House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other members of Democratic House leadership in a statement issued Friday denounced comments made by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) as "Islamophobic" and "deeply offensive and concerning," CNN reports.
In a video posted last Saturday, Boebert joked about Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) being mistaken for a terrorist and referred to Omar as a member of the "jihad squad." Omar was born in Somalia and is a Muslim.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
In June, Omar found herself on the opposite end of a statement from the same Democratic leadership team. After posting a Tweet grouping Israel with Hamas and the Taliban, Omar responded to a group of Jewish lawmakers who had requested "clarification" by accusing them of engaging in "Islamophobic tropes." The top House Democrats sided against Omar, issuing a statement a few days later in which they insisted that "drawing false equivalencies between democracies like the U.S. and Israel and groups that engage in terrorism like Hamas and the Taliban foments prejudice and undermines progress toward a future of peace and security for all."
Nor was that the first time Omar drew criticism for her comments on Israel. In March 2019, she referred to a "political influence in this country" that advocates for "allegiance to a foreign country," a statement Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt denounced as anti-Semitic.
The signatories of the statement condemning Boebert also urged House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and other members of House Republican leadership "to take real action to confront racism."
This call comes as McCarthy, who is openly seeking the speakership, attempts to balance the demands of aggressively Trumpian representatives like Boebert, Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-Ga.), and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) with the concerns of more moderate House Republicans. Gosar was recently censured and stripped of his committee assignments after he tweeted an edited video that depicted Gosar killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and equated migrants crossing the southern border with flesh-eating monsters from the anime Attack on Titan.
-
Farage’s £9m windfall: will it smooth his path to power?In Depth The record donation has come amidst rumours of collaboration with the Conservatives and allegations of racism in Farage's school days
-
The issue dividing Israel: ultra-Orthodox draft dodgersIn the Spotlight A new bill has solidified the community’s ‘draft evasion’ stance, with this issue becoming the country’s ‘greatest internal security threat’
-
Codeword: December 13, 2025The daily codeword puzzle from The Week
-
Senate votes down ACA subsidies, GOP alternativeSpeed Read The Senate rejected the extension of Affordable Care Act tax credits, guaranteeing a steep rise in health care costs for millions of Americans
-
Abrego García freed from jail on judge’s orderSpeed Read The wrongfully deported man has been released from an ICE detention center
-
Indiana Senate rejects Trump’s gerrymander pushSpeed Read The proposed gerrymander would have likely flipped the state’s two Democratic-held US House seats
-
Democrat files to impeach RFK Jr.Speed Read Rep. Haley Stevens filed articles of impeachment against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
-
$1M ‘Trump Gold Card’ goes live amid travel rule furorSpeed Read The new gold card visa offers an expedited path to citizenship in exchange for $1 million
-
US seizes oil tanker off VenezuelaSpeed Read The seizure was a significant escalation in the pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro
-
Judge orders release of Ghislaine Maxwell recordsSpeed Read The grand jury records from the 2019 prosecution of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein will be made public
-
Miami elects first Democratic mayor in 28 yearsSpeed Read Eileen Higgins, Miami’s first woman mayor, focused on affordability and Trump’s immigration crackdown in her campaign
