Ilhan Omar fact-checks 'buffoon' Lauren Boebert — and calls her out for promoting 'anti-Muslim bigotry'
26 November 2021
Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, a far-right MAGA Republican and conspiracy theorist with pro-QAnon views, hasn’t been shy about promoting Islamophobia — especially when it comes to progressive Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. And Omar is calling her out, slamming Boebert as both a “bigot” and a “buffoon.”
Boebert has been describing Omar, who is a Muslim and a native of Somalia, as a member of Congress’ “Jihad Squad.” And during a speech in Colorado on Thanksgiving, the QAnon ally told a crowd of supporters that when she recently shared an elevator with Omar inside the U.S. Capitol Building, she told a staffer, ‘Well, she doesn’t have a backpack; we should be fine.’”
Boebert also claimed that inside the Capitol, she told a staffer, “Oh look, the Jihad Squad decided show up for work today.’”
But Boebert’s elevator anecdote, according to Omar, is fiction.
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On Thanksgiving, Omar tweeted:
The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell also had a hard time believing Boebert, tweeting:
Rev. Chuck Currie, a Protestant minister, called Boebert out as well on Twitter:
Of course, Omar is far from a jihadist. The Minnesota congresswoman holds decidedly feminist views, which are incompatible with far-right jihadist groups like al-Qaeda, ISIS (Islamic State, Iraq and Syria) and Boko Haram. But on the other hand, former Boebert aide Sherronna Bishop has praised the violent, far-right Proud Boys as an example of “everything that makes America great.”
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