WHAT? Top Democrat Says Rep. Omar’s Experience Is “More Personal” Than Holocaust Survivor’s Children

Here's more, from The Hill:

The latest headache for Democratic leaders surrounds Omar, one of two history-making Muslim women to arrive this year on Capitol Hill. She stirred a hornet’s nest of controversy last week with comments at a public event which detractors say suggested American supporters of Israel have an “allegiance to a foreign country.”

The remarks were quickly condemned by Israel’s most vocal allies, including several senior House Democrats — Reps. Nita Lowey (N.Y.) and Eliot Engel (N.Y.), both of whom are Jewish — who lashed out at Omar publicly and quickly pressed Pelosi and other Democratic leaders to draft a legislative response condemning anti-Semitism.

The critics charged that Omar was invoking the long-held anti-Semitic trope that anyone supportive of Israel is compromised by “dual loyalty.”

Yet Omar’s liberal allies have since rallied around the Minnesota freshman. They say she’s been singled out unfairly because she’s a minority woman, and they’ve pressed Democratic leaders to broaden the sweep of their resolution to condemn all forms of hate speech, including when it’s directed at Muslims. 

“I think we need to talk about white supremacy in our country very much more directly than that resolution did in the first place,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib(D-Mich.), the other Muslim woman to join Congress this year, said Wednesday. “And I think we’ve been heard.”

Trump and the Republicans have been happy to stoke the Democratic fires.

“It is shameful that House Democrats won’t take a stronger stand against Anti-Semitism in their conference,” Trump tweeted Wednesday. “Anti-Semitism has fueled atrocities throughout history and it’s inconceivable they will not act to condemn it!”

Clyburn came to Omar’s defense Wednesday, lamenting that many of the media reports surrounding the recent controversy have omitted mentioning that Omar, who was born in Somalia, had to flee the country to escape violence and spent four years in a Kenyan refugee camp before coming to the United States.

Her experience, Clyburn argued, is much more empirical — and powerful — than that of people who are generations removed from the Holocaust, Japanese internment camps during World War II and the other violent episodes that have marked history. 

“I’m serious about that. There are people who tell me, ‘Well, my parents are Holocaust survivors.’ ‘My parents did this.’ It’s more personal with her,” Clyburn said. “I’ve talked to her, and I can tell you she is living through a lot of pain.”

Clyburn said that long talks with former Rep. Norman Mineta (D-Calif.), a Japanese-American who was interned during WWII, gave him a special appreciation for Omar’s experiences. And he rejected the idea that the Democrats’ resolution will single her out for condemnation. 

“She won’t be targeted. We’re going to target those people who had her picture on the Twin Towers,” Clyburn said. “This resolution is going to be inclusive; it’s going to be expansive; and I might just try to add something to deal with that billboard that’s up in Pennsylvania this morning calling John Lewis and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus racists.”

The Omar controversy is not the only episode where Democratic leaders have sought to strike a balance between the liberal and moderate wings of the party. On Medicare for All, for instance, Pelosi has promised committee hearings even as she’s fought to prioritize improvements to the Affordable Care Act instead. Approaching climate change, she’s hailed the enthusiasm of the Green New Deal supporters without endorsing the proposal.

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