As Trump, Omar spar, House warily considers reprimands

WASHINGTON — Rep. Ilhan Omar rejected President Donald Trump’s call for her resignation by accusing him of having “trafficked in hate your whole life” while she has tried to make amends with her Jewish colleagues for her anti-Semitic comments.

The freshman Minnesota Democrat, who fired back at Trump in a tweet Wednesday, has faced a widespread backlash for suggesting that Israel’s allies in U.S. politics were motivated by money rather than principle.

During a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, Trump said “anti-Semitism has no place in the United States Congress,” called an apology by Omar “lame” and said she should resign from Congress or give up her seat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Omar, who has publicly apologized, has been huddling with Jewish members to express her regret, several Democrats said.

Omar’s apology tour comes as Democratic leaders have floated what amounts to an ultimatum to Republicans eager to rebuke the lawmaker. While Republicans said earlier this week that they may force a vote in the full House against Omar — such as a privileged resolution disapproving of her actions — senior House Democrats have suggested that they might retaliate, putting Republicans in the equally awkward position of having to reprimand their top leader.

Democrats have privately discussed repudiating House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy for an election-time tweet in which he suggested a band of wealthy Jewish donors were trying to “buy” the midterm elections. McCarthy deleted the tweet. In Afghanistan: The Taliban will hold a previously unexpected round of peace talks with the United States in Pakistan on Monday, ahead of scheduled meetings in Qatar a week later, the insurgent group said in a statement Wednesday.

The talks are aimed at finding a negotiated end to Afghanistan’s 17-year war.