Rasmussen: 61% of Voters Reject Rep. Ilhan Omar’s ‘Anti-American Rhetoric,’ Half Support Censure

WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 12: Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) attends the Pathway To Peace Policy p
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
Katherine Hamilton

A majority of voters do not agree with Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) statement equating the Unites States and Israel with terrorist organizations like Hamas and the Taliban, a Rasmussen poll released Wednesday found.

“We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban,” wrote Omar in a tweet. “I asked [Secretary of State Antony Blinken] where people are supposed to go for justice.”

According to the poll, 61 percent of voters reject Omar’s “anti-American rhetoric,” and half support censuring her. Only 24 percent of voters agree with Omar’s comparison and 15 percent are not sure. Eighty percent of Republicans, 41 percent of Democrats, and 57 percent of voters not affiliated with either major party disagree with the comparison as well.

Since her statement last week, 12 Jewish Democrats in the House have condemned her remarks, and a coalition of more than 200 rabbis sent a letter, first obtained by Fox News, to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) criticizing her for not removing Omar (MN) from her from the Foreign Affairs Committee.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) promised during a Tuesday interview on FNC’s “Fox & Friends” to remove her from the Foreign Affairs Committee if the GOP wins the House.

McCarthy said:

This is an individual that has not once but on numerous occasions been antisemitic. Her own entire Congress had to rebuke her in the last one. But she’s not just antisemitic. She’s anti-American now. She’s equating America to Taliban, to Hamas. She’s discrediting our greatest ally in the Middle East, Israel, the only democracy.

Nearly two-thirds [65 percent] of GOP voters would support censuring Omar for her comments, as would 35 percent of Democrats and 50 percent of unaffiliated voters, according to the poll. Forty-six percent of Democrat voters oppose censuring Omar, as do 26 percent of Republicans and 31 percent of unaffiliated voters.

Out of all voters, younger people [41 percent] were more likely to agree with Omar, according to the poll. Rasmussen further found that President’s Biden‘s strongest supporters tended to view Omar favorably:

Among voters who Strongly Approve of Biden’s job performance as president, 66% have a favorable impression of Omar and 39% agree with her comments comparing the United States to Hamas and the Taliban. By contrast, among voters who Strongly Disapprove of Biden’s performance, 92% have an unfavorable impression of Omar and 91% disagree with her comments accusing America of “crimes against humanity.”

Since her remark, Omar has strongly fought back against criticism of her, slamming her colleagues for perpetuating “islamophobic tropes.”

Omar was reportedly referring to two open ICC investigation involving the U.S. and Israel, but Democrat colleagues called her statement a “false equivalency” in their letter:

Ignoring the differences between democracies governed by the rule of law and contemptible organizations that engage in terrorism at best discredits one’s intended argument and at worst reflects deep-seated prejudice.

The United States and Israel are imperfect and, like all democracies, at times deserving of critique, but false equivalencies give cover to terrorist groups. We urge Congresswoman Omar to clarify her words placing the US and Israel in the same category as Hamas and the Taliban.

This is not the first time Omar has faced backlash for her comments. Last week, Omar reportedly retweeted a video from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a radical anti-Israel group that the Israeli government accuses of supporting terrorists, Breitbart News reported.

In May, she accused Israel of terrorism “following deadly air strikes in the Gaza Strip after Hamas reportedly launched seven rockets at Jerusalem,” Fox News reported.

“Israeli air strikes killing civilians in Gaza is an act of terrorism,” she tweeted in part.

This poll was conducted from June 14-15 with 900 likely voters. The margin of error is +/- 3 percentage points and the confidence level is 95 percent.

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