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Republican Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert of an awkward phone call she had with Democrat Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar.
The phone call came after Boebert made some controversial comments about Omar to a crowd of supporters recently, and the call ended when both Congresswomen demanded public apologies for past remarks and Omar hung up on her, Fox News reported.
Boebert said in an Instagram video that she initiated the call with Omar because she “wanted to let her know directly that I had reflected on my previous remarks.”
“Now as a strong, Christian woman who values faith deeply, I never want anything I say to offend someone’s religion. So I told her that. Even after I put out a public statement to that effect, she said that she still wanted a public apology because what I had done wasn’t good enough. So I reiterated to her what I had just said,” the Republican said.
“She kept asking for a public apology so I told Ilhan Omar that she should make a public apology to the American people for her anti-American, anti-Semitic, anti-police rhetoric. She continued to press and I continued to press back. And then, Representative Omar hung up on me,” she said.
In a press release of her own Omar admitted that the phone call took place and it ended the way Boebert said it did.
“Today I graciously accepted a call from Rep. Lauren Boebert in the hope of receiving a direct apology for falsely claiming she met me in an elevator, suggesting I was a terrorist, and for a history of anti-Muslim hate,” the Democrat said.
“Instead of apologizing for her Islamophobic comments and fabricated lies, Rep. Boebert refused to publicly acknowledge her hurtful and dangerous comments. She instead doubled down on her rhetoric and I decided to end the unproductive call,” she said.
It was last Thursday when Boebert was speaking to supporters when she made the controversial comments.
“I have an Ilhan story for you,” the Republican congresswoman said to supporters. “The other night on the House floor was not my first Jihad Squad moment.”
“I was getting into an elevator with one of my staffers, and, he and I, we’re leaving the Capitol. We’re going back to my office, and we get in the elevator, and I see a Capitol Police officer running hurriedly to the elevator,” she said. “I see fret all over his face, and he’s reaching, and I’m like, the door is shutting, like, I can’t open it, like, what is happening?”
She said that after the doors to the elevator had shut she noticed that Omar was in the elevator with her.
“I look to my left, and there she is, Ilhan Omar,” the representative said. “I said, ‘Well, she doesn’t have a backpack. We should be fine.'”
“I looked over, and I said, ‘Oh, look, the Jihad Squad decided to show up for work today,’” she said.
Over the Thanksgiving break, Lauren Boebert said she was recently in a Capitol elevator with Ilhan Omar when a fretful Capitol police officer ran up.
Lauren Boebert said: “Well, she doesn’t have a backpack. We should be fine.”
Boebert then called Ilhan Omar, “jihad squad.” pic.twitter.com/Y7f0nFbnud
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) November 25, 2021
A furious Omar has vehemently denied that the incident described by Rep. Boebert did not happen.
“Fact, this buffoon looks down when she sees me at the Capitol, this whole story is made up. Sad she thinks bigotry gets her clout. Anti-Muslim bigotry isn’t funny & shouldn’t be normalized. Congress can’t be a place where hateful and dangerous Muslims tropes get no condemnation,” she said.
Fact, this buffoon looks down when she sees me at the Capitol, this whole story is made up. Sad she thinks bigotry gets her clout.
Anti-Muslim bigotry isn’t funny & shouldn’t be normalized. Congress can’t be a place where hateful and dangerous Muslims tropes get no condemnation. https://t.co/S1APT7RbqW
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) November 26, 2021
“Saying I am a suicide bomber is no laughing matter. @GOPLeader and @SpeakerPelosi need to take appropriate action, normalizing this bigotry not only endangers my life but the lives of all Muslims. Anti-Muslim bigotry has no place in Congress,” she said.
Saying I am a suicide bomber is no laughing matter. @GOPLeader and @SpeakerPelosi need to take appropriate action, normalizing this bigotry not only endangers my life but the lives of all Muslims. Anti-Muslim bigotry has no place in Congress. https://t.co/A0VxI3uTmH pic.twitter.com/QTmqaGaZrM
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) November 26, 2021
And that came after she, during a House hearing to censure Rep Paul Gosar, took another swipe at Omar.
“The Jihad Squad member from Minnesota has paid her husband, and not her brother-husband, the other one, over $1 million in campaign funds,” she said of Omar. “This member is allowed on the Foreign Affairs Committee while praising terrorists.
