foreign Affairs Committee where Pence once served.
“To compare the humane work of dedicated men and women of Customs and Border Protection with the horrors of the Holocaust is an outrage,” Pence said at the Christians United for Israel summit in Washington, DC. “The Nazis took lives. American law enforcement saves lives every day.”
Ocasio-Cortez has compared the holding facilities at the U.S.-Mexico border, where thousands of children are being sheltered after coming to the United States on their own or being brought here by adults, to Nazi concentration camps.
“We must never allow the memory of those lost in the Holocaust to be cheapened or used as a cliché to advance some left-wing political narrative,” Pence said. “But sadly, in recent weeks, that’s exactly what some Democrats have tried to do. And her allies in Congress, the left, and the media shamefully came to her defense.”
Pence reiterated the Trump administration’s commitment to honoring victims of the Holocaust and men in women in law enforcement at the border and across the land.
“I promise you President Donald Trump and I will always honor the memory of the victims of the Holocaust, and we will always honor the service of the brave men and women of law enforcement,” Pence said.
In condemning antisemitism across the board, Pence also condemned Omar for her antisemitic remarks since being elected to the House in the 2018 midterm elections, including accusing lawmakers who support Israel of having allegiance to a foreign country and calling for Omar to be removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
“It’s astonishing to think that the party of Harry Truman, which did so much to help create the state of Israel, has been co-opted by people who promote … antisemitic rhetoric and work to undermine the broad American consensus of support for Israel,” Pence said.
Pence cited Omar’s “antisemitic tropes,” including comments Omar made regarding Israel “hypnotizing the world.”
“Let me say this from the heart,” Pence said. “Antisemitism has no place in the Congress of the United States of America or anywhere else in the nation, and anyone who slanders the historic alliance between the United States and Israel should not be sitting on [the] foreign affairs committee.”
Pence recited a long list of Trump’s efforts to show America’s support for Israel, from moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem to closing the Palestinian’s Washington, DC, headquarters to cutting off funding for the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Pence’s overall message to the thousands of people gathered for the summit was clear.
“America stands with Israel,” Pence said.
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