Enes Kanter, who plays for the Boston Celtics, had some harsh criticism for Rep. Ilhan Omar after the lawmaker refused to vote in favor of economic sanctions on Turkey.
“What an absolute disappointment and shame that the only democrat who did NOT support the Turkish bill aiming to stop the killing of innocent people is @IlhanMN who seems like on #DictatorErdogan ‘s payroll working for his interests, but not for the American people and democracy!” Kanter said Wednesday night on Twitter.
What an absolute disappointment and shame that the only democrat who did NOT support the Turkish bill aiming to stop the killing of innocent people is @IlhanMN who seems like on #DictatorErdogan ‘s payroll working for his interests, but not for the American people and democracy!
— Enes Kanter (@EnesKanter) October 30, 2019
Omar voted “present” on the resolution and was the only Democrat who did not support the measure to place sanctions on Turkey over its killing of Kurdish forces.
The Minnesota Democrat wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post this month defending her position saying they are “part of a failed foreign policy playbook.”
She took a lot of heat from critics who said the vote fit in with some of her other controversial foreign policy views.
Kanter is Turkish but has been a critic of current Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He said he avoids traveling to Europe because of the risk of assassination by the Turkish government over his criticisms of Erdoğan.
