U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert continues to rebuff calls she apologize for bigoted comments she made about Rep. Ilhan Omar, even after a phone call Monday with the Minnesota Democrat.
Boebert, a Republican from Colorado, can be seen on video (first shared by the extremist watch group Patriot Takes Thursday morning) telling a story to supporters. With microphone in hand, she claims to have seen a panic-stricken Capitol police officer running toward herself and a staffer on an elevator. According to Boebert's story, she then realized she was standing next to Omar.
"And I said, "Well, she doesn't have a backpack, we should be fine,'" Boebert tells the crowd she remarked — suggesting Omar, a Muslim woman and the first Somali American to be elected to U.S. Congress,, might be a suicide bomber. Boebert smiles while the crowd reacts with laughs and applause.
The evening the video was first shared, Omar issued a strong rebuke, referring to Boebert as a "buffoon" and calling the Colorado representative's story about the encounter false.
"Anti-Muslim bigotry isn’t funny & shouldn’t be normalized," Omar wrote. "Congress can’t be a place where hateful and dangerous Muslims tropes get no condemnation."
A flurry of statements followed:
A group of Democratic House leaders, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, issued a statement Friday calling on Boebert to retract her comments, and for Republican leadership to "finally take real action to confront racism." (House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy...
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