Democrats are done with the hypocrisy of Republicans on matters of racism and bigotry.
In response to Republican’s threatening floor action against Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Democrats — who already demanded an apology from Omar — have “moved to protect her by privately suggesting they’d censure Republican Steve king and take action against Republican Kevin McCarthy for his own tweet issue,” Washington Post Congressional reporter Rachel Bade wrote on Twitter Wednesday afternoon.
“Omar’s apology tour comes as Democratic leaders have floated what amounts to an ultimatum to their GOP colleagues eager to rebuke the freshman Muslim 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 her actions — senior House Democrats have suggested they might retaliate, putting Republicans in the equally awkward position of having to reprimand one of their own, including their top leader,” Bade explained in her article.
“You have trafficked in hate your whole life — against Jews, Muslims, Indigenous, immigrants, black people and more,†Rep. Ilhan Omar tweeted at Trump Wednesday morning. “I learned from people impacted by my words. When will you?â€
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Omar was responding to Trump’s level 10 hypocrisy call for her to resign over her misguided comment that she learned was an anti-Semitic trope.
Trump said, “I think she should either resign from congress or she should certainly resign from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.” Trump added that her comments are “deep seeded in her heart†and called her apology “lame,†according to a White House pool report sent to PoliticusUSA.
I explored a few of the ways Trump has jumped the hypocrisy shark, as someone who has enabled and elevated white supremacists and overseen a frightening rise in hate crime against Jewish Americans and African Americans.
Republicans are not acting in good faith as they weaponize racism against Democrats, which is not only harmful to the political atmosphere, but more broadly harms those they are claiming to be defending by only caring about racism when it can help their power politically so that they can continue to enact policies that harm minorities and continue hate speech that stokes the fires of violence.
Racism is a real problem, but it is certainly not a problem any Republican has a moral standing on. And I mean zero Republicans. They are all enabling this president and their own fellow Republicans who are trying to make white nationalism a normal thing. It is not.
Racism is everywhere, including in the Democratic party. The difference is that they expect their members to at least be willing to listen and learn from their mistakes, and they are willing to step up to the plate and call for a resignation even when it means a huge political loss, like it would in swing state Virginia.
Omar is a freshman; McCarthy is one of their top leaders. McCarthy was their nominee for Speaker of the in 2019, but since they lost the House, he is now the Minority Leader, as now Speaker Pelosi was when Republicans led the House.
Republicans have not censured King or McCarthy. They do not self-regulate.
Republicans are playing up to Trump’s base of poorer white Americans for everything it’s worth, and without a care about how low they go.
As I keep saying, the one good thing the Trump era has done is given Democrats a spine. They should not back down, since Republicans are not acting in good faith. We are at a sad place in our history when one side is so distorted by power that they don’t even care when they’re being hypocrites. There’s no way to debate or have important dialogue with people who don’t see the issue as important, but rather only see it as a way to gain power for themselves.
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Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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