Make no mistake, she endorsed violence again Senator Paul.
The whole thing got started when Rand Paul publicly offered to pay to send the “ungrateful” Omar back to her native Somalia so she could learn to appreciate the United States. Paul’s comment were unquestionably stupid and offensive, but in patented Squad fashion, Omar responded by upping the stupid factor and retweeting a tweet from Resistance Twitterererer and former actor Tom Arnold.
For those who don’t recall, Paul was hospitalized in 2017 after being attacked from behind by a disgruntled neighbor. The senator suffered six broken ribs and suffered lung damage which later led to a bout of pneumonia that effectively sidelined him from his congressional duties. His attacker was sentenced his 30 days in prison, and was ordered by a jury to pay Paul $500,000 for the substantial physical and emotional trauma. Hilarious!
A key part of Omar’s political narrative revolves around the threats of physical violence she’s faced, and in particular how her critics are responsible for those threats. When Republican Texas Rep. David Crenshaw accused Omar of minimizing the 9/11 attacks with her much-parsed “some people did something” comments, that was “dangerous incitement” according to her. When Trump cut a video attacking the same remarks and splicing in 9/11 footage, other Democrats picked up the slack; presidential hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) said he was “inciting violence.” Her primary opponent, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., VT) called it “dangerous.” Not to be outdone, Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D., NY) compared Omar to Holocaust victims and said “[Ilhan’s] life is in danger.”
Omar can’t have it both ways. You can’t insist that the merely harsh, unfair, bigoted, etc. criticism you face is “incitement to violence,” but then give your stamp of approval to comments that actually make direct reference to and delight in violence against your enemies. For the hypocrisy angle alone, Omar’s comments were newsworthy.
I expected muted mainstream media coverage of Omar’s retweet. What I didn’t expect was almost literally zero coverage. Per a Google search, outside of explicitly conservative and libertarian outlets, the Omar retweet was covered by Mediaite (which features both conservative and liberal writers), Newsweek (formerly a mainstream media outlet, now more of a bankrupt clickbait factory), and as I was writing this piece, by Paul’s hometown paper, the Louisville Courier Journal. That’s it. The mainstream media seems to have deigned that one member of Congress laughing it up about another being assaulted and hospitalized is neither newsworthy nor controversial!
0 Comments