Omar and Tlaib: Trump should be impeached,
Muslim organizations blast controversial statements
WASHINGTON – A group of four progressive Congresswomen – Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Ayanna Pressley – called for a news conference on Monday to attack US President Donald Trump for his recent remarks. The president has posted to Twitter on four different occasions in the past two days, calling the four congresswomen antisemitic and anti-Israel.
“We will never be a Socialist or Communist Country. IF YOU ARE NOT HAPPY HERE, YOU CAN LEAVE!” Trump tweeted on Monday. “It is your choice and your choice alone. This is about love for America. Certain people HATE our Country. They are anti-Israel, pro-al-Qaeda, and comment on the 9/11 attack, ‘some people did something.’ Radical Left Democrats want Open Borders, which means drugs, crime, human trafficking, and much more.”
Omar referred to the president’s remarks as “garbage that comes out of his mouth,” and called for impeachment. “It is time for us to stop allowing this president to make a mockery out of our constitution. It’s time for us to impeach this president. This is a president who has equated neo-Nazis with those who protest against them in Charlottesville. This is a president who has openly violated the very value our country aspires to uphold.”
Omar further accused Trump of trying “to distract from that he’s launching a racist attack on four duly elected members of the United States of House of Representatives, all of whom are women of color. This is the agenda of white nationalists. Whether it is happening in chat rooms or it’s happening on national TV, and now it’s reached the White House Garden. He would love nothing more than to divide our country based on race, religion, gender, orientation, or immigration status. This is the only way he thinks he can prevent the solidarity of working people.”
Tlaib joined her colleague, saying, “I urge House leadership to take action to impeach this lawless president today. They sent me here to Congress to fight back against the corporate assault and the corruption in our country. This means supporting an impeachment inquiry of this president and his actions by the administration and his appointees.
“Sadly, this is not the first nor will it be the last time we hear disgusting, bigoted language from the president. We know this is who he is, and we know that he and his administration are constantly engaged in actions that harm residents and American people in our country.”
Omar rejected a question regarding Trump’s accusation that she supports al-Qaeda. “I know that every single Muslim who has lived in this country and across the world has heard that comment,” she said. “I will not dignify it with an answer because I know that every single Islamophobic [person], every single person who is hateful, who is driven by an ideology of othering as this president is rejoiced in us responding to that and as defending ourselves.
“I do not expect every time there is a white supremacist who attacks, or there is a white man who kills in a school or a movie theater or a mosque or a synagogue – I don’t expect my white community members to respond on whether they love that person or not. And so, I think it is beyond time. It’s beyond time to ask Muslims to condemn terrorists. We are no longer going to allow the dignification of such ridiculous statement.”
Muslim organizations across the US condemned the controversial remarks.
“President Trump’s remarks today are a dangerous new low that will lead to more death threats on Congresswoman Omar and a surge in bigotry against American Muslims,” wrote Madihha Ahussain, special counsel for anti-Muslim bigotry at Muslim Advocates. “It’s astonishing that he would fabricate a quote suggesting that Rep. Omar was proud of al-Qaeda. The idea that Muslims support terrorism is a false, harmful slur that the president gleefully peddled today when he falsely claimed that Rep. Omar supports terrorism and is antisemitic – both of which are established anti-Muslim tropes.
“President Trump has made it clear that the driving force of his administration is open bigotry and white supremacy. All Republicans and Democrats must forcefully and unequivocally condemn him immediately. Anything less than that is an endorsement of this hatred.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) also condemned the president’s remarks.
“Trump’s latest racist tweets echo the bigoted shouts of ‘go back where you came from,’ heard daily by American Muslim women and children, immigrants and members of other minority communities across our nation,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad. “It is sad to see the occupant of the Oval Office transition from empowering and encouraging racist taunts to actually using them himself. If Trump shouted the same thing at a Muslim woman wearing hijab in a Walmart, he might be arrested.”
The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) tweeted that “The president’s comments that leaders like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley are any less American than him are not only hateful and inaccurate, but also propagate the white nationalistic ideals that he has chosen to champion while he leads our country.”