Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro PelosiOcasio-Cortez on moderates: 'We view cynicism as an intellectually superior attitude' New Mexico governor signs law requiring background checks for almost all firearm sales Democrats allow anti-Semitism to spread with their weak resolution MORE (D-Calif.) doubled down on her defense of Rep. Ilhan Omar
Ilhan OmarSunday shows preview: 2020 field begins to take shape Omar's comments have nothing to do with Israel and everything to do with Jews Democrats allow anti-Semitism to spread with their weak resolution MORE (D-Minn.) on Friday, telling an audience at The Economic Club that the Minnesota congresswoman is not anti-Semitic.
During an interview Friday in Washington, Pelosi reiterated her belief that Omar does not hold anti-Jewish views, and maintained that her criticism of Israel had led her to espouse language that some viewed with a second meaning.
"The incident that happened with [Omar], I don't think our colleague is anti-Semitic," Pelosi said Friday.
"I think she has a different experience in the use of words, doesn't understand that some of them are fraught with meaning," Pelosi added of the freshman Democratic congresswoman who came to the U.S. as a refugee with her family in 1995.
"The incident that happened with, I don't think our colleague is anti-Semitic, I think she has a different experience in the use of words, doesn't understand that some of them are fraught with meaning, that she, what, didn't realize." - @speakerpelosi on @ilhan
— Cameron Gray (@Cameron_Gray) March 8, 2019
This is unreal pic.twitter.com/Qh0xVzpzlz
Her comments mirrored remarks she made a day earlier in her colleague's defense to reporters on Capitol Hill, while noting that Democrats must "remove all doubt" of their commitment to equality and against discrimination.
"I don't think that the congresswoman perhaps appreciates the full weight of how it was heard by other people, although I don't believe it was intended in an anti-Semitic way," Pelosi said Thursday. "But the fact is, if that's how it was interpreted, we have to remove all doubt."
The House this week passed a resolution originally set to condemn Omar's remarks that was broadened after Democrats faced backlash from the party's progressive base for appearing to stand with Republicans against Omar's criticism of the U.S. relationship with Israel.
Numerous Republicans refused to sign on to the anti-hatred resolution, which passed Thursday, after it was broadened from addressing just anti-Semitism and did not rebuke Omar by name.
