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Cuomo wants to know why Trump is picking on Omar: ‘Is it because she’s Muslim? And wears a hijab?’

February 13, 2019 | | Print Article

CNN’s Chris Cuomo accused President Donald Trump of bigotry and hypocrisy over comments made by Rep. Ilhan Omar.

Cuomo slammed Trump for his “selective outrage” over the Minnesota Democrat’s controversial anti-Semitic remarks, accusing the president of “ignoring bigotry unless it suits you politically.”

“Is bigotry wrong or not? Is intolerance wrong or not? If the answer is yes, then call it all out when it comes from elected leaders. Call them to account, period,” Cuomo said Tuesday during his “Closing Argument” on “Cuomo Prime Time,” referring to Trump’s call for Omar to resign.

The president called out the freshman congresswoman who came under fire by leaders of her own party, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, after commenting about a pro-Israel lobby’s influence on U.S. politics. Omar did issue an apology of sorts on Monday, tweeting that “Anti-Semitism is real and I am grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes.”

But a few hours later, she retweeted a thread from a Democratic activist who supported her earlier claims that sparked the controversy.

On Tuesday, Trump called for Omar’s resignation or that she at least be removed from serving on congressional committees.

“Anti-Semitism has no place in the United States Congress,” he said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House. “And I think she should either resign from Congress or she should certainly resign from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.”

Cuomo condemned Omar’s tweets, calling them a “direct attack” against Israel.

“Many in the media called it a trope. It wasn’t. It was a direct attack. She was bigoted and she was right to apologize,” he said.

“Should the DEMs do more? Legit question. They certainly wanted more done when it was Steve King,” he added, referring to the Republican congressman who has come under fire, from even his own party, over racist remarks. Cuomo argued that while King has been “spewing this for years,” Omar is new.

“Call it all out. Ask for the same consequences for similar actions. Don’t go light on your own and hard on others,” he said, playing a video clip of Trump making comments that were “very similar” to what Omar said.

“You’re not going to support me because I don’t want your money,” Trump said in 2015, speaking to the Republican Jewish Coalition in 2015. “You want to control your own politicians.”

The Conservative Review’s Jordan Schachtel challenged the perception that Trump was being bigoted at that event.

“Why is it different?” Cuomo asked. “Is it because Omar is Muslim? And wears a hijab? I hear a lot of that, and it’s not right.”

“For the sake of argument, let’s assume that the president now thinks bigotry is not to be tolerated,” Cuomo said. “That’s why he moved on Omar. So where was he on Steve King? Not a damn word about years of ugly, exclusionary, divisive talk. His whole party moved on King — all of Congress — and this president said nothing.”

“Why not?” Cuomo asked. “Only two choices. One: he agrees with King. And there is a case for that.”

“The second choice: the president saw no upside. The media, the left, they’d come after him no matter what he’d say, so he just stayed quiet,” he added, recounting Trump’s “racist” birther theories, his Native American jabs at Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and even his defense of “nationalism,” once again misrepresenting the president’s words.

“So when it comes to Omar, the president’s selective outrage is transparent,” Cuomo said. Because it needs to be called out, because ignoring bigotry unless it suits you politically is wrong. Mr. President, we thought you learned this lesson.”

Twitter users called out Cuomo’s attack on Trump and for the hypocrisy of his own network.

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Frieda Powers
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