Ilhan Omar ended a call withLauren Boebert after they spoke in the wake of Boebert's Islamophobic comments.- "She instead doubled down on her rhetoric and I decided to end the unproductive call," Omar said.
Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota ended a call with Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado after the two spoke via phone in the wake of Boebert's Islamophobic comments about Omar.
The two had a conversation via phone on Monday after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said he had spoken with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer to facilitate the call. McCarthy notably did not condemn Boebert's remarks, which suggested the Somali-American congresswoman was a suicide bomber.
While Boebert offered an apology on Friday to "anyone in the Muslim community I offended with my comment," she struck a defiant tone in an Instagram video posted following the call on Monday. Omar confirmed in a statement that she had ended the call with Boebert.
"As a strong Christian woman who values faith deeply, I never want anything I say to offend someone's religion," Boebert said in her video. "So I told her that."
Omar said she accepted the call "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 two seemed to differ over whether Boebert had offered a sufficient apology for her Islamophobic comments. Omar said that Boebert "refused to publicly acknowledge her hurtful and dangerous comments" and suggested that Boebert's initial apology wasn't sincere, a sentiment shared by fellow House Democrats, according to POLITICO.
"She said that she still wanted a public apology because what I had done wasn't good enough," Boebert 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."
That apparently led to a breakdown in the conversation between the two women, who represent opposite ends of the political spectrum, as Boebert claims she was hung up on.
"She continued to press, and I continued to press back, and then Rep. Omar hung up on me," Boebert said.
But Rep. Omar's communications director, Jeremy Slevin, told Insider that the Minnesota Democrat suggested ending the call after Boebert refused to apologize. "It wasn't like she suddenly slammed the phone down," said Slevin. "She ended the call, and said that she was getting off."
"She instead doubled down on her rhetoric and I decided to end the unproductive call," read Omar's statement. "I believe in engaging with those we disagree with respectfully, but not when that disagreement is rooted in outright bigotry and hate."
—PatriotTakes (@patriottakes) November 29, 2021
Boebert's defiant stance comes as she faces criticism from fellow far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who dinged the Colorado congresswoman on Twitter for her apology.
"Never apologize to Islamic terrorist sympathizers, communists, or those who fund murder with our tax dollars," she wrote.
Boebert said the incident was an example of "cancel culture 101" while baselessly insinuating that Omar, one of two of the first Muslim women elected to Congress, was "sympathizing with terrorists."
In her statement Monday, Omar again called for the McCarthy to hold Boebert and other members of the Republican Party accountable for their Islamophobic statements.
—Rep. Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan) November 29, 2021
"To date, the Republican Party leadership has done nothing to condemn and hold their own members accountable for repeated instances of anti-Muslim hate and harassment," Omar said in her statement. "This is not about one hateful statement or one politician; it is about a party that has mainstreamed bigotry and hatred."
Boebert may now be facing punishment by the House of Representatives. According to POLITICO, a group of House Democrats is expecting to push for Boebert's