House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday she does not believe a series of recent tweets by Rep. Ilhan Omar was “intentionally anti-Semitic,” and she wants to broaden a House resolution condemning anti-Semitism to include other biases against blacks and Muslims.
House Democrats have pushed off a vote for now on a resolution to condemn anti-Semitic remarks by the freshman lawmaker, and will first send the measure through a House committee, Pelosi told the Washington Examiner.
Pelosi, D-Calif., said she doesn’t know when the House will consider the resolution, which was first expected on the floor by Thursday.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee is writing the measure, Pelosi said, but has no specific timing yet for a vote.
“It just depends on when they are finished writing the resolution,” Pelosi told the Washington Examiner.
The House was first expected to take up a four-page resolution Wednesday condemning anti-Semitism. It was to serve as a veiled rebuke of Omar, D-Minn., in response to a string of tweets that caused a bipartisan uproar, as many on both sides said they were anti-Semitic.
But Pelosi said the committee will now draft a new resolution with additional wording to condemn prejudices against more groups, including Muslims and blacks. Omar is a member of the panel.
Democratic leaders backed down on the first resolution after some lawmakers in the caucus complained it would unfairly target Omar and should also include a rejection of anti-Muslim and other biases.
Omar is receiving death threats, Democratic lawmakers told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday. She was also depicted in a poster displayed by a Republican operative in the West Virginia capital that appeared to connect her, or Muslims in general, with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
That poster, Pelosi said, is among the reasons Democrats are rewriting the resolution to include more groups.
“I don’t think this is just about comments by Congresswoman Omar, which I do not think were intentionally anti-Semitic,” she said.
Pelosi added that Omar has been targeted by anti-Muslim attacks such as the poster in West Virginia.
“It has raised interest in having some resolution about [denouncing] anti-Semitism, of course, always, anti-Islamaphobia, always, anti-White Supremacy, always,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi said she did not know what the final version of the resolution would ultimately denounce.
“We will see what the committee comes up with,” she said. “They have an array of concerns and priorities they are addressing.”
Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., said the resolution should denounce “all hate,” and not just anti-Semitism.
“Anti-Semitism, Islamaphobia, racism, all that stuff,” Clyburn said as he headed to his office Wednesday.
Omar has apologized for the tweets, but she later openly feuded with a Jewish Democrat over the supposed “dual loyalty” to Israel that she said some lawmakers display. Republicans are not satisfied with the resolution and want Omar kicked off the Foreign Affairs Committee.
[Opinion: House Democrats anti-Semitism resolution is a sham]
