House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Thursday that Rep. Ilhan Omar’s tweets reviving old Jewish prejudices were not intentionally anti-Semitic and that an upcoming resolution rebuking the comments “is not about her.”
The House is likely to vote later Thursday on a resolution initially written to condemn anti-Semitism. Now, Pelosi said, the measure will condemn all forms of hate, including anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and white supremacy. It won’t name Omar.
“One resolution that addresses these forms of hatred because it’s not about her,” said Pelosi, who said she believed it was necessary to expand the measure to address problems beyond anti-Semitism.
Democrats have grappled all week with how to respond to Omar’s tweets. An earlier resolution condemning anti-Semitism got backlash from Omar backers within the caucus, forcing leaders to back down from a vote scheduled for Wednesday.
Omar, a freshman Democrat representing Minnesota’s 5th District, has been widely criticized for what many said were anti-Semitic tweets and comments that began before she ran for Congress and which have continued into her tenure on Capitol Hill.
Pelosi has spoken with Omar about the tweets and first called her about it while Omar was traveling last week in Africa.
“I feel confident her words were not based on any anti-Semitic attitude but that she did not have a full appreciation for how they landed on other people and that these words have a history and a cultural impact that may have been unknown to her,” said Pelosi, D-Calif.
Omar has apologized at least to some Jewish member of the Democratic caucus for her tweets, but has not issued a public apology on the House floor.
Some Democrats, including House Appropriations Committee Chair Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., have rebuked her by name on Twitter.
“It’s up to her to explain,” said Pelosi, who appeared on this month’s Rolling Stone cover with Omar. “But I do not believe she understood the full weight of her words.”
Pelosi included Omar’s longtime social media activism, which has provoked bipartisan outrage, among the “enthusiasms” freshmen lawmakers bring to Congress from their districts and suggested Omar needed rethink her approach now that she is an elected official.
“I understand how advocates come in with their enthusiasms but when you cross that threshold into Congress your words weigh much more than when you are shouting at somebody outside,” Pelosi said.
[Read more: Democrats in turmoil as they try to answer anti-Semitism charges]
