Omar Says Pelosi Is Poised to Punish Boebert for Her Inflammatory Statements About Her

During interviews on the Sunday news programs, Representative Ilhan Omar, D-Minn, said that she is “very confident” that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., will hold a vote to strip Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., of her committee assignments in the near future in response to her recent controversial comments about Omar.

“We should punish and sanction Boebert by stripping her of her committees, by rebuking her language,” Omar said. “By doing everything that we can to send a clear and decisive message to the American public that if the Republicans are not going to be adults and condemn this, that we are going to do that.” 

Omar made the comments on CNN “State of the Union” with Jake Tapper. Tapper then asked Omar whether she believed Pelosi would hold the vote to strip Boebert of her committee assignments.

“I’ve had a conversation with the Speaker, and I’m very confident that she will take decisive action next week,” Omar said. “As you know, when I first got to Congress, I was worried that I wasn’t going to be allowed to be sworn in because there was a ban on the hijab. She promised me that she would take care of it. She fulfilled that promise. She’s made another promise to me that she will take care of this, and I believe her.”

Omar went on to call House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., a “liar and a coward” during the CNN interview for his defense of Boebert. McCarthy had said that Boebert had “apologized publicly” and “apologized personally.”

“Instead of apologizing for her Islamophobic comments and fabricated lies, Rep. Boebert refused to publicly acknowledge her hurtful and dangerous comments,” Omar said. “She instead doubled down on her rhetoric, and I decided to end the unproductive call.”

During Thanksgiving break last month, a clip surfaced of Boebert telling supporters in Colorado about a recent experience in an elevator with Omar, where she delivered insulting comments about Omar’s religion.

“I look to my left, and there she is, Ilhan Omar. And I said, ‘Well, she doesn’t have a backpack. We should be fine,'” Boebert said. “I looked over, and I said, ‘Oh look, the jihad squad decided to show up for work today.'”

Omar fired back on Boebert’s version of the encounter, tweeting, “Fact, this buffoon looks down when she sees me at the Capitol, this whole story is made up.” She added, “Sad she thinks bigotry gets her clout.”

Omar’s fellow “Squad” member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., slammed Democratic leadership in the House a few days ago for not immediately stripping Boebert of her committee assignments.

“It’s embarrassing that there is any hesitation on this. How can we have different consequences for different kinds of bigotry or incitement?” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “This should be treated equally and consistently. Incite against a member, and you’re stripped. End of story. She refuses to even apologize.”

Pelosi’s office did not immediately respond to any requests for comments, but Rep. Boebert provided this statement to Fox News:

“The country is tired of Ilhan Omar deflecting from her anti-American, anti-Semitic, anti-police bullcrap. Instead of running off to Speaker Pelosi, Ilhan Omar should accept the Fox News offer to meet me on the air and debate our differences.”