Donald Trump endorsed embattled Congresswoman Lauren Boebert on Wednesday as the Colorado Republican continues to face calls for puni...
Donald Trump endorsed embattled Congresswoman Lauren Boebert on Wednesday as the Colorado Republican continues to face calls for punishment after anti-Muslim comments aimed at Ilhan Omar.
'Congresswoman Lauren Boebert has done a fantastic job in her first term representing Colorado's Third District,' the former president released in a statement from his Save America PAC.
'She is a fearless leader, a defender of the America First Agenda, and a fighter against the Loser RINOs and Radical Democrats,' Trump added. 'She will continue to be tough on Crime, strong on Borders, and always protect our under-siege Second Amendment.'
'Lauren has my Complete and Total Endorsement for her reelection!'
Boebert represents Colorado's mostly rural and considerably red 3rd congressional district along the western side of the state. She is running for reelection in that district the 2022 midterms, which will decide the fate of a closely divided House and Senate.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has said Boebert will not face retribution from him, despite making a suicide bomb joke aimed at Representative Ilhan Omar – a hijab-wearing Democrat part of the progressive 'squad'.
Some Republicans have even called for punishment of Boebert, mainly South Carolina Representative Nancy Mace.
In the video from this fall, Boebert said: 'One of my staffers, on his first day with me, got into an elevator in the Capitol. And in that elevator, we were joined by Ilhan Omar.'
'Well, it was just us three in there and I looked over and I said, 'Well, lookey there, it's the Jihad Squad,'' she told the audience, smiling as the room broke into laughter and applause.
Donald Trump endorsed Representative Lauren Boebert in her reelection bid for Colorado's 3rd congressional district even as the congresswoman faces calls for retribution for her Islamaphobic comments
'I do have to say she doesn't have a backpack, she wasn't dropping it and running so we're good,' she continued.
In the same clip, Boebert called Omar and Tlaib, who is also Muslim, 'evil' and black-hearted.'
Mace condemned 'racist tropes' and 'disgusting comments' on both sides of the aisle after Boebert's comments were revealed by CNN in late November.
New York Republican Congressman Tom Reed told CNN: 'This has to stop.'
'[I] condemn the kind of comments that were made by my colleague in Congress towards a fellow colleague on the other side of the aisle. This is a pox on all our houses,' he continued. 'We have degraded to a point in the institution of Congress [to a] level of hate I've never felt before.'
Establishment Democrats have made clear they don't think it's their job to take action against Boebert, or any other Republican lawmakers. Rather, they want McCarthy and other GOP leadership to keep their members in check.
Majority Whip Jim Clyburn said Democrats shouldn't have to 'police Republicans' as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi faces calls from her party to punish Lauren Boebert for her suicide bomber comments aimed at Ilhan Omar.
'She is a member of the Republican conference, so it's not the Democratic party's responsibility to police Republicans,' Clyburn told Axios on HBO in an interview that aired Sunday.
'We've got a hard enough job with our own,' Clyburn continued.
The South Carolina Democrat added: 'The problem is there's no leadership on the Republican side and that's why these people are running willy-nilly, because there's nobody providing them leadership.'
Boebert if facing backlash and calls for removal from her committees after making a suicide bomber joke about Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar (pictured at a press conference on November 30)
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn said Democrats shouldn't have to 'police Republicans'
Boebert, a Colorado pro-Trump Republican, currently sits on the Committee on Natural Resources where she is on the Subcommittee on Indigenous Peoples of the United States and Subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife; and is a member on the Committee on the Budget.
She is facing calls to be removed from those committees after the Republican Party refused to take action against Boebert after she made Islamaphobic remarks aimed at Representative Omar of Minnesota.
When asked about potential action against Boebert during a press conference last week Pelosi said: 'When I'm ready to announce that, I'll let you know.'
'It's just an intensification of their neglect of honoring Rule 23, that says we all have a responsibility to honor the House of Representatives, serve in a way that brings honor to the House,' Pelosi said when she was pushed on how Boebert's situation is different rom Representatives Paul Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene, who were immediately punished for incendiary comments.
'It's their responsibility to deal with their people,' Pelosi said of the Republican Party refusing to take formal steps to condemn or punish members of the GOP.
'How we deal with the fear that they have instilled in the Islam - with their Islamophobia and the rest is something that hopefully we can do in a bipartisan way,' she added. 'But the responsibility is on them.'
McCarthy made clear shortly after the comments emerged that he would not take action against Boebert because she apologized to Omar. He also pointed out hypocrisy in the Democratic Party – pointing out Omar's previous anti-Semitic comments.
Many advocates have condemned Pelosi for her failure to reprimand Omar for her anti-Semitic remarks and called for her to removed the lawmaker from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Over the summer, Omar came under fire for a controversial tweet stating: 'We must have the same level of accountability and justice for all victims of crimes against humanity. We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the US, Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban.'
She later tried to clarify that she did not mean to equate Israel and the U.S. with terrorist organizations. She has also made other incendiary remarks about Jewish people and Israel since becoming a congresswoman.
In May, Omar accused Israel of committing 'war crimes' in the conflict with Hamas, which was operating in Palestinian territory of Gaza.
She also used a stereotype about Jewish people being greedy when she tweeted in 2019, 'It's all about the Benjamins baby' when talking about sending U.S. funding to Israel.
![Boebert said in video released of comments this fall: '[I]n that elevator, we were joined by Ilhan Omar... I do have to say she doesn't have a backpack, she wasn't dropping it and running so we're good'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/12/13/15/51732589-10304807-image-a-7_1639410733638.jpg)
Boebert said in video released of comments this fall: '[I]n that elevator, we were joined by Ilhan Omar... I do have to say she doesn't have a backpack, she wasn't dropping it and running so we're good'
A group of three dozen House progressive lawmakers, led by Massachusetts Representative Ayanna Pressley, introduced legislation last week to strip Boebert of her assignments.
They hope the action will force Democratic leadership to punish Boebert before the end of the year.
Representative Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, a member of the so-called progressive 'squad' with Omar, shed tears on Wednesday during a press conference on Democrats' resolution.
Tlaib and Omar, both elected in 2018, are the first and so far only Muslim women to serve in the U.S. Congress.
The Michigan lawmaker was one of several Democrats who appeared last week to publicly denounce Boebert and the Republican party, telling the absent congresswoman: 'You know exactly what you were doing and you have to be held accountable.'
'I'm not only a colleague up here, but I'm also a fellow Muslim,' Tlaib starts to say before her voice begins to crack.
'You know I get emotional but let me tell you, all of you - your solidarity means so much.'
Soon after, tears could be seen running down the congresswoman's face as she accused Boebert of knowingly calling for 'violence' when the Republican joked at an event that Omar was a suicide bomber.
'When she said that, she was evoking violence on Muslims all across our country - and so it's important to know - of course, Ilhan Omar, when I check up on her, she's like 'Sis, I survived war, I can survive this.' She says that so that I can stop crying,' Tlaib said.
Representative Rashida Tlaib was visibly emotional when it was her time to speak at aa press conference calling for punishment against Boebert
The Squad member was referencing Omar's childhood fleeing Somalia during the country's brutal civil war, taking shelter as a refugee in Kenya with her family for four years before moving to the United States.
Tlaib was apparently referencing Republicans like Boebert when she said, 'They have Muslims in their communities - I know they do. They call me to say, 'How can I talk to them?''
'It is hard being Muslim in our country right now, and this makes it worse,' she said. 'This is a national platform that we cannot allow her to use to evoke not only - this is not only hate ... it's not just hate speech, which is God awful, but it's also hate speech that's evoking violence and danger towards a whole people in our country.'
She continued to address Boebert directly, though she wasn't in the room: 'You called a colleague a suicide bomber. You called her a terrorist. By saying that, you said it about all Muslims in our country and you know it.'
Representative Jimmy Gomez of California, who also spoke at the press conference last week, recounted his own unpleasant experience when denouncing Republican lawmakers' conduct as a whole.
Gomez claimed he was on his way to vote for Biden's Build Back Better bill when a GOP colleague joined him in the Capitol elevator.
'You people are effing ruining this country,' Gomez, who is the son of immigrants, said he was told.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who was the subject of a violent video posted on Twitter by Arizona GOP Rep. Paul Gosar, accused Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy of fostering an environment where such things can happen.
'I would argue at this point, the pattern is now established that Leader McCarthy encourages and is accepting of this targeting - particularly of women of color - in the United States Congress,' Ocasio-Cortez said.
'The people inflicting this type of violence and aggression don't have to live with the consequences of it. they don't have to ride around in a 20,000lb armored truck and need six people to go to them - to go with them just so they can go to the grocery store.'
Gosar was stripped of his committee assignments in November over the video he posted. All but two Republicans voted to defend him.
'Representative Boebert, whatever her intentions may be for her racism and flagrant bigotry, needs to experience a consequence for her actions,' Ocasio-Cortez said.
Mounting pressure has ensued for Boebert to face punishment after a video clip surfaced from an event in September where the Colorado Republican made a suicide bomber about Omar, who is a hijab-wearing Muslim woman.
'For a Member of Congress to repeatedly use hateful, anti-Muslim rhetoric and Islamophobic tropes towards a Muslim colleague is dangerous. It has no place in our society and it diminishes the honor of the institution we serve in,' Pressley said in a statement about her bill that would stop Boebert of her committees.
House Democrats, led by Representative Ayanna Pressley (left) released a resolution last week to strip Boebert of her committee assignments after the GOP refused to punish her. The bill is is co-sponsored by three dozen Democrats – including fellow squad member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (right)
'Without meaningful accountability for that Member's actions, we risk normalizing this behavior and endangering the lives of our Muslim colleagues, Muslim staffers and every Muslim who calls America home. The House must unequivocally condemn this incendiary rhetoric and immediately pass this resolution. How we respond in moments like these will have lasting impacts, and history will remember us for it,' Pressley added.
Omar told CNN on Sunday that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has promised 'decisive action' against Boebert soon, and said she trusts that will happen.
'I have had a conversation with the speaker, and I'm very confident that she will take decisive action next week,' the Minnesota progressive lawmaker said.
'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,' Omar added. 'She promised me that she would take care of it. She fulfilled that promise.'
Omar said earlier this month she trusts Pelosi to take 'decisive action' soon against Boebert
'She's made another promise to me that she will take care of this. And I believe her.'
There are three dozen Democratic lawmakers co-sponsoring the bill with Pressley, including Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman of New York; Rashida Tlaib of Michigan; Cori Bush of Missouri; Pramila Jayapal of Washington; André Carson of Indiana; and Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas.
It's unclear, however, whether Pelosi will be persuaded to take action once the resolution is introduced as leadership is not required to immediately consider it on the floor.
'Let me be very clear,' McCarthy said at a press conference earlier in December. 'This party is for anyone and everyone who craves freedom and supports religious liberty. Lauren Boebert, as I called her, when it came forward we talked, she apologized publicly, she apologized personally.'
Omar called out McCarthy for refusing to condemn Boebert's comments.
'McCarthy's a liar and a coward,' Omar said in an interview earlier in December. 'He doesn't have the ability to condemn the kind of bigoted, Islamaphobia and anti-Muslim rhetoric that are being trafficked by a member of his conference.'
'Why doesn't he have the ability to do that?' CNN State of the Union host Jake Tapper asked her.
'Because this is who they are,' she responded.
'And we have to be able to stand up to them, and we have to push them to reckon with the fact that their party, right now, is normalizing anti-Muslim bigotry.'
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