As RedState reported last night, the “reach out” call between Rep. Lauren Boebert and Rep. Ilhan Omar didn’t go very well. That was facilitated days after Boebert had made a joke about Omar wearing a backpack in an elevator which was meant to poke fun at Omar’s penchant for pushing the talking points of terrorist organizations like Hamas. Omar also laughed about Al Qaeda in the days before he took office. (And remember that, according to Marjorie Taylor Greene standards, these pre-office musings can be freely shared now).
Omar would have liked Boebert to issue another public apology after he had publicly apologized via social media.
Here’s where things went from there per Boebert’s description of the events.
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.
Then I repeated to her my previous statements. I kept repeating to her my previous statements. Ilhan Omar was persistent in asking for a public apology. As she continued to insist, I continued my pushback. Then, Representative Omar gave up on me.
Boebert, despite apologizing for her error, is now being accused of not making an apology to the press. They are also claiming she “doubled down” on “Islamophobic” attacks despite the fact that no such thing happened in the call.
Rep. Lauren Boebert renews Islamophobic attack on Rep. Ilhan Omar, rebuffs call for public apology https://t.co/lREzjrokU4
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 29, 2021
Of note is that it is not “Islamophobic” to ask someone to apologize for anti-American and antisemitic positions if they have indeed taken anti-American and antisemitic positions. Omar has a history littered with such, from offensive, dangerous rhetoric to purposeful obfuscation, including a steadfast refusal to give any direct apology for the things she’s said. Yet, even after Boebert did offer an apology for making a joke, bad taste or not, she’s attacked and trashed anyway.
There’s a lesson here that Boebert should probably take heed of: It is impossible to do enough for bad-faith radicals.
Look, I’m not against apologizing. In fact, I think offering one when you’ve done something wrong is a moral imperative. But understand that there’s a difference between personally apologizing to someone and offering a public apology to a wildly hateful hypocrite who is simply looking to destroy you. That doesn’t accomplish anything. It only fuels the flames and worsens the problem. Instead of being a one-day story, you’ve now got a story pushing a week in length.
And note that even after all the effort Boebert made to do the right thing, notably being moved by her own conscience, she’s still being called “Islamophobic,” Democrats are still demanding she be disciplined in the House, and the press is now falsely claiming she never apologized in the first place. Meanwhile, Omar skates again, playing the victim to a fawning media establishment that wouldn’t dare apply the same standard to both women.
When dealing with Democrats who will be acting like this, the rules of engagement have to change. This becomes even more important when you think about how the media responds to such behavior. Boebert seemed to realize that by the time Omar hung up on her, but she shouldn’t have made that phone call in the first place.
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