Rep. Ilhan Omar says Trump has created 'monsters' who are 'terrorizing' Jews and Muslims

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) on Tuesday accused President Trump and his allies of doing "everything they can to distance themselves and misinform the public from the monsters that they created" who are now "terrorizing the Jewish community and the Muslim community."

Omar, one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress, told a crowd in Washington, D.C., that the suspect in Saturday's shooting at the Chabad of Poway synagogue in Southern California has also been accused of trying to bomb a nearby mosque. "I can't ever speak of Islamophobia and fight for Muslims if I am not willing to fight against anti-Semitism," she declared. Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, she added, are "two sides of the same coin of bigotry."

Omar has been criticized by Trump, conservatives like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and some in her own party for comments that they said sounded anti-Semitic. She slammed Trump for his "vile attacks" against her, and said she figured out why so many people are coming after her. "The thing that upsets the occupant in the White House, his goons in the Republican Party, many of our colleagues in the Democratic Party is that they can't stand, they cannot stand, that a refugee, a black woman, an immigrant, a Muslim shows up in Congress thinking she's equal to them," she said.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

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.

Sign up