It might have been football Sunday, but CBS and Face the Nation moderator Margaret Brennan offered up slow-pitch softballs to anti-Semitic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (MN). Downplaying her guest’s “sometimes controversial” comments, Brennan asked simple questions that allowed Omar to freely make excuses. Of course, Brennan ignored Omar’s raging anti-Semitism.
“As part of the so-called squad she has drawn a considerable amount of attention for her progressive and sometimes controversial views,” Brennan said of her guest as Omar was being introduced. Brennan’s first question was about whether or not she felt “Speaker Pelosi is being too hesitant” with President Trump’s impeachment.
Moving onto Omar’s “sometimes controversial” comments, Brennan brought up a recently released video of Omar comparing U.S. immigration officials to slave traders. Of course, CBS rolled over and accepted Omar’s weak and convoluted explanation (click “expand”):
BRENNAN: Now, we said in the introduction you're controversial. The Republican National Committee has released a video of you and it- I want to read you just some of it. You're comparing migrant shelters to dungeons used about 400 years ago in Ghana that you recently visited. And you toured those caves in Ghana recently. It's getting a lot of attention. Did you mean, when you were talking there, to compare U.S. border agents to slave traders?
OMAR: So, I'm only controversial because people seem to want to- controversy.
(…)
BRENNAN: But you didn't mean it as an attack on U.S. border agents?
OMAR: Absolutely not. I think this is- this is always the point, right? There is always a- an implied intent to every conversation I have. And if you listen to the video, one comparison of what the dungeons looked like and people being sold was to what's happening in North Africa and the other one was a family separations. And of course, we obviously have a- a crisis here with our family separation policies.
Seemingly trying to feel for Omar’s pain as a radical, Brennan wondered about how “tough” it was to tone down incendiary rhetoric. “Do you- do you feel like it's been tough for you, here in Washington, to change your rhetoric, to- to be less of an activist and try to be a legislator? That- that sometimes the language you use has gotten in your own way,” Brennan asked. She even let Omar get away with saying that's what her constituents wanted from her.
Immediately following Omar’s answer to that question, Brennan brought up Israel’s refusal to allow Omar to enter their country and teed her up to push the anti-Semitic BDS movement. Of course, there was no mention of Omar’s long and well-documented history of anti-Semitism:
You were specifically banned by the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu from visiting that country. He faces a very tough election in the next few days. If he doesn't win, are you going to try to go back and do you stand by your call for a boycott of Israel?
Brennan didn’t bat an eye when Omar declared that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s very “existence” was standing in the way of a Palestinian state. “And I think the opportunity to boycott divest sanction is the kind of pressure that leads to that peaceful process,” Omar added.
The toughest Brennan got was a question about the son of a 9/11 victim calling Omar about her vile comments downplaying the terror attack as “some people did something”. “You said, ‘some people did something,’ and he put it right there on his t-shirt. Do- do you understand why people found that offensive?”
Of course, Brennan failed to grill Omar on the second part of her 9/11 comments, which was also a lie. In that same speech, Omar claimed the treatment of Muslims after 9/11 was what brought about the creation of CAIR. In reality, the terrorism backing organization was created in 1994.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CBS’s Face the Nation
September 15, 2019
10:39:37 a.m. EasternMARGARET BRENNAN: As part of the so-called squad she has drawn a considerable amount of attention for her progressive and sometimes controversial views. And we welcome her here to the broadcast. Congresswoman, it's good to have you here.
REP. ILHAN OMAR: Thank you so much for having me, Margaret.
BRENNAN: You heard what Chairman Schiff said. We know more than half of the Democratic caucus supports impeachment, now. You're among them. Do you think Speaker Pelosi is being too hesitant?
(…)
BRENNAN: Now, we said in the introduction you're controversial. The Republican National Committee has released a video of you and it- I want to read you just some of it. You're comparing migrant shelters to dungeons used about 400 years ago in Ghana that you recently visited. And you toured those caves in Ghana recently. It's getting a lot of attention. Did you mean, when you were talking there, to compare U.S. border agents to slave traders?
OMAR: So, I'm only controversial because people seem to want to- controversy.
(…)
BRENNAN: But you didn't mean it as an attack on U.S. border agents?
OMAR: Absolutely not. I think this is- this is always the point, right? There is always a- an implied intent to every conversation I have. And if you listen to the video, one comparison of what the dungeons looked like and people being sold was to what's happening in North Africa and the other one was a family separations. And of course, we obviously have a- a crisis here with our family separation policies.
(…)
BRENNAN: This was the anniversary this week, the 18th, of the 9/11 attacks on our country. And at a Ground Zero- well- remembrance ceremony- I'll call it- the son of one of the victims stood up and specifically called out language you had used in the past that he characterized as not respectful when referring to the three thousand people who were killed by Al-Qaeda. You said, "some people did something," and he put it right there on his t-shirt. Do- do you understand why people found that offensive?
OMAR: I mean so, 9/11 was an attack on all Americans. It was an attack on all of us. And I certainly could not understand the weight of the pain that the victims of the- the families of 9/11 must feel. But I think it is really important for us to make sure that we are not forgetting, right, the aftermath of what happened after 9/11. Many Americans found themselves now having their civil rights stripped from them.
And so what I was speaking to was the fact that as a Muslim, not only was I suffering as an American who was attacked on that day, but the next day I woke up as my fellow Americans were now treating me a suspect.
BRENNAN: Do you- do you feel like it's been tough for you, here in Washington, to change your rhetoric, to- to be less of an activist and try to be a legislator? That- that sometimes the language you use has gotten in your own way?
OMAR: I certainly don't think that. You know, when we were celebrating few nights ago, I talked about how some people would say, "Ilhan, you should speak a certain way. Ilhan, you should do something a certain way," and I think that's contradictory, really, to the purpose of- of my existence in this space.
I believe that my constituents sent me to make sure that I was bringing in a conversation that others weren't having, that I was speaking for people who felt voiceless for a long time. And I think it's really important for us to recognize that it's a new Congress. It's a diverse Congress and we're not only diverse in our race or ethnicity or religion, but we are also diverse in our perspective, in our pain and our struggles, and in the hopes and dreams that we have, and the kind of America that we want to shape for all of us.
BRENNAN: You were specifically banned by the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu from visiting that country. He faces a very tough election in the next few days. If he doesn't win, are you going to try to go back and do you stand by your call for a boycott of Israel?
OMAR: I certainly hope that the people of Israel make a different decision. And my hope is that they recognize that his existence, his policies, his rhetoric really is contradictory to the peace that we are all hoping that that region receives and receives soon.
Just right now if you look at the annexation that's taking place, for many of us in Congress there has been long-standing support for its two-state solution and this annexation now is going to make sure that that peace process does not happen. And we will not get to a two-state solution. I think what is really important is for people to understand that you have to give people the opportunity to seek the kind of justice they want in a peaceful way. And I think the opportunity to boycott divest sanction is the kind of pressure that leads to that peaceful process.
(…)
