GOP Rep. Boebert apologizes to Muslims for remarks on Omar
Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert apologized Friday for using anti-Muslim language in describing a recent encounter she had with Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
In her apology, Boebert didn’t address Omar’s criticism that Boebert made up her story about the encounter at the U.S. Capitol.
Boebert tweeted “I apologize to anyone in the Muslim community I offended with my comment about Rep. Omar. I have reached out to her office to speak with her directly. There are plenty of policy differences to focus on without this unnecessary distraction.”
According to a video clip posted by a Twitter account called PatriotTakes, Boebert made the remarks this holiday break. In it, she says she and a staffer were taking a Capitol elevator when she saw an alarmed Capitol police officer running toward them. She said she turned to her left and spotted Omar standing beside them.
“Well, she doesn’t have a backpack. We should be fine,” Boebert recalled saying, drawing laughs from her audience. “And I said, ‘Oh look, the jihad squad decided to show up for work today.’ ”
“Fact, this buffoon looks down when she sees me at the Capitol, this whole story is made up,” Omar tweeted Thursday. “Sad she thinks bigotry gets her clout.”
“Anti-Muslim bigotry isn’t funny and shouldn’t be normalized,” Omar continued. “Congress can’t be a place where hateful and dangerous Muslim tropes get no condemnation.”
Telephone calls and emails seeking comment from Boebert and Omar weren’t immediately returned Friday.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned Boebert’s remarks in a Friday statement urging GOP House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy and other Republican leaders to repudiate Boebert’s remarks.
Omar and Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib sometimes refer to themselves as “the squad.”
Ukraine Russia politics: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday claimed that his country’s intelligence service has uncovered plans for a Russia-backed coup d’etat in the country set for next week that allegedly involves one of Ukraine’s richest oligarchs. Both the oligarch and the Russian government rejected the allegations. In Nantucket, Massachusetts, where he is spending a holiday weekend, U.S. President Joe Biden expressed concern at the coup talk and renewed U.S. support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and self-government.
At a news conference in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, Zelenskyy said he received information that a coup was being planned for next Wednesday or Thursday. He did not give many details to back up his allegation, but pointed to a suspected role of Ukraine’s richest oligarch, Rinat Akhmetov.
The president said that Ukrainian intelligence has audio recordings of an alleged meeting between Russian and Ukrainian officials discussing a plan for a coup allegedly funded by Akhmetov. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the allegations in comments to journalists in Moscow on Friday.
Honduras election: For many Hondurans, Sunday’s
election will be about stripping power from a party whose successive administrations are widely seen as having deepened corruption and driven tens of thousands to flee the country, many toward the United States.
Expelling President Juan Orlando Hernández’s National Party after 12 years is more important to them than who takes power when it’s gone. The animosity toward Hernández is such that for several years, migrants walking out of Honduras have chanted “Get out J.O.H.!” referring to his initials.
Hernández has also become a national embarrassment. U.S. federal prosecutors in New York have accused him of running a narco state and fueling his own political rise with drug money. Hernández has denied it all and has not been formally charged, but that could change once he leaves office.
And many believe Hernández isn’t legitimately their president.
Iraq militant returns: Defeated but somewhat relieved, a second group of Iraqis on Friday returned home to northern Iraq after a failed quest to reach the European Union, citing maltreatment and abuse suffered at the hands of Belarusian authorities.
Over 570 people returned on two flights that landed in Irbil International Airport after 2 a.m. and 7 a.m. respectively in Iraq’s northern Kurdish-run region, according to Lawk Ghafuri, spokesman for the Kurdistan Regional Government. The first flight carried 170, the other over 400 returnees. A group of children showed reporters their hands with wounds and infections. A returned migrant lowered his surgical mask to embrace his children who came to meet him at the airport.
The European Union said on Friday that it will ease its restrictions on exporting COVID-19 vaccines.
EU vaccines:
The Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said that as of January it will no longer require vaccine producers to request special authorization to export outside the 27-nation bloc.
Earlier this year when vaccines were still in short supply, the EU introduced a mechanism to keep some of the jabs it secured from AstraZeneca, the Anglo-Swedish drug company, from being diverted elsewhere.
The export control system, aimed at making sure large drug companies would respect their contracts, was used by the EU in March, when a shipment of more than a quarter million AstraZeneca vaccines destined for Australia was blocked from leaving.
South Carolina abortion:
Appellate arguments over a lawsuit challenging South Carolina’s abortion law have been pushed into the new year.
Oral arguments in the case
had originally been planned for next month, but the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has rescheduled them for the last week in January, according to an order from the court. Earlier this week, attorneys for the state also requested that the case be heard toward the end of that week, due to a scheduling conflict.
Planned Parenthood is suing South Carolina over the measure, which was signed into law by Republican Gov. Henry McMaster earlier this year and requires doctors to perform ultrasounds to check for a so-called “fetal heartbeat.” If cardiac activity — which can typically be detected about six weeks into pregnancy — is detected, the abortion can only be performed if the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest, or if the mother’s life is in danger. The 4th Circuit had originally planned to hear the case the week of Dec. 6. South Carolina’s law has been blocked, pending the outcome of that legal challenge.