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'Condemning this should not be a partisan issue': Rep. Omar reponds to Rep. Boebert comments

Rep. Ilhan Omar is asking Republican Party leadership to condemn Islamophobic statements made by Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert.

MINNEAPOLIS — A member of the "jihad squad." 

That's what Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert called Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar. In a video that surfaced last week and in another video first reported by CNN, Boebert can be seen saying that she was relieved because at least Omar wasn't "wearing a backpack," implying that she was a terrorist.

In the subsequent video, Boebert can also be heard saying "Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. These are just black-hearted evil women."

In an emotional news conference Tuesday, Rep. Tlaib and Rep. Omar asked Republican Party officials to condemn these statements. 

"Condemning this should not be a partisan issue," Omar said. "This is about our basic humanity, and fundamental rights of religious freedom, enshrined in our Constitution. Yet while some members of the Republican Party have condemned this, to date, the Republican Party leadership have done nothing to hold their party members accountable."

This came at the heels of a phone call that Rep. Boebert made to Rep. Omar on Monday, one that ended with Omar hanging up on Boebert. 

"Instead of apologizing for her Islamophobic comments and fabricated lies, Rep. Boebert refused to publicly acknowledge her hurtful and dangerous comments," Omar said in a statement. "She instead doubled down on her rhetoric and I decided to end the unproductive call." 

Boebert then posted an Instagram video saying Omar should be the one to apologize to the American people.

"She kept asking for a public apology so I told Ilhan Omar that she should make a public apology to the American people for her anti-American, anti-Semitic, anti-police rhetoric," Boebert said in the video.

This got us wondering: Is there not a level of gravitas that comes with being an elected official?

"There should be; there also should be a certain amount of respect you have for other elected officials and people you work with," Mitchell Hamline political science professor David Schultz said. 

Without waxing poetic about the death of civility in modern day politics, it's clear the situation unfolding between the two Congresswomen is political.

"Boebert is elected from a fairly conservative district where probably calling Rep. Omar names probably plays well back in her district," Schultz said. "In part, the lack of civility, the name calling, the pettiness we're seeing gets reinforced by political basis, by the partisan divide we have in our society."

"If the end game for both of them is to win, you want this to keep going for a while," Schultz added. "Win in terms of re-election, prominence, raising of money — this is actually a win-win situation."

In terms of how this should have been handled?

"You would hope in an ideal world, should not have never happened," Schultz said. "Second, an apology, third, referred to the House Ethics Committee for consideration of disciplinary action. Take appropriate action as a result of that. Those would have been the graduated steps."

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