Video Catches Ilhan Omar Giggling as US Iraq War Deaths Are Being Discussed
Rep. Ilhan Omar already had a reputation for speaking lightly of American deaths, but this is a step beyond.
The Minnesota Democrat was captured in a video of a news conference Wednesday giggling with one of her “squad” comrades as Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas discussed the thousands of American service members who’ve died in fighting in Iraq.
And Omar’s colleagues in Congress took notice.
Absolutely shameful.
WATCH→ @IlhanMN and other @HouseDemocrats make light of American lives lost overseas.
Our brave men and women in uniform deserve our utmost respect and applause for their service and sacrifice — not mockery and laughter.pic.twitter.com/Lee0tmfGDa
— Rep. Jody Hice (@CongressmanHice) January 8, 2020
“Absolutely shameful,” Georgia Republican Jody Hice wrote in a Twitter post.
“@HouseDemocrats make light of American lives lost overseas. Our brave men and women in uniform deserve our utmost respect and applause for their service and sacrifice — not mockery and laughter.”
Appalling as it is to see a U.S. congresswoman acting out like a schoolgirl while the deaths of her countrymen were under discussion, the incident came at the same news conference where Omar claimed she was “stricken with PTSD” by the “conversations around war” dominating the nation’s capital this week.
As Fox News reported, Indiana Rep. Jim Banks, a Republican who served in Afghanistan as a Navy supply corps officer in 2015, wasn’t buying that claim at all.
Rep. Ilhan Omar complained she’s “stricken with PTSD” because of recent events in the Middle East.
This is a disgrace and offensive to our nation’s veterans who really do have PTSD after putting their life on the line to keep America safe. pic.twitter.com/twhZDuUDu0
— Jim Banks (@RepJimBanks) January 8, 2020
“This is a disgrace and offensive to our nation’s veterans who really do have PTSD after putting their life on the line to keep America safe,” he tweeted.
In her own tweet, Omar responded that her “PTSD” stemmed from her childhood in war-torn Somalia, and attacked Banks for trying to “erase the PTSD of survivors.”
Well, if the congresswoman representing the North Star state wants to claim post-traumatic stress disorder from the hell-hole her family fled from, it’s tough to argue.
But there’s no arguing the evidence that she didn’t seem too stressed while yukking it up with the often unhinged Michigan Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib as fellow Democrat Jackson Lee talked about American war deaths.
And Hice wasn’t the only one who thought the conduct was “shameful.”
This was an incredible, disgusting display of disrespect. ??
— JB & Co ??? (@LaughandScrap) January 8, 2020
@JacksonLeeTX18 @RashidaTlaib @RepJayapal laughing about American lives that have been lost is repulsive. Do they hate our Military and @realDonaldTrump that much? Soleimani was a terrorist who was responsible for thousands of deaths he was trash and deserved DEATH!
— Karen Lynn ??☕️ (@KarenLynnBNB) January 9, 2020
That is despicable behavior. I hope seeing her smug arrogance and her disrespect will help wake up members of her party.
— Karen Hatfield (@kwhatfield) January 9, 2020
Of course, the times being what they are, there were quite a few Twitter respondents who actually defended Omar.
One comment, for instance, noted that while the conduct might have been unprofessional, Omar wasn’t laughing at the idea of American deaths, just “having a conversation at the back” of a news conference — which shouldn’t be viewed as acceptable in the first place. Hice was then accused of “gaslighting,” which is what liberals call just about anything they disagree with lately.
But arguments like that don’t change anything.
The fact is, Omar was acting as a United States congresswoman, appearing with her fellow lawmakers at a news conference in a time when the country is engaged in a military confrontation with Iran — a hostile power that has been essentially at war with the U.S. for 40 years.
The fact is, she chose that moment to act like a fifth-grader on a class trip. It’s not easy to make a liberal as repugnant as Sheila Jackson Lee look like the adult in the room, but Omar managed to pull it off.
Omar is already infamous for, among other things, referring to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, as “some people did something.”
Actually giggling during a discussion of American combat deaths, though? It’s a step far beyond that.
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